VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (31 Aug 2001) -- With the "Summer of the Shark" rapidly approaching its end, a pivotal meeting of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) will convene on September 6th at Amelia Island (near Jacksonville) to decide the fate of marine predator feeding tours by commercial dive operators. In preparation for that meeting, the Commission is continuing its internal review of "Marine Life Feeding Guidelines for Interactive Marine Experiences (2nd Draft)" prepared by its own staff and released for public review last week in accordance with instructions laid down by the FFWCC at its last (May 2001) meeting. Today however, spokesmen for the Florida-based Marine Safety Group (MSG) and the California-based Surfrider Foundation (with 8 Florida Chapters) bluntly characterized this latest blueprint for industry self-regulation as "purely cosmetic", and called once again for a wholesale ban on marine wildlife feeding in Florida waters. "Because these latest guidelines are presented as measures intended for strictly voluntary compliance, they wholly fail to provide any mandated changes in the status quo regarding marine wildlife feeding in Florida, nor do they provide any new protection of either wildlife or people", said Bob Dimond, President of the MSG. Chad Nelsen, Environmental Director for Surfrider, agreed wholeheartedly. "Self-enforced guidelines are essentially meaningless". While shark feeding proponents have tried to justify marine wildlife feeding tours by touting them as a form of "environmental education" that dispels negative myths about feared creatures, Dimond and Nelsen call such a characterization nothing more than a marketing scheme - self-serving hype to justify commercial exploitation of wild animals. "In fact", Dimond said, "the message conveyed to the public by these tours - that its perfectly OK to feed, touch or ride marine wildlife, or to turn these wonderful creatures into trained circus tricks for a fast buck - is diametrically opposed to the most fundamental wildlife conservation message that our own National Parks and international environmental groups have tried so hard to convey over the last century "keep our wildlife and our wild places wild!" | | "It has been, and remains, the stated position of our organizations that the feeding of marine wildlife constitutes a needless and wholly unjustifiable endangerment of wildlife, coastal ecosystems, and recreational users of our coastal waters", Dimond and Nelsen stated emphatically. "For these reasons we call for a total prohibition of such activities". The Marine Safety Group, Inc. is a grass roots public interest organization formed by a small group of concerned citizens/sport divers in South Florida. The Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches, for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education (C.A.R.E.). Surfrider Foundation currently has 52 grassroots chapters and 27,000 members in the U.S. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
