Shark Diving - Humans & Chumming

[ShoalDiverSA]

... the only association that sharks will make between humans and food is that humans bring them food, not that we are food.

That's a bit of a slim distinction in my opinion.

Particularly when the animal in question uses its sense of taste to determine the suitability of a meal and this involves 3000-odd teeth.

The World According to Chummers

Act 1, Scene 1

A nice, sunny day off a beach near you. A 6m long Great White Shark bumps into a swimmer.

SHARK: "Excuse me, the last time I saw something like you, it chucked some yummy fish-sicles down my throat. Do you perhaps have some food for me?"
SWIMMER: "Sorry, I don't. Perhaps you could speak to the friendly shark dive operator in that boat over there."
SHARK: "Thank you very much. My apologies for the intrusion."
Shark exits stage right. Swimmer continues splashing about happily.

The less intrusive we are into the behaviour of animals, the better. This includes all forms of feeding, touching, grabbing, tugging, whatever. To my dismay, the worst culprits that I have seen on dives have been the Divemasters. Discussions after the dive have almost always evoked a "c'mon, you can't be serious reaction".

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[RonDawg]

I agree with ShoalDiverSA, we really need to think about whether or not we're "shooting ourselves in the foot" in regards to this.

As already pointed out, in many US national parks, bears have become an extreme nuisance due to well-meaning, but shortsighted tourists who feed the wildlife because "they look a bit on the thin side" or worse for photo ops :11: At popular parks like Yosemite, it's gotten to the point where particularly problematic bears have to be euthanized Bears are smart animals, and some can break into a car (where people mistakenly think food will be secure) better and faster than any gangbanger; they insert their claws into the top of the window frame, and use their weight to pull the frame (and sometimes the entire door) down to the ground.

Here in the foothills of LA, we have a problem with coyotes, bears, and yes mountain lions :11: :11: coming down from the foothills, not because people are intentionally feeding them, but because people leave food out for their pets and/or don't secure their trash cans properly. Now it's near impossible to get rid of them because they have become accustomed to associating suburban sprawl with easy food sources.

 

[Mako Mark]

Shark exits stage right. Swimmer continues splashing about happily.

there was a famous shark attack about 12 years ago when I was in Fiji, a dive shop in Taveuni had a regular shark feeding dive once or twice a week, but were forced to shut it down because of worries about its safety (they had never had an incident)

the week after they stopped feeding the sharks, a Kiwi guy on his honeymoon got ripped in half by a shark. He was snorkling in the area where they had did the feed, at aproximately the same time on the (sheduled) day.

I am not a great opponent of shark feeding or chumming, I think the educational value of it is the same as that of safaris in game parks, you cant care about what you dont know.. I think while not ideal, it is far more attractive than both aquariums aor worse, letting the longliners catch them and cut their fins off..

 

[simbrooks]

Just wondering, they also chum to attract sharks to catch them on great manly fishing boats trips - would the sharks also associate chumming with being caught? Who knows what they think, of the thousands of other things in the sea and could be in the area when the shark wants to feed, the sharks go for the the one in distress, bleeding, showing signs of trouble - its an easy target, leaving the other creatures alone. Not sure if they have an association of one thing to another beyond blood/eratic behaviour and potential dinner time.