George Burgess, director of the University of
Florida’s International Shark Attack File, believes that
one of these days the sharks foraging in orchestrated
shark feeds will forego the chum for the tourists.
“Sharks are well-designed predators,” he said.
“We’re getting a bunch of sharks together and getting
them excited by putting food in the water. Then we’re
putting people next to them. They do occasionally
grab a diver.” At least one tourist and several
divemasters have been hurt by feeding sharks recently,
and it’s only a matter of time before there is a serious
injury.
“What you’re seeing is not sharks doing natural
things. These are, in essence, circus animals,” Burgess
said. “They’ve been fed and they expect to be fed.
You’re getting in the ring with them.”
Dive operators are altering the ecology of their
dive sites by training the sharks to respond to boat
engines and to expect food. “It’s classic Pavlovian
stuff,” he told Jim Loney of Reuters News Service.
“You gun the engines and the sharks expect to be fed.”
Burgess said the inevitable accident provoked by the
dive tours will be spectacular tabloid television fodder
and will ruin the work of scientists who have fought to
tame the public image of the shark as a man-eating
predator since the movie “Jaws.”
“Almost certainly when it happens, it will be videotaped
and that tape will appear on a tabloid TV show,” he
said. “The shark will be blamed for the attack. The image
of the shark will be refortified.”
Of course, these feeds are big business for dive
operations, which means that operators who once took
divers out to view nature as it is now prefer to manipulate
the critters, including sharks, eels, rays, and reef fish,
staging a show so that we can watch them feed.
Any true friend of the wild animals knows that once
you feed the animals, you change them forever. Hikers
have learned better than to feed the bears in Yellowstone,
and it’s time we divers followed their example.
Of course, our professional shark feeders, especially
those in the Bahamas, don’t give a hoot about ecological
ethics. The orchestrated shark feedings will almost
certainly continue, but sooner or later it will be payback
time, not only on tabloid television but also in court,
when the shark baiters are sued by the deceased’s family.