FLORIDA (25 Aug 2001) -- St. Petersburg Representative Charlie Justice (D-St. Petersburg) announced today that he is in the process of filing legislation that will ban shark feeding off the coast of Florida. "My first concern is with public safety, safety for our residents and our visitors. This is too important of an issue - too important for our citizens and too important for our tourist industry for us not to take a closer look," Justice explained. He continued, "The timing is right to come to a determination on this before this industry expands." Many groups feel that the feeding of the sharks changes their behavior and that sharks soon associate humans with food. The ban proposed by Representative Justice will mirror Florida Statutes that prohibit feeding of alligators and other wild animals. Representative Justice will review the outcome of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission's (FWC) September meeting, but feels that it is important for the Legislature to take action. "The Legislature has a responsibility of public safety and must take the lead on this issue," said Justice. | | Environmentalists, public safety officials and an overwhelming majority of recreational scuba divers have sharply criticized the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission for caving in to pressure from the dive industry to endorse the business of shark feeding off Florida's popular beaches. At the invitation of the FWC, a dive industry coalition led by PADI, DEMA, Skin Diver and Rodale Inc recently proposed "guidelines" that attempted to put an environmentally and educationally correct spin on the business of shark feeding. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
