Page 12 - AlertDiver_Winter2013
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WINTER 2013
FROM THE SAFETY STOP
//
P U B L I S H E R ’ S N O T E
I
had a rather unusual photo opportunity recently while
in the Philippines. Off the village of Oslob, only about
three hours away from the international airport at Cebu,
the local fishermen had noticed whale sharks coming up
to their outrigger boats to feed on the same shrimp for which
they fished by kerosene lamps at night. Rather than perceiving
the whale sharks as competition for the catch, the fishermen
began feeding them the smaller shrimp, perhaps for good
luck. This has evolved into a rather bizarre encounter, where
the whale sharks line up each morning to be hand fed little
bits of shrimp — sometimes as many as six whale sharks at a
time. Tourists from local dive shops and liveaboards likewise
line up, taking photos of the interactions
The experience was very productive photographically,
but when I posted a photo on Facebook a concerned reader
suggested there might be another, darker, side to this. On
the one hand these are whale sharks that aren’t getting
killed for their fins because they now have value to the
local tourist economy, but on the other hand they may now
associate people and boats with free food. At least one has
been hit by a propeller, which may or may not have had
anything to do with the feeding. It was speculated further
that the sharks might be diverted from normal migration
patterns, which might even affect mating opportunities.
I don’t have the answers, but I do have doubts about
whether a whale shark would miss a good mating opportunity
for a handful of shrimp. Analysis of the
spot patterns of the sharks that visit
the site confirms these are different
individuals passing through, not a
resident group staying on location to be
hand-fed. My personal opinion tends to
favor a net benefit to the whale sharks;
their value as a tourist attraction reduces
their risk of being finned.
But the whole scenario points out
how any time we initiate change in
the behavior of marine life we can’t
predict the outcome. Eager to know
more about this particular scenario
I sent an email to Simon Thorrold, a
highly respected whale shark expert at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
He replied, “Unfortunately, I don’t think
that we know enough at this stage to say definitively that these
encounters do or do not represent any kind of threat to the
whale sharks. My personal opinion is that it is rarely a good
idea to habituate wild animals to humans by feeding them, but
in these instances does it make the sharks more prone to boat
strikes or less likely to continue on their migratory pathways?
We simply don’t know.” He further postulates: “A prudent and
precautionary approach would likely be to avoid these kinds of
activities if at all possible.” He also referred me to a manual on
best practices for whale shark ecotourism (see info box).
The whole issue of divers feeding fish — even big fish like
whale sharks — reminded me of a controversy that evolved
from feeding processed cheese spread to the groupers in the
Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. The dive media in the mid-
1980s ran big photos of fish eagerly gobbling the goop directly
from the containers until some ichthyologist suggested we
were constipating our groupers and we should cease and
desist. To this day I don’t know what a constipated grouper
looks like, but I accept that canned, processed cheese isn’t
likely good for a fish. I also fondly remember “Sweetlips,” a
Goliath grouper that mobbed divers on Grand Cayman’s Oro
Verde wreck seeking handouts. When she finally disappeared
forever, local dive lore attributed her demise to ingestion of a
Unintended
Consequences
b y S t e p h e n F r i n k
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For a video about the origin of the whale-shark encounter and
a balanced view of the ecological impact, check out
by Shawn Heinrichs.
For a manual on best practices in whale-shark ecotourism, visit
/
ECOCEAN-Best-Practice-Whale-Shark-Ecotourism-UNEP-
MANUAL.pdf
STEPHEN FRINK
