Feeding Fish while Snorkling

[beckers]

Have you ever feed the fish while snorkeling to draw in more fish? What is good to take? Also does it attract sharks? I read somewhere that someone attracted a shark while feeding fish? I am kinda leary of this now.

 

Thanks,

 

Beckers

[Birdnutty]

I haven't heard of anyone attracting sharks, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.... It seems to me that most of the places we snorkel are pretty well protected from the open ocean and sharks by reefs.

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have learned recently and feel obliged to pass on the information that feeding fish is dangerous to the fish and to the reefs, for a number of reasons. First, the fish fill up on the equivalent of junk food, and don't eat enough of the nutritious natural food they need to sustain themselves. I've also read that the ingredients in the bread and dog food, etc, that people feed them can actually harm their digestive sustems and kill the fish over time - they're not built to digest that kind of food. Also, by disrupting the food chain, the reefs don't get the kind of cleaning/etc that they need and so can be damaged that way.

Granted, all this won't happen just because YOU feed a few fish, but when thousands of peple do it regularly, we can unknowingly be doing irreparable harm to an already fragile eco-system. See http://www.st-thomas.com/week/underwater.html

Apparently, it is illegal to feed the fish on St John.

 

I was a fervent believer in fish feeding - nothing gave me a bigger thrill than being mobbed by hungry hordes of jacks and sargeant majors. Hearing that it could be harmful to them was an awful shock. Imagine if I were inadvertently killing off the very thing I had come to see!

I've always been an advocate for preserving what we have left of the ocean and its inhabitants - so now I've become a "fish advocate", so to speak, and am passing on information that I have learned (that others may not know) before we all do terrible damage.

In the future, I will look for bait stores or other sources of real, natural food for the fish and be able to enjoy the thrill of feeding them without harming them.

[CaribbeanCrazy]

Birdnutty,

Thanks for the very informative info...regarding feeding the fish. I have never fed the fish...because somehow I just didn't feel it was a good thing to do. Hopefully after reading your post...there will be others that will think twice before feeding them.

Thanks again :)

CaribbeanCrazy

[The Islander]

Great article discussing feeding fish in the wild at:

 

http://www.scubawomen.org/Article,Feedfish,EN.htm

 

--Islander

http://www.*****

[Birdnutty]

That's an excellent article. I wish there were a way to make this thread a "sticky" so it would remain prominent for all to see regularly.

What a shame it would be if we were to wipe out one of the main things that attracts us there.

[teegeezfun]

recent cruise, excursion operators fed the fish to attract them for snorklers. guess they haven't heard that it can be harmful...

[MyImagination]

recent cruise, excursion operators fed the fish to attract them for snorklers. guess they haven't heard that it can be harmful...

 

Sadly most of them know, but they are usually more concered with making $$$.

[Yobro]

Two years ago while scuba diving in a shallow area in the Caymans where tourist have feed the fish for many years I was bit by a Chub fish.

 

It took a nice chunk out of my pinkie because the little yellow strap from my underwater camera I was holding was mistaken for food.

 

This fish were everywhere and the fish totally bit me before I even knew he was there.

 

So don't feed the fish just to get a group of them together. You can see plenty by just swimming around. If our reef shouldn't associate humans with food. It's not healthy for the tourists!!! :eek:

[JoePhotographer]

Last October when we snorkeled at Coki Beach on St. Thomas, we were given dog biscuits to feed to the fish. While we didn't see any dogfish, we didn't have any problem attracting unwanted big fish. I did notice that I liked the "natural" photos better than the ones where the fish were getting handouts. On St Lucia, we snorkeled at the marine park, and had the best time just watching the thousands of fish coming at us in a school, and then parting as they went around us. It was awesome! We felt like a couple of those miniature divers in an aquarium.

So, I'm in agreement with the no feeding contingent.