Don’t feed the sharks

Associated Press

KEY LARGO, Fla. – A Florida commission Thursday banned shark feeding expeditions, saying the practice by some scuba boat operators could be altering the animals’ natural behavior.

The seven-member Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stressed that there is no evidence connecting the feedings to the recent shark attacks in the state’s waters.

They said the ban, which takes effect Jan. 1, is solely aimed at assuring that the sharks do not become more dangerous.

Opponents of “interactive diving,” in which scuba-diving tourists watch dive leaders feed chunks of fish to sharks, say the practice teaches the animals to associate people with food.

Shark dives bring thousands of tourists and millions of dollars to the state.

Scuba boat operators and divers who oppose the ban argued that the practice does not a pose a danger to the public. They have sued to overturn the ban.

“There is no scientific evidence to support the ban,” said Erich Ritter, a scientist at the Shark Research Institute in Princeton, N.J.

John Stewart, a spokesman for the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, said if shark feedings posed a danger to the public, a diver would have been attacked on one of the tours. There have been no such attacks.

“Wouldn’t the shark go after the person who is 2 feet away?” Stewart said.

Since 1994, the number of Florida shark attacks has exceeded 20 in every year except 1996, according to the International Shark Attack File. The number peaked in 2000, when there were 38, including one death. There have been 36 so far this year.

The increase in attacks since 1994 is blamed in part on the enhanced ability to report the attacks, said the organization’s director, George Burgess.

In July a bull shark ripped the arm off 9-year-old Jessie Arbogast as he swam near Pensacola. Surgeons reattached his arm, but severe blood loss left the Mississippi boy brain-damaged.