Fish - that is...
As many of you are well aware, trends and fads change over time. And for those of us who have been diving for decades (a.k.a. DFD), we can all recall the times that industry (that would be the recreational diving industry) even used to, at times, promote fish feeding for sport divers.
The methods varied, from breaking up innocent urchins with a dive knife the size of a small sword, to operators carrying out large scale feeding at dive and snorkel sites. I once witnessed a boat operator (thankfully not here on Grand Turk) in a 40 foot dive boat dump a 20 lb. bag of oatmeal in the water as the divers were gearing up. I wisely waited for the school of Sergeant Majors (a.k.a. Salt Water Piranhas albeit without teeth) to get their fill on the first few divers before I entered the water. It was not a dive that I enjoyed, and when at long last the final diver finally clamoured back aboard, no one else really seemed to be too jazzed about it either...
However, there is always the other side of the fence. You would not have to search very far (or, if you have been DFD, then you have likely experienced at some point firsthand the feeding of marine life –widely marketed as “interactive scuba”- while diving at some point) to find examples of popular publications featuring large moray eels, big barracudas, and sharks (of course) prominently in cover stories from all the big gun publishers, who of course are the foremost authority on diving and who continue to keep on learning, so that they remain the publishers we can trust!!
But I digress...
Sure, the issue of fish feeding (like how much wood can a woodchuck chuck) will always be hotly debated by both sides. I, as a professional dive operator for 28 years (and still counting, thank you very much!), have certainly not only witnessed the trends and fads over the years, but have even participated in a few of them to varying degrees for brief durations due in PART to the encouragement of the industry to do so, and the fact that I NEEDED to stay in business to compete for a limited customer market.
It did not take long, however, for me to come to the conclusion that I was not happy with fish feeding...both on a personal and professional level. To me, feeding fish was not at ALL necessary to have an awesome dive experience while diving on Grand Turk...it was, and still is, awesome with OUT feeding the fish. Fish feeding alters the behaviour of the marine life and upsets the delicate ecosystem of the underwater world. Therefore, at Blue Water Divers some time ago, I decided to not engage in, or support, the feeding of marine life.
And then, as happens with fads, fish feeding started to become slightly less "cool". This may have had something to do with the fact that as more people fed fish, then naturally the increased number of people feeding, combined with people’s occasional...ah...shall I say, lack of common sense about the actual process of attempting to feed the fish, sometimes resulted in the diver (or snorkeler) taking fish feeding to a higher level...that would be when the food that given to the fish was just recently a part of your body!
This type of fish feeding, although potentially comical in a non-injurious situation, far too often results in the removed portion of the diver (or snorkeler) becoming the fish food. And yes, for those of you who may not have put this together yet, I am talking about the portion of diver (or snorkeler) that has in fact been removed by the fish that the diver (or snorkeler) is trying to feed.
When this occurs, it is then immediately followed by:
1) blood in the water (always dramatic)
2) loud screams of pain and anger (these are rarely from the fish)
3) angry boat staff (because...
Now they have to take the following steps:
a) use the radio (which means soon the whole island will know)
b) use the first aid kit (which all staff terribly dislike to have to go into) and
c) tell the boss (which may result in a wide variety of responses - seldom good!)
For these and many other sound and logical reasons (i.e. possibly operators in the States got tired of being sued), fish feeding has thankfully become "un-trendy" in the industry (yes...the recreational dive industry) and therefore we luckily no longer see support of marine life feeding with magazine cover shots of divemasters feeding tiny fish to 8 foot barracudas using their TEETH! (Yes, we DFD's can well remember this type of magazine promotion). Some places have outlawed fish feeding (the state of Florida was the first). In addition, more information is available today about the dangers to marine life that result from feeding fish. I wholeheartedly support this and am glad to see increased awareness around the issue. Yes folks, it's true, Cheez Wiz is not good for fish (and as an added bonus fact for this discussion only.... I can with confidence report that it is not good for people either)!
So once again I am personally and professionally happy to remind everyone that at Blue Water Divers we do not engage in, or support, fish feeding.
p.s. There is of course a single exception to my fish feeding description. The fish feeding that I do not have an issue with is when it is the fish that is feeding me, if it is something caught local and fresh, is not on a threatened list, and is seasoned nicely with some sweet peppers and onions....steamed and served with a generous helping of peas & rice!!
As many of you are well aware, trends and fads change over time. And for those of us who have been diving for decades (a.k.a. DFD), we can all recall the times that industry (that would be the recreational diving industry) even used to, at times, promote fish feeding for sport divers.
The methods varied, from breaking up innocent urchins with a dive knife the size of a small sword, to operators carrying out large scale feeding at dive and snorkel sites. I once witnessed a boat operator (thankfully not here on Grand Turk) in a 40 foot dive boat dump a 20 lb. bag of oatmeal in the water as the divers were gearing up. I wisely waited for the school of Sergeant Majors (a.k.a. Salt Water Piranhas albeit without teeth) to get their fill on the first few divers before I entered the water. It was not a dive that I enjoyed, and when at long last the final diver finally clamoured back aboard, no one else really seemed to be too jazzed about it either...
However, there is always the other side of the fence. You would not have to search very far (or, if you have been DFD, then you have likely experienced at some point firsthand the feeding of marine life –widely marketed as “interactive scuba”- while diving at some point) to find examples of popular publications featuring large moray eels, big barracudas, and sharks (of course) prominently in cover stories from all the big gun publishers, who of course are the foremost authority on diving and who continue to keep on learning, so that they remain the publishers we can trust!!
But I digress...
Sure, the issue of fish feeding (like how much wood can a woodchuck chuck) will always be hotly debated by both sides. I, as a professional dive operator for 28 years (and still counting, thank you very much!), have certainly not only witnessed the trends and fads over the years, but have even participated in a few of them to varying degrees for brief durations due in PART to the encouragement of the industry to do so, and the fact that I NEEDED to stay in business to compete for a limited customer market.
It did not take long, however, for me to come to the conclusion that I was not happy with fish feeding...both on a personal and professional level. To me, feeding fish was not at ALL necessary to have an awesome dive experience while diving on Grand Turk...it was, and still is, awesome with OUT feeding the fish. Fish feeding alters the behaviour of the marine life and upsets the delicate ecosystem of the underwater world. Therefore, at Blue Water Divers some time ago, I decided to not engage in, or support, the feeding of marine life.
And then, as happens with fads, fish feeding started to become slightly less "cool". This may have had something to do with the fact that as more people fed fish, then naturally the increased number of people feeding, combined with people’s occasional...ah...shall I say, lack of common sense about the actual process of attempting to feed the fish, sometimes resulted in the diver (or snorkeler) taking fish feeding to a higher level...that would be when the food that given to the fish was just recently a part of your body!
This type of fish feeding, although potentially comical in a non-injurious situation, far too often results in the removed portion of the diver (or snorkeler) becoming the fish food. And yes, for those of you who may not have put this together yet, I am talking about the portion of diver (or snorkeler) that has in fact been removed by the fish that the diver (or snorkeler) is trying to feed.
When this occurs, it is then immediately followed by:
1) blood in the water (always dramatic)
2) loud screams of pain and anger (these are rarely from the fish)
3) angry boat staff (because...
Now they have to take the following steps:
a) use the radio (which means soon the whole island will know)
b) use the first aid kit (which all staff terribly dislike to have to go into) and
c) tell the boss (which may result in a wide variety of responses - seldom good!)
For these and many other sound and logical reasons (i.e. possibly operators in the States got tired of being sued), fish feeding has thankfully become "un-trendy" in the industry (yes...the recreational dive industry) and therefore we luckily no longer see support of marine life feeding with magazine cover shots of divemasters feeding tiny fish to 8 foot barracudas using their TEETH! (Yes, we DFD's can well remember this type of magazine promotion). Some places have outlawed fish feeding (the state of Florida was the first). In addition, more information is available today about the dangers to marine life that result from feeding fish. I wholeheartedly support this and am glad to see increased awareness around the issue. Yes folks, it's true, Cheez Wiz is not good for fish (and as an added bonus fact for this discussion only.... I can with confidence report that it is not good for people either)!
So once again I am personally and professionally happy to remind everyone that at Blue Water Divers we do not engage in, or support, fish feeding.
p.s. There is of course a single exception to my fish feeding description. The fish feeding that I do not have an issue with is when it is the fish that is feeding me, if it is something caught local and fresh, is not on a threatened list, and is seasoned nicely with some sweet peppers and onions....steamed and served with a generous helping of peas & rice!!
