MIAMI, Florida (25 Feb 2008) — Yesterday's fatal shark attack in the Bahamas that killed a tourist vindicates the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's decision to ban shark feeding. The landmark 2001 decision to ban fish feeding in Florida waters followed a two-year campaign led by the Marine Safety Group to educate citizens and government officials about public safety and environmental hazards caused by several Florida dive operators selling so-called "interactive" shark feeding tours. Despite opposition from a small but well-funded clique of U.S. dive industry insiders including PADI, DEMA, Scuba Diving magazine and Skin Diver magazine, which went bankrupt in 2002, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wisely and unanimously voted to ban exactly the same type of so-called "interactive" shark feeding dive that killed Austrian tourist Markus Groh in the Bahamas. Ironically, Groh died while scuba diving with Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures, one of three Florida-based companies including Jeff Torode's South Florida Diving Headquarters and Spencer Slate's Atlantis Dive Center that was forced to stop selling shark feeding tours in Florida waters in January 2002. To get around the ban and continue profiting from activities based on manipulating marine predators to perform for thrill-seeking tourists, Abernethy and Slate moved their dive tours offshore. Slate, a NAUI board member and failed Republican candidate who was fined $8,000 for writing himself fat checks in violation of election laws during a 2006 bid to win the Florida House District 120 seat, sells boat diving trips to sites just beyond state waters where he can "legally" make money manipulating and harassing marine wildlife. Abernethy sells one-week shark diving excursions called the "Great Hammerhead and Tiger Shark Expedition" to the Bahamas where corrupt local officials have been "persuaded" to turn a blind eye to shark feeding activities that endanger sharks, divers and tourists swimming and snorkeling at local resorts. Shark attacks On August 4, 2001, Krishna Thompson, a 34-year-old New York banker lost a leg, and very nearly his life, when he was attacked just off the beach at Our Lucaya Golf and Beach Resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Thompson successfully sued Our Lucaya Golf and Beach Resort for failing to warn guests that local dive operators sell shark feeding tours at sites located less than a mile from the hotel beach. In April, 2002, TV shark show daredevil Erich Ritter went into severe shock and nearly lost his left leg after he was bitten by a bull shark attracted to shallow water with fish bait. In September, 2006, a shark that had been attracted by fish bait attacked and severely injured Dave Marcel, one of Slate's employees. Marcel nearly lost his upper lip when he foolishly flipped a shark over and attempted to kiss it, a moronic stunt pioneered by scuba hall of famer Slate. According to official statistics kept by the International Shark Attack File, at least 24 divers have been injured during shark feeding dives. | | Despite pumping more than a million dollars into its campaign to legalize shark feeding, PADI, DEMA and various dive industry insiders bent on supporting the status quo failed to prevent a ban on so-called "interactive" diving in Florida, which banned fish feeding in 2001. But renowned coral reef ecologist Dr. William Alevizon, who worked with the Marine Safety Group to provide Florida officials with much of the research documentation that formed the scientific basis for the decision to ban shark feeding, believes the number of people injured during shark feeding dives, or in areas where shark feeding is common, is certainly much higher than official statistics indicate because many attacks around the world go unreported. Education or exploitation? The dive industry continues to spin shark feeding and other harassment of marine wildlife as "education" and "conservation" aimed not at making money, but at teaching people not to demonize sharks. Alevizon says the dive industry is obviously intoxicated with its own hype, which has no currency among the marine conservation community. "If there was in fact a genuine conservation value to wildlife feeding dives, one might ask why such an impressive array of leading conservation organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense, Defenders of Wildlife, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Reef Relief, Humane Society of the U.S., and the Surfrider Foundation - not to mention the U.S. National Park Service - (took) the trouble to go on record with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in support of a total ban on feeding dives." |
