EXUMA ISLANDS, Bahamas (16 May 2009) — A shark attacked and severely injured another tourist diver in the Bahamas, where authorities have failed to ban shark feeding profiteers who condition sharks to associate people with food. Luis Hernandez, 48, of Deerfield Beach, Florida, was diving and spearfishing in the Exuma Islands when he was attacked by a bull shark, the same species that killed Austrian tourist Marcus Groh last year in the Bahamas. Groh died while scuba diving off the Florida-based Shear Water dive boat, which is owned and operated by Jim Abernethy of Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures. Although Florida banned shark feeding, Abernethy avoids criminal prosecution by taking thrill-seeking tourists and underwater photographers to the Bahamas where corrupt government officials have been "persuaded" to turn a blind eye to the multi-million dollar shark feeding industry. Unlike Groh who died within a few hours after he was attacked by a bull shark, Hernandez is expected to recover from his injuries although doctors said it would take at least six months to a year of multiple surgeries and his arm will never return to being completely normal. Hernandez said he could see strips of muscle dangling from his bone after the shark finally let go of his arm. Bad for people, bad for sharks Despite aggressive and often deceitful pro-shark feeding campaigns by several U.S. dive industry marketing behemoths including PADI, DEMA and Scuba Diving Magazine, shark feeding has been banned in Florida, Hawaii, the Caymans and many parts of the world due to concerns about public safety and scientific evidence that feeding and baiting tours negatively impact sharks and other marine wildlife. In Roatan, the Bahamas, St. Maarten and a few other destinations where authorities have failed to act, tourists participating in shark feeding and shark baiting dives have been injured and killed. In 2008, Austrian attorney Marcus Groh died after he was attacked by a shark while scuba diving with Jim Abernethy, a notorious Florida shark feeding profiteer who avoids prosecution by taking tourists and shark photo touts from his Florida base to the Bahamas where harassing sharks is still legal. In 2002 also in the Bahamas, a bull shark attacked and nearly killed shark rodeo performer Erich Ritter at Walker's Cay, a dive industry-endorsed shark feeding site often green-washed as a "shark conservation and education center" by both American and UK dive industry-controlled scuba diving magazines. Dr. Denise Herzing, a renowned marine mammalogist who conducts research in the Bahamas says feeding sharks is bad for people and the sharks. | | Luis Hernandez is the latest shark attack victim in the Bahamas, where corrupt government officials have turned a blind eye to the multi-million dollar shark feeding industry. ''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 a world 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." |
