FORT PIERCE, Florida (16 July 2002) -- Four sport fishermen almost fed themselves to the sharks when their boat suddenly capsized 32 kilometers off Fort Pierce in the middle of chumsickle bait they were using to catch sharks. James Kennedy told reporters he thought he was going to die when sharks started circling the four fishermen who had been using two large "chumsickle" blocks of frozen fish to attract sharks. Fortunately, one of the fishermen had put a cell phone in a plastic bag and despite rough seas and no life jacket, he was able to put in a distress call. A Miami-based Coast Guard rescue helicopter took off at about 11:00am, spotted the four men about 90 minutes later and directed a Coast Guard rescue boat to their position. Chumming by divers has been banned in Florida, however, sport fishers are still permitted to utilize the controversial baiting technique to attract sharks and other marine wildlife. "The ban on chumming by commercial shark feeding dive operators was an important first step," said Cyber Diver Society (CDS) President Evan T. Allard. "But Cyber Diver has always argued that feeding wildlife is wrong, and we have repeatedly called for this ban to be extended to encompass the sport and commercial fishing communities as well as all participants in marine recreation activities," Allard added. | | Florida banned shark feeding on January 1, 2002. In a CDNN editorial published last year, Cyber Diver News Network Managing Editor, Freeman Washington, condemned DEMA and PADI for squandering hundreds of thousands of dollars in a desperate attempt to overturn the ban on shark feeding and called on the dive industry to utilize its resources to ban all chumming. "…we urge PADI to commit the donations of its Project Aware contributors and DEMA to utilize its financial resources to ban all chumming by recreational and commercial fisherman rather than squandering it on lawsuits against responsible Florida state government officials who correctly voted to ban shark feeding," Washington said. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
