Post by Dive Bunnie on Sept 20, 2009 6:27:06 GMT
Fish feeding is one of my gripes. It is illegal here in Sharm, yet we regularly see it happen on a daily basis. Especially on local dive sites on the fringing reef, where there is usually a hotel based on the nearby shore.
I know it makes the fish horde around you, and I know it is probably quite good fun, but they aren't designed to eat bread, they are designed to eat their allocated food found within the jigsaw puzzle that is their environment.
There are a few issues concerned with feeding wild fish...
Firstly it is not good for the individual fish.. we regularly see dead fish around the beach areas where snorklers swim out armed with bags of bread for the fish (sooo infuriating as these are sometimes given to them by the hotel staff, even though it is illegal). The fish don't know what is bad for them, they see food, it tastes ok, so they eat it... and eventually some of them die as a result. It is soooo sad to see a dead blue spotted ray, puffer fish, or stone fish. One of the more amazing creatures lifeless on the bottom.
It affects the balance of their environment; if they are not eating their usual prey, that then gets the chance to proliferate beyond its natural limits, algae will start to overgrow, other fish will overwhelm their competition etc.
It affects their natural behaviour; in Sharm we are lucky, as the fish are not scared of us, so we see them milling around, getting on with life as normal, quite natural really, which is great. However when we dive in an area where the fish have been fed, they will gather around you expectantly, all rather lovely when it is a bunch of butterfly fish, not so when it is a titan trigger fish (known to be territorial and in possession of a rather large set of teeth). And again it is just not their natural behaviour.
If only people would read the signs on the beach, and if only more beaches had these signs (in several languages). The more tourists we get in Sharm, the less divers, the more this happens I am sad to say. Sometimes it is pure ignorance, so not the snorkler's fault, although sometimes it is blatant and arrogant disregard for the rules. The latter are the ones that truly wind me up.
Sadly I have had many an argument and sadly I come off looking like the mad diver with a problem. Maybe I should learn exactly how to explain it in several languages... ahh eureka!
I know it makes the fish horde around you, and I know it is probably quite good fun, but they aren't designed to eat bread, they are designed to eat their allocated food found within the jigsaw puzzle that is their environment.
There are a few issues concerned with feeding wild fish...
Firstly it is not good for the individual fish.. we regularly see dead fish around the beach areas where snorklers swim out armed with bags of bread for the fish (sooo infuriating as these are sometimes given to them by the hotel staff, even though it is illegal). The fish don't know what is bad for them, they see food, it tastes ok, so they eat it... and eventually some of them die as a result. It is soooo sad to see a dead blue spotted ray, puffer fish, or stone fish. One of the more amazing creatures lifeless on the bottom.
It affects the balance of their environment; if they are not eating their usual prey, that then gets the chance to proliferate beyond its natural limits, algae will start to overgrow, other fish will overwhelm their competition etc.
It affects their natural behaviour; in Sharm we are lucky, as the fish are not scared of us, so we see them milling around, getting on with life as normal, quite natural really, which is great. However when we dive in an area where the fish have been fed, they will gather around you expectantly, all rather lovely when it is a bunch of butterfly fish, not so when it is a titan trigger fish (known to be territorial and in possession of a rather large set of teeth). And again it is just not their natural behaviour.
If only people would read the signs on the beach, and if only more beaches had these signs (in several languages). The more tourists we get in Sharm, the less divers, the more this happens I am sad to say. Sometimes it is pure ignorance, so not the snorkler's fault, although sometimes it is blatant and arrogant disregard for the rules. The latter are the ones that truly wind me up.
Sadly I have had many an argument and sadly I come off looking like the mad diver with a problem. Maybe I should learn exactly how to explain it in several languages... ahh eureka!