In the Bahamas, Florida and hundreds of maritime sites around the world, some 100,000 scuba divers a year thrill to the sight of "Jaws" being hand fed. But opponents of the growing "interactive marine experience" industry say the gruesome Bahamas shark attack last week on a Wall Street banker whose left leg was ripped to shreds and later amputated is evidence that shark-feeding tourist dives should be regulated or banned. The industry, which claims feeding dives protect sharks by dispelling the myth of the terrifying marine predator, says opponents are using random shark attacks as a weapon to push for a Florida ban on shark dives. The attack last Saturday on Krishna Thompson, whose left leg was so badly mangled as he swam off a Freeport resort that surgeons had to cut it off, happened in an area that bills itself as the "Shark Diving Capital of the World." Caribbean and U.S. dive operators also routinely feed moray eels. In the Cayman Islands, operators have been feeding rays for years at a popular tourist spot called "Sting Ray City." For as little as $35, Bahamian operators will take scuba divers to sites where "chain-mail" clad tour leaders hand-feed sharks while tourist divers watch and snap pictures. "Divers get a once in a lifetime thrill and the sharks get an easy snack," trumpets a Web site for Bahamas shark diving. Bob Dimond, founder of the Deerfield Beach, Florida-based Marine Safety Group and a leader of a drive to ban for-profit feeding in Florida, said the dives act as a classic "Pavlovian" training for sharks, dimming their natural fear of humans. "When you teach them to associate humans with food, you are greatly increasing the risk of attacks on humans," he said. The attack on Thompson happened within a couple of miles of prominent Bahamas shark-feeding sites, Dimond said, raising the question of whether commercial operators are increasing the risk to swimmers by attracting sharks to the area. Bob Harris, a Florida attorney who represents the Global Interactive Marine Experience Council and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, said there was no evidence to support the notion that commercial shark feeding increased the risk of attacks on humans. "In the 30-year history of shark feeding, there has never been a single reported attack as far away as a mile from a feeding site," he said. "Sharks don't go to a feeding site and feed and then go looking for people." Harris said information assembled by his clients indicates some 300 feeding sites operate in 40 countries and about 100,000 divers make such dives annually, a tiny portion of the millions of scuba enthusiasts who dive on wrecks and reefs. | | Shark experts say few people are attacked by sharks. With global tourism growing and hundreds of millions of people venturing into the sea, the Florida-based International Shark Attack File has documented 32 unprovoked attacks this year worldwide, compared to 79 all of last year. Most attacks are attributed to the shark mistaking a human in murky water for another type of prey. George Burgess, director of the shark attack file, said humans kill tens of thousands of sharks each year -- up to 50 million by some estimates -- while on average, eight people are killed by sharks yearly. Nonetheless, the Bahamas attack raises questions about shark-feeding operations near tourist beaches. "The sharks are appearing in numbers that are atypical. They are being drawn in from long distances," he said. "The fact that they arrive very quickly with the sound of an engine leads us to believe that they are hanging around the area." University of Miami scientist Dr. Sam Gruber, one of the world's leading experts, said sharks have large brains that are easy to condition and a memory that will last at least a year. "When you throw food at them, they will learn quickly that this is a good place to feed," he said. But he said research clearly counters the notion that sharks attack people purposely. "There's no evidence at all that sharks, once trained to these feeding sites, will then feed on people," he said. In Florida, at least two Atlantic coast towns have banned shark feeding in coastal waters. State lawmakers are looking at possible legislation to regulate or ban the industry. In September the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will consider rules proposed by the industry to regulate marine wildlife feeding. "They (commissioners) really have not indicated that they are willing to enact rules," commission spokesman Henry Cabbage said. "They would prefer to see the industry regulate itself." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
