(C)Ritters they bite!...Geerten - AOW/unspecifiedDecember 5, 2004 at 03:27:42The general impression that I get here is that there is a broad concensus with everyone on the fact that the image of sharks should improve. How to get that done is a different
story. All say people should learn to understand shark behaviour, and some say that it can be done by showing people shark behaviour through shark feeding. The painful thing is that Erich Ritter tried to do that and didn't prove his point beyond any doubt. We're talking about unpredictable behaviour of potentially dangerous animals and no matter how many shows things go right, there is always the danger of things going wrong. Especially when, in an attempt to "do good"
(let's assume for sake of argument that it wasn't the showbiz element that made Ritter do all his stuff) he scares the world with his footage of another shark attack. "See! Sharks are extermely dangerous". Well done Erich! We don't need (self proclaimed?) shark scientists in the likes of Ritter to understand sharks. It was stupid and served no purpose whatsoever, not even if things would have gone right! Especially not because in that case he would have created a false sense of security
("See! Bullsharks are not dangerous! Let's go feed them ourselves!" Well done Erich!) I read a post by someone saying that we should be thankful to the people who experimented with flying in the early days, although back then people said they were stupid, because "thank god we can all fly today"...???? Where's the parallel in that? Are you saying that by improving the knowledge of safe shark feeding now, by people like Ritter, we can all go safe shark feeding in the
future? Shark feeding is about conditioning the sharks, period. No matter what lable people put on it (simulated carcasse feeding or show or whatever, as if sharks understand the difference). I recall a story of fishermen in Eyre peninsula (South Australia) who got their engines damaged because sharks kept biting the fishing boats. The sharks were conditioned "boats = fishwaste = food". Whether these boats were fishing, conducting scientific research or were providing cage
dives for divers makes no difference (In this case they cleaned the fish onboard and chucked the leftovers overboard). The best way to life in harmony with nature (including sharks) is to interfere with it as little as possible. This includes, but is not limited to "no feeding" of wild animals. I don't need to see an alligator feeding show to know they can be dangerous or that they are not dangerous most of the time. I simply stay away from them and leave them be. That is
what all people should do. That is what people like Ritter should tell other people: If you have no business being around dangerous animals, don't. If you really want to, fine, but you are in their territory so adapt to them instead of the other way around and don't disturb them in any way, including feeding. I've never heard of shark dying of hunger. I have only heard of sharks dying because they were being killed. For food, or sometimes simply because they came to close to humans....after
we "taught" them that. | 
