MIAMI, Florida (6 Mar 2008) — The biggest surprise in last month's shark bite that killed an Austrian lawyer is that it was a first. Indeed, when Markus Groh, 49, bled to death from a shark bite to his left leg in the waters off the Bahamas Feb. 24, it was registered as the first fatality involving shark feeding expeditions — though it's important to point out that more than two dozen divers have been injured during such risky adventures, according to shark experts. And this tragedy didn't come without ample warning. More traditional shark dives use cages and stay near reefs or shallow water, where smaller sharks displaying more predictable behavior roam. By contrast, Scuba Adventures, operated out of Riviera Beach by Jim Abernethy, has drawn complaints about the unnecessary risks it and others take by chumming the waters and sending in divers, without the protection of cages, into the open water to watch large, aggressive sharks like makos, tigers and hammerheads in action. To draw the big fish in, boat crews throw bloody fish parts, or chum, into the water and lower a container of frozen tuna 30 feet down. Once the sharks arrive and sniff the bait, divers watch and take pictures from a distance. The practice was deemed so dangerous that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission banned shark feeding in 2001. Abernethy now leads his shark tours off the Bahamas, where an association of 36 diving charters asked him and others to stop their dangerous brand of expeditions. The concern is not just for thrill-seekers like Groh, who willingly risk their own lives. Rather, experts have long warned against shark feeding — just as wildlife officials discourage feeding bears, alligators and other wild animals — because it baits them to associate food with humans. With sharks migrating over a wide area, that puts everyone who shares the ocean — from divers to snorkelers to swimmers at the beach — at greater risk of attack. Groh's death underscores the need to expand Florida's ban as far as possible, and it will take the cooperation of a number of entities to do the job right. Florida officials need to work with the Bahamian government to prohibit shark feeding off its coast, and U.S. officials should widen a similar ban already in place around Hawaii to include all U.S. federal waters, which largely extend 200 miles from shore. Maritime organizations, too, need to work on a coordinated, comprehensive plan to drain the risky practice from international waters. Shark encounters may not be so thrilling anymore, but the waters will be safer for everyone. BOTTOM LINE: Expand shark feeding ban. | 
