why not to feed sharks

[rhygin]

all my life i was tought that one does not feed a wild animal. i was told it makes animals dependant on humans and disrupts the existing ecological system. other than creating a dependency the animals also start to associate food with humans. as it is animals we are talking about this is driven purely by instinct which, by the looks of it, is a totally cause-and-effect driven thing. now, if you are not stupid or uber-greedy the logical assumption to make is that shark-chumming is breaking down the mutual barrier between sharks and humans. to expect instinct-driven animals to not cross this broken barrier is a blind assumption (possibly they are blinded by the look of crispy tourist $$$). the recent rise in shark-related activities can therefore be linked directly with chumming (which essentially also only started a few years ago.)...or am i making a blind assumption? we created this problem, its not the sharks. stop calling it a shark problem, the problem is chumming and other "shark-tourism". we dont feed the lions in kruger as they will probably bite our arms off, why are we feeding the sharks?

[Spydude]

Dude, we all know this logic, i have been preaching it for years.
But the reality is....
1) No one gives a @*%
2) Those that can change the system are all in the cage dive operators pockets
3) So are most of the academics
4) The government are a bunch of liers
5) The CIA flew planes into the world trade centrer aswell as rigging both building with explosives beforehand... oh wait wrong piece of truth.
7) Sharks - especially GW are a protected specieis and their numbers are growing

The only way to counter this is to carry on this preach to evry touist that wants to go cage diving.

[flem]

Cage diving rules, bitch.

[Spydude]

yeah we all know how much you love diving the strippers in the cages at the titty clubs flem

[CC]

cage divers.... hahahahaa

check this out..... GW smashes shark cage!!!! oke must have bricked himself!!!

http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=44361

[misfit]

Where was that? Did that thing rip the side off the cage?

[Spydude]

**** thats classic, chow the flipping cage divers....

[CC]

dunno... either aus or sa.... how's the ou in the boat giving the peace sign and laughing when the guy scrambles out of the water!!!

[Spydude]

[Spydude]

what on earth are you on about bru?

[JasonR]

This is such a sensitive topic and I once read a report in some conservation publication that put it all in to perspective for me. Have tried to track it down online but can't find it. (I read it in paper copy a couple of years ago.) I'll attempt to do it justice.

Basically a shark has multiple senses that it uses a combination of when hunting. They have the 5 senses we as humans do. See, smell, touch, taste and hear. They do however have an additional 6th sense that is fairly well documented but misunderstood, known as electro location. Basically every LIVING organism gives off some form of electric pulse in the water. The shark's sensor in its snout can pick up roughly half a billionth of a volt in the water. i.e. It can sense the weakest of pulse\smallest living creatures in the water. Thankfully the range of this sense is very small and varies from a couple of inches to a few meters. In the wild it typically uses this during feeding frenzies. Think of the sardine run. Sharks are able to plough through the schools of fish where their other senses will be overwhelmed and are yet able to avoid taking out one another. This sense is its primary sense during that time. Another example is if you think of the anti shark POD device that came about a couple of years ago. That specifically attempts to overstimulate this sense and in so doing chase off the shark from the immediate vicinity.

When you look at the chumming scenerio and the cage diving combo it raises some questionable concerns. The operators are using the sharks primary sense of smell to attract the shark. Everyone knows it can detect the smell of blood from kilometers away. So the sharks come to the site of the boat from the smell of the chum. At the site it will incorporate it's other senses to assess the scene where the only electric pulse being given off is that of the divers in the cages though. The chum is dead and therefore does not give off any of the electric pulses the shark could detect. It's for this reason the sharks approach the cage much to the shark operators delight. He's seeing dollar bills baby. It is also why something similar to the other posted link of the shark trying to get into the cage could occur.
This does however change the entire scope for accidental human interaction for any shark exposed to this practise from then on. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise how the dynamic has been changed. Probably the primary reason why various agencies involved in shark protection advocate the culling of sharks that have attacked humans. I guess we all know that it's wrong but until I understood this process I didn't understand why. Stay safe out there. Peace.

[JasonR]

Here's a video that explains it a little better. Naturally this sense varies in ability depending on which shark is involved.
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/fooled-by-nature-hammerhead-shark-hunting-methods.html

[JasonR]

Some additional info that explains it more for those of you who want to better understand the details.

The sense better explained:
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/205/7/703/i

Research into this sense:
http://www.theallineed.com/ecology/06021705.htm