CAYMAN ISLANDS, (25 Apr 2002) -- A prohibition on shark feeding dives has been passed by the Cayman Islands legislature as part of a comprehensive Marine Conservation Legislation package designed to offer greater protection to the nation's marine life. The Cayman's - long-considered one of the premier dive destinations of the Caribbean - passed the law with little fanfare in January 2002. The government is already enforcing the ban, although the legislative process will not be officially completed until the Prime Minister actually signs the new law, a formality expected shortly. Apparently, the Cayman Islands mean business, as violations of the new law - which prohibits feeding sharks underwater or attracting them with chum tossed from boats - carry penalties that could include fines of $500,000, six months in jail and/or confiscation of vessel. Unlike the new Florida law that stops divers from feeding all marine species, the new Cayman Islands feeding prohibition applies only to sharks. Stingray City operations will not be affected. The Cayman Islands have a long history of highly successful dive tourism without the need for shark-feeding "thrill dives". Last year however, a single operation (Ocean Frontiers) initiated a shark-feeding program at the east end of Grand Cayman with heavy dive industry promotion. Despite packaging the shark feeding dives in the now obligatory "eco education" spin that bombed so badly in Florida, Ocean Frontiers' shark feeding activities quickly became a source of increasing concern to nearby established dive operators, who were quite naturally worried over the increasing numbers of behaviorally-altered animals that first congregated and then began to spread out from the feeding site. As one frustrated local summed up the problem: "Those damn sharks everyone's feeding in East End...all we're doing is populating Cayman more with sharks, then there'll come a day when some top notch person gets a bite or loses a limb and then all hell will break lose on the Caymans...One thing about Caymans waters, they were safe, completely safe...now we've got to worry about damn sharks." Liberace back from the dead? No, it's Skin Diver editor slash shark feeding frenzy promoter Al "jaw-dropping" Hornsby. | | Not so fast Al! Change that to read "Grand Cayman kicks the teeth out of Al Hornsby's shark feeding circus!" Although feeding is out, Ocean Frontiers hopes to develop a new program that offers shark dives au natural. According to Mark Kay, Shark Awareness Program director, "After this, we will investigate new ways to interact with our friends without feeding them." The prototype of a non-feeding shark dive program has already been developed and tested with some success at Aliwal Shoal in South Africa, and shows great promise for offering divers an opportunity to observe and appreciate wild sharks in a natural state. "We commend the government of the Cayman Islands for standing up to a small, but incorrigible US-based dive industry marketing element including PADI, DEMA, Project Aware, CORAL, Skin Diver and Rodale's Scuba Diving," said Cyber Diver Society President Evan T. Allard. "The government's enlightened ban on shark feeding sends a clear message to dive travelers that the Caymans will remain one the world's premier dive destinations, not by resorting to lowest common denominator thrill diving gimmicks, but by protecting and nurturing the extraordinary marine species abundance and diversity that attract divers to the Caymans from all over the world." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
