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State rejects ban on shark feeding

By Steve Waters
Staff Writer - Sun Sentinel
Posted May 25 2001
 

BY SUSAN COCKING
Miami Herald
scocking@herald.com 

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took a first step Thursday toward regulating underwater shark-feeding encounters in state waters.

After four hours of public testimony in West Palm Beach, commissioners told their staff to draw up guidelines for dive operators who feed sharks and other marine life underwater while customers watch.

Those recommendations will be discussed at the commission's September meeting.

Meanwhile, the four dive operators who conduct interactive marine encounters -- Captain Spencer Slate's Atlantis Dive Center in Key Largo, South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach, Captain Jim Abernethy's Riviera Beach dive operation and Deerfield Beach's Dixie Divers -- will be allowed to continue their activities.

The move to draft state guidelines arose because representatives of the recreational dive industry, conservationists and opponents of fish-feeding dives could not agree on how to regulate the practice. And commissioners were not satisfied with proposals from the dive industry group Global Interactive Marine Experiences Council.

``I see the need for regulations,'' commissioner Julie Morris said. ``I'm not ready to prohibit it outright. [The dive industry's] guidelines for food [fed to marine life] are good, but they don't address feeding locations and minimum distances from swimming beaches. They didn't discuss what species are appropriate to be fed.''

Commissioners indicated if the dive industry can't agree with state guidelines, then the commission might go into formal rule-making.

The only dissenting vote came from Commissioner Tony Moss of Miami, who wanted to ban underwater fish feeding dives for reasons of safety and ecology.
 

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State officials plan to ban feeding sharks

Fear of aggressive fish spurs decision that could hamper dive operations

BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@herald.com 

    JACKSONVILLE -- The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Thursday gave preliminary approval to ban underwater shark feedings by divers.

The eight commissioners voted unanimously to draft a rule prohibiting dive operators, recreational scuba divers and snorkelers from feeding sharks and fish in Florida waters.

About five dive operators conduct feeding tours in South Florida's clear waters -- one in Broward County and several in the Keys. They feed fish scraps to sharks, barracuda, stingrays and moray eels while their customers -- who have paid $50-$100 -- watch.

The practice has angered some environmental and spearfishing groups, who contend the feedings train sharks and other marine creatures to associate humans with food, making the fish more aggressive.

Commissioners are expected to vote on the proposed rule at their May meeting after FWC staff members draft a specific proposal. There should be a public hearing to gather more information.

There have been no deaths associated with divers feeding sharks or fish, but there have been numerous incidents of fish and eels biting people. Several divers testified at the meeting of other divers being bitten while feeding sharks.

Commissioner Edwin Roberts of Pensacola told of a harrowing dive trip with his children to Sombrero Light off Marathon, where dive operators sometimes feed sharks.

``The nurse sharks ran me and my kids out of the water,'' Roberts said. ``I was having to beat [the sharks] to keep them off my kids.''

Commissioners voted after hearing from a half-dozen speakers -- all opposed to underwater fish feedings. Nobody defended the practice.

Jeff Torode of South Florida Diving Headquarters, who conducts popular shark- and fish-feeding dives at sites off Pompano Beach and Boca Raton, said the move won't put him out of business, but ``will put a huge crimp in our business.''

Reached at home Thursday, Torode was shocked by the commission's action, even though he was once bitten on the hand by a moray eel.

``Unbelievable,'' he said. ``We're going to rally the troops again. We'll get [scuba certification agencies] involved. There's no way they'll allow legislation in Florida governing scuba. We'll have to show up at the meeting and try to change the [commissioners'] minds. It's stupid. It's unenforceable and it won't work.''

But several Broward spearfishers told commissioners the practice is dangerous and should be banned.

``We know of 19 people in the past two years injured on these dives,'' Robert Dimond of Deerfield Beach said. ``We have been harassed by sharks and we're tired of it. When we went to the feeders and asked them to stop, they laughed at us.''

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RULING ON SHARKS A SURPRISE
Steve Waters, Sun Sentinel

 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took everyone by surprise last week when it voted to develop a rule that prohibits divers and snorkelers from feeding sharks in state waters. Going into the FWC’s meeting in Jacksonville, the belief of those on both sides of the issue was that the commission would defer any decisions until it had more data. But the FWC’s eight commissioners didn’t need any proof that feeding sharks, moray eels and fish can cause problems.

 “The commission was great,” said David Earp of Pompano Beach, who admitted he was caught off-guard by the FWC’s ruling. “They all seemed to understand it, and they realized they couldn’t let it go on.” Earp, along with Bob Dimond and Stephen Picardi, wrote a proposal to ban shark feeding that was presented to the FWC at a marine fisheries management workshop in West Palm Beach in September. A number of dive operators who run shark-feeding trips in South Florida also were at that workshop, and the debate was often intense. The anti-feeders said sharks that are fed were making spearfishing dangerous. The pro-feeders contended spear-fishermen were attracting sharks by not immediately bringing each fish they shot back to their boats.

 At a follow-up workshop in Dania Beach in October, there seemed to be little hope that the issue would be resolved soon. Both sides offered compelling testimony. There were recreational divers who were terrorized when sharks suddenly showed up expecting to be fed and longtime shark feeders who said they’d never seen a shark that was even remotely aggressive. 

 The reaction of FWC staffers at the workshop was that they would probably have to spend a lot of time trying to find out if feeding sharks affects their behavior and makes them lose their fear of humans.

 When the issue came before the commission Thursday, one of the recommendations was to create a panel that would help the shark feeders regulate themselves. None of those in favor of feeding sharks spoke at the meeting and only half a dozen, including Earp, spoke against the practice. The commissioners, however, had heard enough. Especially after Commissioner Edwin Roberts related how he and his children were harassed by sharks near a feeding site off Marathon.

 In voting unanimously in favor of a ban, the commissioners essentially agreed that feeding sharks does not help the species. No one has been killed while feeding sharks and moray eels, but several have been bitten.

 The next step is to come up with a rule, then have a public hearing and a vote on it. A proposal should be ready by May. Earp said he expects shark-feeders to be out in force at that meeting.

 “I think we’ll see some opposition next time,” said Earp, a commercial lobster diver who recently had a bull shark sneak up on him.

 “[A ban] is a great step in keeping our ocean safe for everybody. I think in the long run it will benefit both the dive and tourist industries to have the safest waters possible.”

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Tuesday, February 8, 2000

Feeding fish while in water may be banned.
By MANDY BOLEN
Citizen Staff Writer

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State addresses shark-feeding issue

BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@herald.com

Shark feedings by dive operators, new public hunting land at Fisheating Creek and new rules for spotted sea trout will highlight the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meetings Wednesday through Friday in Jacksonville.

Russ Nelson, director of the division of marine fisheries, is expected to recommend against FWC regulation of dive operators who feed sharks underwater while customers watch.

The practice has drawn fire from spearfishers who argue it makes sharks more aggressive. Dive operators, such as Pompano Beach's Jeff Torode, say the experience educates divers not to fear sharks and to treat them as valuable members of the marine ecosystem.

Nelson is expected to recommend that commissioners create a group of dive operators, spearfishers, scientists, anglers and others to develop guidelines for underwater shark feedings so the commission won't have to create a rule.

The meeting will be held at the Jacksonville Radisson Riverwalk Hotel. For more information, call 850-487-0554 or check out Web site www.state.fl.us/fwc/marine.
 

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{reprinted from the Miami Herald}

These divers feed fish with no hooks attached

By SUSAN COCKING, Miami Herald Outdoors Writer

Jeff Torode is sitting on the ocean floor 70 feet deep off Boca Raton, covered with large, hungry marine creatures.

A four-foot stingray is nibbling on his dive console. A 10-foot green moray eel darts here and there, its beady, nearsighted eyes searching for the slab of bally hoo Torode dangles in his finger-tips. Four jewfish - the largest, a 200-pounder with a spear tip sticking out behind its gill - wait open-mouthed for a handout.

Torode hand-feeds each without being bitten, stung or mauled - this time.

The operator of the Aquanaut and Safari Diver charter boats is copying a hugely successful tourist draw in the Caribbean: interactive. diving. Over the past two years, Torode has cultivated a relationship with the creatures inhabiting the Sea Emperor - a I10-foot4ong sunken barge one-quarter mile southeast of Boca Raton Inlet. He and other Broward and Palm Beach dive operators have escorted hundreds of customers to feed and observe the marine life.

"It's the most popular aspect of this sport," Torode said. "Everyone's getting into it. I just love playing with these animals on the bottom."

So do his customers.

"It was one of the most exciting dives I've ever had, to be in shallow water with large fish," Marty Larkins of Atlanta said. "It was exhilarating."

Abridged page to article:

Hand-feeding fish has its mishaps

But there's a downside to the fish free-for-alls: The tame jewfish shot illegally by a spearfisherman; increasingly aggressive stingray and eel behavior; the potential to draw sharks harassing unsuspecting divers.

Torode himself was seriously injured when he tried to feed two eels at once. While he was watching one eel, the other bit his hand, severing one tendon and crushing two others.

"That's the only problem I've ever had," Torode said. "We feel like we do it with safety in mind. We don't put divers in the water to do the interaction by themselves."

But another dive operator who doesn't feed the wildlife, captain Tony Coulter, said he has been harassed.

"The eels are so aggressive since they've been fed that I have to tell customers to tuck their hands at their sides," Coulter said. "I've had the eel bump me in the chest and wrap around my leg. I got bit by the stingray on the knuckle. I looked at my knuckle, and it was skinned."

Coulter says he spearfishes for cobia on the wreck once or twice a year with friends, but blames the feedings - not the spearing - for the animals' aggression.

~~~~Torode is calling for a halt to spearfishing on the Sea Emperor. He's asking dive operators and spearfishing clubs to cooperate.

"People that go down there on an interactive dive will say, 'How can you kill animals like that?'" Torode said. "I'd like to see this made into a marine sanctuary."

Voluntary cooperation - not governmental protection is about all Torode can hope for right now, according to Palm Beach County artificial reef coordinator Jim Vaughn.

Vaughn said it's doubtful the Florida Marine Fisheries Commission would agree to ban spear-fishing on the wreck - especially since the agency declined to act on a similar request last year from Broward County sportfishing interests.

"They don't want to get involved in this kind of controversy," he said of the MFC.

Vaughn said he's working with his counterparts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to develop a regional management plan for artificial reefs to present to the MFC. He said the plan likely would include restrictions on spearfishing, but not an outright ban.

"Certainly, it needs to be regulated. It's not one of my favorite activities," he said.

Meanwhile, he has no problem with Torode's fish feedings.

"I think it's an enjoyable, worthwhile, educational thing they do as long as it's not abused,' Vaughn said.

Steve Picardi, president of the South Florida Spearfishing Club, is adamant that Torode should quit feeding the wildlife.

"It's illegal to feed alligators and bears. It should be illegal to feed any predators," Picardi said. "I'm waiting to see a tourist get bit real bad by a shark. It'll be on Channel 7 News and everybody will be afraid of sharks again."

This is a letter sent to the editor in rebuttal:

 

June 11, 1998

Readers’ Forum

The Herald

1520 East Sunrise Boulevard

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Via facsimile to 954/ 527-8955

 

Upon reading Susan Cocking’s article on fish feeding I was left with an empty feeling that yet another species (or more) will fall to man’s innate desire to interfere with the natural order merely for commercial gain. What the article doesn’t discuss is the fact that these predators that are being hand fed are likely fall to any "bait" presented to them. These dive operators hand feed cut ballyhoo, the choice bait of many anglers, to moray eels, sharks, rays and jewfish. These creatures are accustomed to feeding primarily on live prey and are likely to fall victim to an anglers bait. The article also states that these operators would like to ban spearfishing on this particular wreck. Merely by their actions they are causing spearfishers to avoid this site. A site that was intentionally placed there to attract game species and to fuel Florida’s tourist trade. Furthermore, spearfishers do not target moray eels, rays, sharks or jewfish.

One of my concerns, one that was not touched upon in the article, is the fact that many tourist divers visit our reefs each year. If divers aren’t on a "fish feeding excursion" boat and they happen to dive in an area where predatory marine life are hand fed, they are likely to encounter an aggressive shark or moray looking for a handout. To make this more clear, picture yourself in Yellowstone National Park with your family when suddenly a 10’ Black Bear approaches you for a hand out. Are you ever going to return to this tourist destination?

As a spearfisher, and speaking for the majority of spearfishers, I do not arbitrarily kill fish. I take from the ocean only what my family and I will consume right away.

There is no "by catch" or need for catch and release when spearfishing although I do commend anglers for the practice.

 

I was "quoted" in the article stating "I was waiting to see a tourist get bit real bad by a shark". I emphatically deny that quote. I initiated this story by alerting the author of my abhorrence toward the abuse of these predators and the danger initiated by hand feeding them.

I did quote a Reuters article titled: "Up close and personal shark dives endanger thrill-seeking tourists" Copyright^© 1998 Nando.net, Copyright^© 1998 Reuters News Service Byline MIAMI, March 6, 1998. The article discussed the possibility of a tourist being attacked. George Burgess, biologist and University of Florida director of the International Shark Attack File was quoted in the article. An excerpt: Burgess said the inevitable accident provoked by the dive tour encounters will be spectacular tabloid television fodder and will ruin the work of scientists who have fought to tame the public image of the shark as a man-eating predator since the 1970s-era movie "Jaws."

"Almost certainly when it happens, it will be videotaped and that tape will appear on one of the tabloid TV shows," he said. "The shark will be blamed for the attack. The image of the shark will be refortified."

 

It would seem that the most intelligent people could understand the reasons we should not feed bears, alligators or Key Deer. It is not in their best interest and certainly not in ours. Marine predators are no different; we are just less able to study then in natural environment. But they are just as dangerous when they lose their fear of man.

I honestly hope Ms. Cocking’s article does not promote or provoke the continued feeding of marine predators.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Stephen Picardi

President

South Florida Spearfishing Club

www.spearfishing.org

THE MIAMI HERALD

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS POPULAR, CONTROVERSIAL EXCURSIONS ARE `WHAT PEOPLE WANT,' DIVER SAYS

Monday, November 30, 1998
Section: Sports
Page: 1D
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: By SUSAN COCKING, Herald Outdoors Writer
Illustration: photo: Bob Knotts feeding a shark (a), Caribbean reef shark scattering a school of fish (a)

Caption: JOSEPH H. FROELICH / For The Herald VISITORS WELCOME: A Caribbean reef shark scatters a school of fish off Highland Beach. Interactive dives are drawing people - and critics.

JOSEPH H. FROELICH / For The Herald WATCH YOUR FINGERS: Diver Bob Knotts feeds a large nurse shark in the area known as the Pompano Drop-off.
 

Comments by Stephen Picardi and David Earp are italicized and [bracketed].

Jeff Torode is sitting 30 feet deep off Pompano Beach, surrounded by four hungry nurse sharks four to eight feet long. The sharks circle close around him and swim between his legs, angling for bits of sardine and bonito in his gloved hand.

A four-footer swims right up to the regulator clamped between Torode's teeth. He gently pushes the shark aside, hands it a piece of fish and strokes its sandpaper-like skin as it glides away.

The shark and its’ companions head slowly toward 20 spectator divers kneeling a short distance away. The animals circle and bump, but don't bite. Several divers pet the sharks while others snap photos and shoot video. [Untrained divers are handling these sharks]

This is South Florida's only interactive shark dive - an exhilarating and controversial adventure. [Controversial because not only the divers but public are at risk]

Each week, Torode and partner Mike Rohrbaugh of South Florida Diving Headquarters lead certified divers, trainees [trainees? They bring uncertified, inexperienced divers into the shark’s kitchen?] and snorkelers into the nurse sharks' kitchen - an area known as the Pompano Drop-off. For more adventurous and experienced divers, the company offers a 70-foot-deep encounter with Caribbean reef sharks off Highland Beach. [very dangerous] Then there's the "Aqua Zoo" - a wreck dive off Boca Raton featuring jewfish and stingrays. and snorkelers into the nurse sharks' kitchen - an area known as the Pompano Drop-off. For more adventurous and experienced divers, the company offers a 70-foot-deep encounter with Caribbean reef sharks off Highland Beach. [very dangerous] . [An over aggressive moray and barracuda have reportedly been killed by the handlers. These jewfish may lose their ability to feed themselves and will not migrate to spawn]

"It's what people want; they want to get close to these animals," Torode said. Added Rohrbaugh: ``It's like Lion Country Safari or Metrozoo. We just do it underwater.'' [Sounds like the WWF to me]

An accident waiting to happen is how George Burgess sees it. The curator of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History says sharks become trained to associate divers with food - sometimes with disastrous consequences. [This has already happened in our area. Many local divers have been aggressively attacked by sharks and morays. So far none are known to have been seriously injured]

He said more than two dozen attacks have occurred worldwide during shark feedings - including the case of a divemaster in the Bahamas severely bitten on the arm and leg by a Caribbean reef shark two years ago while deploying a block of chum. Then there was a German woman who was bitten on the head by a shark at an underwater feeding site in the Bahamas on a non-feeding day.

Burgess said such headline-making casualties contribute to the demise of sharks.

"All these people down there with cameras will get Susie from Des Moines losing a hand, gushing blood and the shark's going to be the loser," he said. "The handlers, if they lose a nose, it's going to be on Inside Edition - `The Vicious Shark'. It's the sort of stuff that will be blown to Kingdom Come."

Burgess says sharks are responsible for an average of 10-15 human deaths worldwide per year in 50-75 attacks. Florida has averaged 16 attacks per year since 1990. Until last Monday's death of 9-year-old James Tellasmon, who was killed while swimming in the surf at Vero Beach, there had been no fatalities since the 1980s.

Sharks are in more danger from people than the other way around, marine scientists and conservationists say. Populations of the predators worldwide are in such bad shape from overfishing that National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed new rules to help conserve sharks.

No one has been bitten by a shark on one of South Florida Diving Headquarters' interactive encounters, but a couple of weeks ago, a four-foot moray eel crashed the party and became a little too rowdy. [That moray is no longer "resident" on that wreck, the one with the free food. Does anyone wonder where it went?]

Looking for hors d'oeuvres intended for the nurse sharks, the eel slithered over to Swedish tourist Robert Hall and sank its fangs into his shin, leaving two shallow puncture marks. Torode lured the eel away with a hunk of fish. The eel let go of Hall's leg, snatched the morsel and swam away.

Hall, not seriously injured, joked about the incident on the boat.

"It didn't like Swedish blood," he laughed. [Torode himself was seriously injured by a moray he was feeding]

Hall said he was more afraid of the nurse sharks than the eel.

"They were really close," he said. "The sharks swim all the time between your legs. That's scary. The dive was very good."

Marcelo Dantas, a fire rescue diver from Brazil, enjoyed interacting with the sharks. "Wonderful, "Dantas said. "I felt like they were little dogs."

Torode said there's not a better species than the nurse shark to combat fear and ignorance.

"Once you befriend them, they treat you like one of them," he said.

Just after Tropical Storm Mitch blew through South Florida, Torode escorted a group of 10 to the Highland Beach site. Here, the divers were hoping to encounter up to four Caribbean reef sharks, which Torode has been feeding on and off for the past three years. [I wonder if the residents and beachgoers of Highland Beach would approve of this]

In July 1997, the sharks disappeared from the reef - suspected victims of longliners and powerheading spearfishers. [It's a fact that longliners took those sharks, they were easy prey, just hanging around waiting for Torode to feed them. They were not powerheaded, they were fished out with the ease of shooting ducks in a pond]

Several animals have returned sporadically since then, which Torode feeds by hand wearing chain-mail sleeves and gloves. He used to use a pole spear but discontinued the practice because he didn't want sharks associating spears with food. [This is just great. Now the shark associates the human hand with food.]

On the day after Mitch's passage, only one Caribbean reef shark showed up, darting in from the gloom of 20-foot visibility to snatch a hunk of fish from Torode's gloved hand and dash off again. A six-foot nurse shark appeared briefly for a snack and departed.

[This can't be right, Jeff is quoted as only feeding nurse sharks.  Was he lying then or is he lying now?]

Torode said Caribbean reef sharks prefer good visibility."When the visibility's [bad], they're scared of you," he explained. Howard Chalfin of New York City said he figured he was safe on his first shark dive - especially since Torode and his crew had done it often without being harmed. "These guys dive it every day, and they're here to dive again," Chalfin said. But, pointed out his dive buddy, the feeders wear protective chain mail. Replied Chalfin: "If the shark really wanted to get them, he would." ." [Let's just hope the next diver without any food to give is so lucky.]

Which leads us to point out a letter we got from readers Franklin and Kathy Viola: "Excellent observation and editorial by Dr. George Burgess [in your May issue commenting about the risk of orchestrated shark feeds]. It is quite difficult to report the ‘truth’ about this ‘circus’ when the shark feeding operators are filling their pockets and so-called ‘environmental’ dive magazines fill the images with divers feeding sharks to appease advertisers. Thanks for allowing Dr. Burgess to express his concern, as well as that of many others.

George H. Burgess
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611

 As curator of the International Shark Attack File, I have a special interest in shark-human interactions and have followed closely the development of ecotourism dive operations involving elasmobranchs. Most prevalent among these are attractions involving the baiting or feeding of sharks. Non-feeding observation dives involving whale shark (Rhincodon typus) and manta ray (Mobulidae) and stingray (Dasyatidae) feeding operations also have developed in some areas.

Whale shark and manta ray ecotourism dives have appeared recently, primarily in the Indo-Pacific. The advent of organized groups focusing on these large planktivores raises some of the same concerns historically directed at ecotourism operations targeting whales. The primary misgiving is that the natural behaviors of these species will be altered by invasion of personal space by divers and boats. "Riding" whale sharks and mantas evidently is viewed as a desirable activity in some quarters as evidenced in magazine photographs and television videos. In the United States there are strict regulations addressing observation and harassment of marine mammals, including specific distance of separation requirements. I am not sufficiently familiar with the whale shark and manta situations to suggest detailed restrictions, but development of a protocol that would provide a reasonable distance between divers/boats and whale sharks/mantas, and perhaps limitation of the number of divers in the water, may be prudent. An attempt at such a protocol is in effect in Western Australia, where Ningaloo Reef whale sharks have drawn considerable diver interest nationally and internationally. A 5 February 1998 Los Angeles Times newspaper story notes that a large U.S. dive supply retailer is sponsoring a repeat trip to the site with a group of American diving ecotourists, offering "a nearly certain chance of diving with several whale sharks." The story further notes that an "airplane flies overhead and helps the dive vessel locate" the whale sharks, suggesting that the effects of noise and shadows from low-flying airplane on the sharks may also warrant investigation.

There are at least three types of shark feeding operations worldwide. Metal or PVC shark cages are employed primarily in white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) dives at numerous locations worldwide; these also are used by blue shark (Prionace glauca) and reef shark (Carcharhinus spp.) feeding attractions in California and Australia, respectively. Chain mail suits (but no cages) are utilized by other operations that largely target blue sharks (eg. in California) but also are employed in at least one Bahamas carcharhinid dive. Finally, there are feeding operations that do not provide diving tourists with any protective gear (Bahamas, Florida, Maldives, and probably other localities). The common denominator in all operational types is chumming or baiting. Some go so far as to promote hand-feeding of sharks or even to "train" their clients in hand-feeding techniques.

I have reservations about feeding-type dives, based on four interrelated factors: the safety of the divers; the likelihood for negative publicity directed at sharks if a shark bites a diver during one of these dives; the possibility for ecological disruption; and potential negative impact on multi-user recreational use of the feeding area.

Shark cage diving generally appears to be a safe pastime. I am unaware of any serious injuries to divers, although biting wounds have occurred to hands placed outside or onto the exterior of the cage. Chain mail and no-protective-gear dives have resulted in injury to participants. Chain mail suits offer protection only from small to medium-sized sharks. However, the tooth tips of even small sharks can penetrate the mesh resulting in injury - well documented in the much-replayed video segment involving Valerie Taylor. The powerful jaws of larger sharks may produce crushing injuries even if teeth do not penetrate the mail. A large shark with serrated, shearing teeth, eg. a white, tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier), bull (Carcharhinus leucas), or dusky (Carcharhinus obscurus), likely would be able to cut through such meshing. The metal mail may even be electromagnetically attractive to some species of sharks; whites, in particular, are well documented biters of metal objects such as ship hulls and propellers.

In the Bahamas, where unprotected dive-with-sharks operations developed quickly as a tourist draw, there have been more than a dozen injuries in the last several years, including at least two quite serious in nature. Most of these have not been publicized in the media because of efficient damage control by local operators. Perhaps fortunately for the event promoters, most of the victims were host dive masters who presumably knew well what they were getting into, but a serious injury to a diving tourist is inevitable.

This past summer I took part in one of the unprotected Bahamas feeding dives to see for myself the design and safety of these type of operations. The experience was exhilarating, with an aggregation of approximately 50 blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus), Caribbean reef (C. perezi), and nurse (Ginglymostoma cirratum) sharks attracted to a frozen fish "chum ball" anchored at a site utilized on a long-term (several years) and continuous (3-4 times a week) basis. Also present were hundreds (thousands?) of bony fishes of numerous species similarly attracted to the free food. I did not feel threatened by the sharks swimming above, in front, and behind me as we knelt on the sand bottom of a natural "amphitheater." I did note one blacktip, apparently low in a dominance order, that was confined to the perimeter of the circling mass of sharks and fishes and was reluctant to approach the chum ball in the center. It exhibited apparent displacement or frustration behavior involving periodic mouth gaping, increasing over time, and occasional erratic swimming movements, including hunching of the back and dropping of the pectoral fins. This type of behavior has been observed immediately prior to attacks on divers during shark feeding dives at other sites in the Bahamas and is similar to gray reef shark behavior observed by Nelson et al (1986) in the Pacific.

An unanswered question is whether individual bait-entrained sharks are more or less likely to attack humans than their wild peers. Based solely on observations of baited carcharhinids in the Bahamas, which seem to largely ignore divers, one may be tempted to suggest "no more" or even "less" of a threat." However, shark attack rate is profoundly influenced by the concentrations of sharks and humans occupying the water at the same time. Increases in either generally results in an increased probability of a negative interaction. Obviously high concentrations of both sharks and humans are found together in a small area in baited-shark dives. It is also clear that sharks attracted to bait are in a heightened state of excitement, some approaching or achieving frenzy. Under these conditions one might expect an increased opportunity for an attack. In addition, the unnaturally high concentrations of sharks pursuing a limited resource (the "chum ball" or baits) may lead to increases in density-dependent agonistic behavioral displays and attacks, as described above. Furthermore, we do not know how the food-conditioned sharks behave when the free food stops. Recently a documented attack occurred on a diver swimming at a Bahamas feeding site on a non-feeding day.

In many dive operations, ecotourists are actually encouraged to reach out and touch the sharks and at least one sells itself by offering "shark feeding instruction." Such ill-considered activity promotes irrational human behavior like that prominently displayed in a recently published U.S. dive magazine devoted to diving with sharks. The cover depicts a diver holding a 2-2.5 m Carcharhinus, hands on snout and dorsal fin. A photograph accompanying one story ("Friendly Encounters") captures a diver grabbing a ride on the tail of a "16 ft" white shark. Another article ("Cool & Cuddly Sharks") is accompanied by photos of divers hugging sharks. I am not a shark attack alarmist - at the ISAF we have consistently tried to put attack in perspective and turn media attention to more important conservation-based shark issues - but we cannot ignore the fact that sharks are wonderfully designed predators that can and occasionally do cause bodily harm to humans. While some entrained sharks can be approached and even handled readily, do we want to send the message that divers routinely can approach, touch, and even hug sharks in other situations? I can’t think of any situation where grabbing the tail of a 16 ft white shark is advisable.

The recent rise in the number of inshore baited white shark dives has raised a serious concern: Will these operations attract a larger number of white sharks into a localized area, resulting in an increased probability of white shark attack on other user groups operating in that region? As a threat to humans, whites cannot be equated with most carcharhinids - they are larger, normally consume larger prey, and are obviously of much greater concern as potential perpetrators of serious trauma and fatality. I believe a short-term localized increase in the number of whites is a real possibility, and with that increase comes a greater chance of whites and humans interacting.

Ecotourism dives aside, shark attacks on humans are a rare phenomenon. Nevertheless, shark attack still is of great interest and concern to the public. The ISAF routinely provides advice on how to reduce this already tiny chance of attack. It is ironic that shark-feeding dives freely violate several of the axioms of conventional wisdom advocated by virtually all attack researchers: (1) avoid diving in an area known to be frequented by sharks, (2) avoid diving in waters known to contain animal carcasses and blood, (3) avoid wearing shiny objects and contrasting colors while diving, and (4) do not touch sharks. That more than two dozen reported attacks have occurred worldwide during these events certainly comes as no surprise to those who study shark attack.

If safety of participants was the only concern, I would not object to this type of recreational activity, assuming, of course, that divers are duly forewarned by their hosts that injuries have occurred and that there is an inherent risk involved in the sport. (Not all operations currently do so; many maintain bites have not occurred anywhere). Any injury or fatality that were to occur to an informed diver then could be rationalized as an unfortunate accident associated with the sport. However, when such a serious attack does occur - and I can predict unequivocally that it will - the media coverage will be tremendous. The tabloid press predictably will hype a story involving a diving tourist who loses a hand or arm while participating in one of these operations. Imagine what reaction a fatality will bring. There is a very good chance that actual video of the incident will be available to tabloid television since these dives are routinely taped by host dive operators and participants alike. Needless to say, the shark will not be portrayed favorably - the "Jaws" image will be reinforced ad nauseam. The recently reshaped, biologically accurate public image of sharks that many have worked so hard to foster will be undercut quickly and decidedly.

Of equal concern is ecological disruption in the shallow-water shark-feeding areas. Based on personal dive experience and those of others, it is clear that concentrations of sharks (and bony fishes) I witnessed at the Bahamas feeding site are unnatural. It is normally difficult to see blacktip or reef sharks in non-feeding situations in the Bahamas. Except for the nurse, which is frequently seen, one rarely encounters other sharks while diving (but more commonly when spearfishing). The lure of the feeding operations, of course, is the guarantee of success in giving divers a chance to see and photograph sharks. The sharks and some bony fishes at these sites are now trained show animals that reside in the area and have become at least partially dependent on free food. Similar entrainment has been reported from feeding sites in Australia. We do not know if local populations are increasing such that they can concentrate at these sites while still maintaining their natural levels of density and distribution over adjacent areas. Alternatively, the feeding sites may simply relocate sharks from nearby areas and overall populations may be stable or even in decline. In either case the feeding operation is altering the natural system. I have observed that at Grand Cayman, where diver feeding of "cheese whiz" out of propellant cans to reef fishes was fashionable for years, the populations of sergeant-major (Pomacentridae: Abudefduf saxatilis) and yellowtail snapper (Lutjanidae: Lutjanus chrysurus) mushroomed. Both of these species became pests at feeding sites, hovering around divers like gnats while looking for handouts (and in the case of the sergeant-major, frequently biting the fingers of divers!). The highly migratory nature and differing reproductive strategies of Carcharhinus spp. prevents direct analogy to these situations, but it seems possible that their population size is increasing locally at feeding sites.

That the Bahamas sharks are indeed entrained is demonstrated by their response to the sound of a boat’s motor. Dive operators routinely rev their engines as they approach the feeding site in order to attract the sharks ("calling in our babies" is the expression used by operators at one site). Sharks rapidly come to the site, surrounding the boat long before the first free food or diver hits the water (sound Pavlovian?). Similar behavior has been noted in Australia. The feeding-site sharks also are largely oblivious to the divers, whereas in natural situations they tend to avoid divers and are quite skittish. Groupers (Serranidae: Epinephelus and Mycteroperca spp.) at some Caribbean and Bahamas feeding sites are similarly well-trained, rising from the reefs in search of free handouts from divers entering the water.

Finally, the presence of sharks entrained to the sound of a motor may lead to localized loss of multi-party recreational activities such as fishing, spearfishing, and traditional skin or SCUBA diving where divers are not interested in encountering sharks en masse. If sharks appear whenever a motorboat visits a region, anglers are likely to lose their hooked catches to opportunistic sharks or have the sharks frighten away potential catches. Skin/SCUBA divers seeking sharkless diving will encounter unwelcomed escorts. As noted above, a tourist diving at a feeding site on a non-feeding day was bitten on the head by a carcharhinid shark. We have heard of a diver who had a shark follow his outboard motor-driven boat from dive stop to dive stop, eventually ending in a bite.

I am of the opinion that inshore feeding of sharks is not in the best long-term interest of an area's economy. While the activity will draw in ecotourists, inevitably a serious shark bite will occur, producing significant trauma or death. The ensuing negative publicity likely will result in the loss of that segment of tourists as well as at least some other diving tourists who do not wish to meet sharks on a regular basis during their dives. There is no hard data available, but it seems apparent that repetitive feeding attracts sharks from wide distances, based on the large numbers that congregate around feeding sites. Feeding may promote higher than normal local shark population levels since food is readily obtainable at virtually no energetic cost. At some attractions the source of that food is otherwise discarded remains of recreationally caught fishes (filleted carcasses), but in other operations the chum or bait fishes are obtained by spearfishing in the area. Localized depletion of reef-fishes, such as parrotfishes, which are easy to spear and often are considered less desirable as food fishes, may occur in these areas. Some South African white shark dive operators reportedly catch juvenile bronze whaler (Carcharhinus brachyurus) and smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena) sharks to use as bait. As with reef-fishes, repetitive fishing for these species in a small area may lead to reductions in their local populations. Additionally, localized clustering of sharks and associated bony fishes entrained to feeding also may present an easy mark for poachers, as it did in the Bahamas when rogue fishers wiped out a local aggregation of sharks associated with a shark-feeding attraction.

Pelagic shark-feeding operations utilizing shark cages may be of less consequence than inshore unprotected dives since the chosen feeding sites generally are located far away from centers of human activity, entrainment of the sharks is less likely, and the ecotourists are adequately protected. Feeding of stingrays, which occurs at several localities in the Caribbean and perhaps elsewhere, does not appear to be of particular concern, although there is some potential for injury. Video footage I have seen of a shallow water feeding operation in the Virgin Islands showed numerous large Dasyatis americana swimming amongst tourists, including several elderly individuals, standing in waist deep water. The rays frequently swam through the legs of the tourists, knocking some off their feet. It is likely that a tourist will encounter a large spine sometime during one of these falls. The "media image" problem, however, is not likely to arise, nor are there concerns over multi-user recreation. Ecological disruption probably is minimal.

In an alternative view, dive-with-sharks operations have been lauded as a positive environmental experience for those divers who can afford to engage in this activity and vicariously for thousands of television viewers who see these shark performances in documentaries and dive programs. Certainly allowing many people to see sharks in situ is good publicity for these animals and helps to dispel the "man-eater" stereotype. But if we watch entrained sharks perform on cue, are we really observing any more natural behavior than we see in trained circus animals? Does swimming in circles and gnawing on a frozen "chum ball" or taking bait fishes off a spear or out of the hand or mouth of a human constitute "sharks in the wild?" Public aquaria offer basically the same view (sans wetsuit) of sharks without fostering the "eating machine" image enhanced by frenzied feeding on provided food.

It appears that the pendulum has completely swung as a newly restructured shark image emerged in the shark-feeding dive community. Sharks have been transformed from being blood-thirsty man-eaters to playful puppies by some of those most closely tied to shark-feeding operations. As often is the case, the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes. Based on the safety, ecological, social and conservation considerations noted above, I believe that scientific/conservation endorsement of most shark-feeding attractions is unwise. On balance, it appears that sharks have more to lose than to gain by these operations.

Acknowledgments. I thank Matthew Callahan, Kevin Johns, Robert Robins and Franklin Snelson for providing constructive comments on this contribution.

References Cited

Nelson, D.R., Johnson, R.R., McKibben, J.N., and G.G. Pittenger. 1986. Agonistic attacks on divers and submersibles by gray reef sharks, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos: antipredatory or competitive? Bull. Mar. Sci. 38(1): 68-88.

For more information on Mr. Burgess' work visit his website at:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/statistics.htm
 

You can swim with the dolphins. You can pet a stingray. You can even hand-feed a shark in the Florida Keys with some charter boat captains. But, according to marine scientist Bill Alevizon, human interaction is affecting underwater communities in a negative way.  Alevizon, who taught at the University of California and Berkeley for 20 years, compared the act of feeding marine life with that of feeding wild terrestrial animals. Feeding any type of wild animal in national parks is prohibited in the United States because of the risk that the animal might become dependent on and less afraid of humans. This endangers the animals, ecosystem and humans.
"There is no reason to believe that this information would not be applicable to marine life," he said in a lecture entitled "Fish Feeding by Divers’. Good for Business, Bad for Conservation" at the Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada Tuesday, July 27.

"Why is the marine environment another planet in a sense?"

His talk was a part of Reef Awareness Week sponsored by Reef Relief. Many businesses promote interaction with marine animals in advertising. Even American Express, one of the sponsors of Reef Awareness Week, shows a person picking up and moving a starfish in an ad."Just moving an object can lead to its death," Alevizon said. Alevizon does not feel businesses would be harmed by discontinuing interaction with marine life.

In fact, he feels that businesses might grow by promoting total observation tours. This way, glass-bottom boat, snorkel and dive customers can see nature without the human influence. "We’re in danger of losing our opportunity to watch the natural environment." Alevizon said.  Besides losing the ability to feed themselves, marine animals’ long-term migratory patterns could be affected.

Fish might "hang around because food is available," he said.

One of the reasons this trend continues is that many of its effects cannot be seen yet, Alevizon said.  The problems with the feeding bears in parks "didn’t develop in the first week, month or even year," he said. "It took a long time."  He added that five to 10 years might pass before greater effects can be seen.

At Biscayne National Park, humans are prohibited from feeding or interacting with fish.

According to Dick Frost of Biscayne National Park, one of the purposes of a national park is to be able to observe animals in their natural environment. Interacting with any animals at national parks is illegal.

"You’re creating a chain reaction and a part of the way the community functions," he said.

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