PORT ST JOHNS, South Africa (25 Mar 2009) — The Natal Sharks Board believes that a tiger shark killed a young surfer in Port St Johns, a popular shark feeding destination. Geremy Cliff , the executive officer for research at the Natal Sharks Board, told CDNN he strongly suspects that a tiger shark killed 16-year-old surfer Luyolo Mangele. Cliff added that his findings are not conclusive and it is also possible that Mangele was killed by a Zambezi shark. Cliff's findings have renewed concerns that local scuba diving operators, who condition tiger sharks with bait to associate humans with food, may be partly responsible for the fatal attack. Some local residents have also blamed traditional healers who put blood in the water. Although authorities have banned that practice at all but one beach in Port St Johns, they have failed to crack down on scuba diving operators who feed and bait tiger sharks nearly every day. The shark baiting tours, which are promoted on YouTube, rely on manipulating tiger sharks with bait, which destroys their natural wariness of humans. By conditioning sharks to congregate at feeding and baiting sites, scuba diving operators can profit off of thrill-seeking tourists and underwater photographers who demand guaranteed shark encounters. But the animals, which are big, beautiful and extremely dangerous, are conditioned to associate humans with food. Bad for sharks, bad for people Most scientists who study sharks condemn DEMA, PADI, Scuba Diving Magazine and scores of sleazy, underwater image touts who collude to green-wash the lucrative business of shark baiting and prevent full protection of sharks and other endangered marine species. Dr. Denise Herzing, a renowned marine mammalogist who conducts research in the Bahamas says feeding sharks is bad for people and sharks. ''Feeding the sharks changes their behavior,'' Herzing said. "It's just like feeding bears at Yellowstone. It makes them associate humans with food. It makes them more aggressive. It endangers people.'' Dr. George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, and an internationally respected authority on sharks, said there have been more than two dozen injuries involving shark-feeding dives. Dr. Burgess opposes all shark feeding, not because of the danger but because it trains sharks to expect food from people and not to fear them. He said: "They lose their natural caution around human beings. For the same reason on land, you don't feed alligators or bears. It's changing the behaviour of sharks and the ecology by concentrating sharks in one area." YouTube videos expose shark harassment Aimed at promoting and selling shark feeding and shark baiting dive tours in Port St John, several YouTube videos provide irrefutable evidence that scuba diving operators in the area are not only conditioning tiger sharks to associate humans with food, but day in and day out are also damaging fragile coral reefs, harassing marine wildlife, poking sharks with steel rods and hitting them with garbage cans. To view documented evidence of what the dive industry and sleazy, underwater image touts describe as "education" and "conservation", click on the following YouTube links: Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvyRypo6YqA Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAy5VSj8IHA | 
