After two years of heated debate, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) at its September 6th meeting in Amelia Island, reversed its decision to allow proposed voluntary "guidelines" for shark feeding tours and, instead directed staff to draft a rule to prohibit the underwater feeding of sharks and other marine life in Florida waters.
"This is a great victory for all marine wildlife in Florida," said Paul Johnson of Reef Relief, who has headed up our campaign to prohibit this environmentally unsound and potentially dangerous activity. "But its not over yet."
"The Commissioners seemed to see the foolishness of the idea of 'Best Management Practices' for feeding sharks underwater and the inconsistency of allowing this activity to occur in the ocean, while their rules and policies prohibit the feeding of other potentially dangerous wildlife on land," said Paul Johnson. After hearing hours of public testimony, receiving thousands of letters, faxes and emails, seeing numerous video tapes of marine feeding dives, and statements from shark experts (both pro and con) the majority of Commissioners came to believe, as we do, that baited interactions do negatively change marine animals behavior. And, contrary to the dive industry's position, it is not necessary to feed animals in the wild to observe, better understand, learn and want to protect them. There was also a complete unwillingness by the dive operators and industry representatives present at the meeting to consider good "commonsense" suggestions by Commission staff on how, if allowed, marine interactions could better protect marine life and people. They wanted it their way, or the highway. And they got the highway.
During the meeting, Commissioners also commented on the number and nature of all the communications they had received from citizens, not just in Florida, but also throughout the US and world on this issue. Your timely emails and letters truly helped let them know what you think about feeding marine wildlife.
The FWC will be taking final action on this rule at their October 31 - November 1 meeting in Key Largo, Florida. Please write, email or fax a letter of thanks to the Commission on their recent decision to ban marine wildlife feeding and encourage them to pass the final rule at their next meeting in Key Largo.
| Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission | EMAIL: marine@gfc.state.fl.us |
| Divisions of Marine Fisheries | FAX: (850) 487-4847 |
| 620 S. Meridian Street | PHONE: (850) 487-0554 |
| Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600 |
For more information contact: Paul Johnson, at (850) 926-7439, paulj488@aol.com
Reef Relief, is a non-profit organization dedicated to Preserve and Protect Living Coral Reefs through Local, Regional and International Efforts. www.reefrelief.org P.O. Box 430, Key West, FL. 33041 tel (305) 294-3100 fax (305) 293-9515