HONOLULU, Hawaii (24 July 2006) -- Shark feeding is illegal in Hawaii but Oahu shark feeder Jimmy Hall doesn't give a damn about that--he's laughing all the way to the bank thanks to NOAA shark experts and thrill seeking tourists programmed by TV adventure shows. "People are like 'Oh! You are feeding the sharks!'" Hall laughed. "I am feeding sharks--that's what we do," Hall said defiantly. "The sharks don't come around just because we are such friendly guys!" Hall owns Hawaii Shark Encounters, a company that flouts the law by taking tourists just beyond state waters to swim with the sharks. Just three miles offshore, 365 days a year, seven hourly departures a day, tourists pay $100 each to enter floating cages for what shark feeder ads describe as a "thrill of a lifetime" swimming with sharks attracted to them by 'chumming' the water with fish parts. As they feed, the sharks come eye to eye with tourists wearing scuba diving masks and snorkels floating at the ocean surface. From the shark's perspective it's eat, see humans, eat, see humans, eat, see humans, eat, see humans--all day long every day. So what if one of those sharks -- conditioned by Jimmy Hall to associate food with people swimming at the ocean surface -- quits the circus and goes back to the hunt? Scientists have tracked tagged sharks swimming thousands of miles across entire oceans. Even smaller coastal species are known to travel hundreds and even thousands of miles in a lifetime. How unlikely then would it be for a shark to swim just three miles to a crowded Oahu tourist beach, or a few miles more to a Maui or Big Island tourist beach where people who look just like shark feeder Jimmy Hall's customers are swimming and snorkeling and diving and surfing with nothing but some water separating them from the shark? No TIG welded aluminium cage. No bullet-proof plexiglass windows. Just you, the water and a huge hungry shark that is dead certain it's feeding time thanks to Hawaii Shark Encounters and 'Jimmy's Shark Circus'. ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!!!!!! Enjoy da show bruddah--you da star chum! Bad for people, bad for sharks Despite aggressive and often deceitful pro-feeding campaigns by several U.S. dive industry marketing behemoths including PADI, DEMA and Scuba Diving Magazine, shark feeding was banned in Hawaii state waters in 2002. Hawaii's law prohibiting feeding of marine wildlife followed similar bans in Florida, the Cayman Islands, the Maldives, the Red Sea and other parts of the world where the final decision reflected overwhelming scientific evidence that shark feeding is bad for people and bad for sharks. In addition to documented injuries to participants in commercial shark feeding activities, many more people have been injured swimming, surfing, diving and snorkeling in areas where feedings occur. Think about it. How about a quick swim where Jimmy feeds sharks? No? How about 500 meters closer to shore? Maybe another mile or two? How about another island? How about another holiday destination where there are no shark feeders at all? In addition to increasing the risk of shark attacks by associating humans with food, shark feeding is harmful to sharks because it modifies their behavior and the ecosystems in which they live. More than just another boob in bunny ears, scuba clown Spencer Slate joined the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame huckster parade in 2004 by flouting the law with his silly fish feeding antics just beyond Florida state waters. | | Scientific research confirms that shark feeding is bad for people and bad for sharks, but NOAA 'shark expert' John Naughton disagrees. "These [sharks] become like underwater circus animals…their behavior has been modified, as has the ecology of the area," says shark expert George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. "Instead of a bell ringing and a dog salivating, you have the [boat] engine running and sharks circling." That's good news for the global fleet of GPS equipped shark finning boats but bad news for fed sharks. The difference is in the water Not all so-called shark experts agree that shark feeding threatens public safety nor that it alters shark behavior to the detriment of the fed animals. Both Erich Ritter, a self-proclaimed shark expert who promotes and sells shark feeding tours to the Bahamas, and John Naughton, who works for NOAA, have expressed support for commercial shark feeding businesses. During the Florida shark feeding wars, Ritter was the dive industry poster boy for kinder, gentler sharks that could be trained to safely perform for humans 'just like dolphins and killer whales'. Just breathe real slow and they'll be your friend too Ritter explained until one made a 'mistake' at Walker's Cay and nearly bit off his leg while he was doing his shark feeder thing for a TV adventure show film crew. More recently, Hawaii-based marine biologist Naughton has cited chumming by fisherman to conclude that there's nothing wrong with shark feeding. It's an opinion that echos complaints by Florida shark feeders that they were being unfairly singled out by a ban only on shark feeder chumming. But there's a difference between shark feeder and fishermen chumming that is both obvious and important, and it's in the water. What Florida shark feeders and Naughton (who should know better) fail to acknowledge is that while both aim to attract fish, shark feeder chumming aims to put food, people and sharks in the water in very close proximity at the same time. Three miles offshore, fishermen chumming also aims to attract fish but no humans are in the water and sharks are not usually the desired animal. See fish part, eat fish part. Naughton, who admits to a close relationship with Hall and often sounds more like an advertising pitchman than a marine biologist, casually dismisses safety concerns stating that the sharks are not conditioned to swim towards land and could not possibly follow the boats back to shore. "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you see the sharks following the boats for a while, but I don't think they would stay with the boat as soon as they learn that it's coming back on shore," Naughton told reporters. "They'll just drift off and go back to their normal haunts." What a relief. A NOAA 'shark expert' has gone on record in support of shark feeding because fishermen also throw fish parts in the water, and because seven times every day, just three miles offshore and a few meters from where Hawaii's ban on shark feeding could be legally enforced, Jimmy Hall is conditioning sharks to stay right there and wait for the next boatload of tourists and the expectation of more food. Thanks Jimmy! Thanks John! © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKCDNN Related NewsCDNN EDITORIAL - The scientific rationale for Florida's ban on fish feedingCDNN SPECIAL REPORT - Shark Feeding |
