Shark Feeding Dives...Yes or No

[drrich2]

I’d prefer if folks were to simply admit they want to see sharks and that the ethical and/or behavioral implications of baited observation are very secondary to their desires.

Often they don't admit it because that's not their thought process. Most substantial activities carry some risk, to self and often to others. Driving to the dive site, there's the potential one might accidentally cause a car wreck injuring or killing another person. We judge the risk to be extremely low and go, but it's not zero.

Similarly, a big concern is whether shark feeding will lead to increased shark attacks on humans. Will tiger sharks start molesting swimmers, snorkelers and divers who aren't involved in the shark feed dives, because they've been conditioned to do so? And that does not seem to be happening, though these have been going on for years.

That's why I ask people to go beyond assuming shark feeding has the same real world impact as feeding alligators and bears (though they may of course be informed by the principles), and additionally consider what real world evidence we have, whether it comes out of a scientific study or not. Much of the life experience we all learn from that intelligently informed our understanding and decisions doesn't come from formal research and peer-reviewed journals.

And if shark feeding bothers you, ask yourself...what about spear fishing? Sharks are drawn to that, also. They may associate humans with food as a result.

 

[Centrals]

Bird, monkey, squirrel feeding etc etc
Whaleshark feeding? Even snorkellers or simply staying on boat would have chance to see them.

Perhaps we ought to give them space rather than intruding their territories or even eating them eg. bats.

 

[Dan]

One thing I learn from seeing those Tiger Sharks in Tiger Beach is they have distinct personalities like people. Here are 3 Tiger Sharks that I saw having distinct personalities:

1. Amparo.
I called her Teething Amparo, because she tends to bite test anything that smells like fish, looks like fish, Finch fins for example, since he stands right next to the milk crate full of fish fillet.



2. Daisy
I called her Dozer Daisy, because she likes to bulldoze other Shark that gets in the way of her snack, including another Tiger Shark. If she comes to you, just gently push her head (tonic immobility area) down and get out of her way. I saw one time a Lemon Shark was in the line of fire of her snack, Daisy accidentally bit the Lemon Shark nose.



3. Emma
I called her Gentle Emma, because she’s gentle to anyone. May be she’s just old? She has distinct collapsing bottom tail. When she was present, the other Sharks seemed to well behave, including the other 3 Tiger Sharks (Amparo, Daisy & Maui).

 

[Dan]

This is a little off topic, so I hope everyone forgives me.

Dan, did you find that at Tiger Beach, because it is so shallow, and also because the sharks tend to be several feet away from you when you are photographing and/or videoing them that it was better to use ambient light (and adjust the white balance accordingly) rather than to try to use either strobes or video lights?

Yes, it’s bright day & shallow (30-35 feet depth) so I didn’t use my video lights. I only use the video lights during dusk (5-6pm) dive. We used GoPro 9 color setting GoPro and GoPro 10 color setting Brilliant without any filter.

My other buddies with DSLR cameras did use some strobes, but the flash didn’t look very bright when they flashed. So may be they dialed them down to the minimum.

 

[Johnoly]

have distinct personalities like people.

Every other poster on this thread is looking at ALL SHARKS as a population. You and a few of us know individual sharks are each different. And just like human's there's good ones and un-predictable ones. We see it underwater every dive very clearly. EDUCATION ELIMINATES FEAR, and you have to get in the middle of the sharks to get educated. I've learned and I see it on almost every dive with sharks which individual ones are good & which are unpredictable with snappy tail flips. It's perfectly normal for land folks to fear sharks, but get in the middle of them, you'll educate yourself and being scared will go away.

 

[Dan]

Every other poster on this thread is looking at ALL SHARKS as a population. You and a few of us know individual sharks are each different. And just like human's there's good ones and un-predictable ones. We see it underwater every dive very clearly. EDUCATION ELIMINATES FEAR, and you have to get in the middle of the sharks to get educated. I've learned and I see it on almost every dive with sharks which individual ones are good & which are unpredictable with snappy tail flips. It's perfectly normal for land folks to fear sharks, but get in the middle of them, you'll educate yourself and being scared will go away.

You hit the nail on the head!

The ones I saw in Tiger Beach were all female. I haven’t seen male Tiger Sharks, yet. They seem to keep themselves away from the shark feeding activities. I wonder why?

 

[scubaozy]

You hit the nail on the head!

The ones I saw in Tiger Beach were all female. I haven’t seen male Tiger Sharks, yet. They seem to keep themselves away from the shark feeding activities. I wonder why?

Female sharks are larger and sharks often feed based on rank order, rank being size. Sharks also prey on other sharks, so, probably males were scared off or already eaten, or females are taking refuge from males as males must be more agressive in order to survive. There is a research about it and scientists have a hypothesis on this:

Social Network Analysis Reveals the Subtle Impacts of Tourist Provisioning on the Social Behavior of a Generalist Marine Apex Predator

Shark dive ecotourism is a lucrative industry in many regions around the globe. In some cases, sharks are provisioned using bait, prompting increased research on how baited dives influence shark behavior and yielding mixed results. Effects on patterns of habitat use and movement seemly vary...

www.frontiersin.org

Our knowledge of sharks is so marginal that we have absolutely no idea what consequences introducing bait may cause. I am not sure "not getting bitten" is enough to call it success.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Ucarkus

Very interesting article, thanks very much for posting it

 

[Chavodel8en]

IMO, as much as possible, we should try to have less impact on wildlife. We dont know if having sharks associate humans with food can lead to bad results - boat strikes etc. So I do not support chumming for pleasure dives. Below is part of a post I made re a chumming bull shark dive in Playa del Carmen in 2016- I did not plan for it, but I did go on it, but never again:

The morning of PdC diving was "uneven." I wont mention the operator, but it was a small operator, even smaller boat. I was planning a regular wreck or reef dive. There were originally only 2 divers (great again!), but the other guy specifically came on the ferry from Coz to do a Bull Shark dive -- so I also did the Bull Shark dive. I generally try to do dives with as little ecological impact as possible, so I didn't plan a Bull Shark dive. I must admit though it was a lot of fun. Four big Bull Sharks circling us the whole time (Sand bottom at 60-70') - and I got some good pics & video. At the end of the dive, the DM gave them some fish heads. In retrospect, the Bulls acted a lot like my dog, Mafalda, who knows when its treat time and circles us until she gets it. I'll be more careful to avoid dives with chumming in the future.

End quote. I also identified another issue with chumming dives - we see unnatural behavior from the sharks. Almost like training the sharks like circus animals to circle us to get the treat. So in retrospect, not as much fun as when I saw a bull shark swimming in a natural environment.

 

[WeRtheOcean]

you could drop a gator 50 miles away and it would head right back to whatever condo development it got evicted from.

Seems to me that the gator is not the nuisance in this scenario.

I’d prefer if folks were to simply admit they want to see sharks and that the ethical and/or behavioral implications of baited observation are very secondary to their desires.

I'm with you. I think that part of the difficulty is that urban and suburban dwellers are detached from the reality of nature; so when they go ecotouristing, they think of the wildlife in the same way they would think of historic architecture or art treasures: as existing to be seen and enjoyed, not as having needs of its own. I say this from recalling my own suburban (and bookish) upbringing. It took a few aha moments to break out of that thought pattern.