Press Release for the Marine Safety Group - May 14, 2001
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Showdown on Marine Wildlife Feeding in Florida: Marine Conservation Interests Square off against Dive Industry Profiteers
Copyright: The Marine Safety Group, 2001
A controversial issue in marine resource management is coming to a showdown in Florida on May 24, when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) meets to consider the fate of a proposed ban on marine wildlife feeding in Florida. In February of 2000, the FFWCC responded to a petition by concerned citizens and environmental groups by judging the issue a "no-brainer" and directing that a new rule be drafted that would completely ban the feeding of marine wildlife by divers in Florida waters. That proposed rule would have no effect on traditional sport or commercial fishing. Since then, a small but well-funded and highly influential element of the sport diving industry have waged an all-out campaign to reverse the February 2000 decision of the FFWCC, placing the final outcome of this debate in doubt.
The feeding of marine wildlife, particularly sharks and reef fishes, has become a rapidly growing (and highly disturbing to some) trend within the sport diving industry. Food is offered to wildlife to promote so-called "interactive diving" experiences, which often also include touching, handling and even riding of marine animals.
The problem with this form of "entertainment", according to wildlife management and conservation experts, is that these activities have been shown, time after time in virtually every context yet studied, to have predictable negative impacts on the "fed" animals themselves, their ecosystems, and people who eventually come into contact with animals treated in this manner. The health of "fed" animals is directly endangered, their natural movement patterns and other behaviors are altered, and the balance of nature is disturbed. These effects have been scientifically documented through numerous studies.
Additionally, humans who later come into contact with "fed" wildlife are exposed to a highly increased probability of attack by animals who have lost their natural fear of people and instead have come to associate people with food. Hundreds of Americans are hurt or killed each year from wildlife whose natural behavior patterns have been modified through feeding by humans. For these very reasons, the feeding of wildlife has, for many years, been banned in all U.S. National Parks and Wildlife Refuges, including underwater versions in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Biscayne Bay, Hawaii and other sites.
However, such activities remain minimally regulated in most U.S. and foreign coastal waters, a fact that dive-travel marketing interests continue to exploit. Dive operators now routinely charge hundreds of dollars per dive to feed and otherwise disturb marine wildlife. Most commonly, the "targeted" animals are sharks, rays and marine mammals such as dolphins and whales! Although the latter are protected from such disturbance in U.S. waters by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the U.S.-based dive industry continues to promote wild dolphin and whale feeding and touching in waters of nations without the strict regulations of the U.S., essentially charging exorbitant fees to American divers to travel to other countries to engage in activities that are illegal in American waters!
A large and increasing number of commercial dive/snorkel charter boat operators in Florida now regularly feed fish (in some cases including dangerous predators such as sharks, groupers, barracuda and morays) in order to concentrate them for client viewing at particular dive sites. An undetermined (and growing) number of private boat owners and their guests are now also emulating this practice.
The consequences of this rampant "fish feeding" are now evident at most popular dive sites throughout the Florida Keys and South Florida, where the safe enjoyment and viewing of natural marine habitats and fish behavior has become a thing of the past. Instead of the serene coral gardens visitors have travelled so far to enjoy, divers are now "swarmed" and even nipped by frenzied schools of damselfishes and snappers looking for a handout.
Far more serious attacks and injuries occasionally occur, a verifiable fact that the promoters of "interactive diving" continue to deny. Attacks by "fed" barracuda and morays have left numerous Florida divers with severe lacerations of hands and faces. Just visiting a site where people regularly feed fish can be dangerous, as a South Florida woman painfully learned last year when a supposedly "harmless" nurse shark mistook her leg for an evening snack in just three feet of water in the Florida Keys.
Based upon the careful analyses of these issues, a coalition of respected scientific experts on Florida-Caribbean marine life and ecology, professional wildlife managers and leading marine conservation groups are asking the State of Florida to ban the practice of "fish feeding" by divers in all open coastal waters of the State of Florida, except as specifically permitted by the state for legitimate scientific research purposes. These voices concur that the feeding of marine wildlife to enhance human-wildlife viewing or other interactions is an inherently dangerous and environmentally unsound practice, and that such activities are wholly unacceptable from both a conservation and public safety standpoint.
The following organizations have already gone on record in writing to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in support of the proposed ban on feeding marine wildlife in Florida:
Environmental Defense
Caribbean Conservation Corporation
World Wildlife Fund
Reef Relief
Defenders of Wildlife
Watchable Wildlife, Inc.
U.S. Humane Society
Surfrider Foundation
New York Aquarium/Wildlife Conservation Society
Office of Protected Resources (NOAA/U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
Biscayne Bay National Park, U.S. National Park Service
In contrast, the following have, and continue, to lead the fight against the proposed ban:
PADI (large, for-profit dive training and dive travel company)
DEMA (Dive Equipment and Marketing Association)
Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine and Skin Diver Magazine (trade journals supported largely by advertising from the dive equipment and travel industries)
Florida Keys Dive Association (Trade association of Florida Keys dive shops and tour operators).
These interests have banded together in recent months to form a new "mouthpiece" organization called, "Global Interactive Marine Experience Council" (GIMEC), which has expended considerable effort to hurriedly devise and promote a set of industry "self-regulation" guidelines in order to ward off the possibility of formal regulation by the State of Florida. However, even cursory analysis reveals that the proposed "Guidelines" (GIMEC: Final Draft) would appear far from an acceptable solution to the problems discussed above, for the following main reasons:
(1) the proposed guidelines contain no provisions that would necessarily prevent or even limit at current levels the feeding of marine wildlife in Florida waters. Thus, they provide no demonstrable added protection to the public or Florida's marine resources
(2) the proposed guidelines are phrased as mere suggestions, and therefore compliance is voluntary and left to the discretion of each individual. This provides no additional mandated protection for marine wildlife above that which now exists
(3) the proposed Guidelines are promulgated and directed solely at commercial dive operators, who represent but a small fraction of the number of individuals now feeding marine wildlife in Florida. Even if these individuals completely ceased and desisted all such activities, a substantial problem would remain through the unregulated feeding of marine wildlife by the public at large
The principal "public benefit" rationale offered by GIMEC and dive industry leaders for allowing marine wildlife feeding is that somehow marine conservation is promoted by interactive diving, and specifically marine animal feeding experiences.
Not surprisingly, this explanation is rejected outright by opponents of fish feeding who point out that there is no documented connection between wildlife feeding and progress towards conservation goals such as legislation offering enhanced protection, increased survival, and/or population gains in any marine species.
Thus, most environmentalists and natural resource managers alike agree that if the feeding of marine fishes and/or other animals by divers is deemed by some to have a valuable education and/or entertainment value, such practices should be limited by law to confined, controlled environments (e.g., marine aquaria or enclosures); they should never be permitted in the wild, nor should top predators (i.e. sharks, barracuda, etc.) exposed to such conditioning, which teaches them to associate humans with food, be allowed to be returned to the wild.
There are in fact a number of such marine educational experiences already offered in controlled environments that successfully enhance understanding and appreciation of marine species and habitats without endangering wildlife or innocent non-participants who may inadvertently happen upon the impacted individuals or places. Sea World's Discovery Cove and Disney's Typhoon Lagoon in Orlando attest to the commercial viability and popularity of this logical, alternate approach.
Where do you stand on the proposed ban of wildlife feeding in Florida? If you wish to express your opinion on this issue to the FFWCC and/or the Governor of Florida, send your emails to:
Mr. Bob Palmer
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
("BOB PALMER" <PALMERB@gfc.state.fl.us>)
And/or
Hon. Jeb Bush, Governor
("Gov. Jeb Bush" <fl_governor@eog.state.fl.us>)
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