Sharks congregate at dive tourism feeding site at Tiger Beach, Bahamas (VIDEO)
Caption
Baited shark dives are often conducted by dive tourism companies to attract the animals so that tourists may observe them. This approach has been known to cause mixed feelings among conservationists and shark experts, due to the possible long-term impacts on the predators, such as changes to their natural foraging behavior. This study found that tiger sharks aggregated at the dive sites, but social preferences between sharks were less prevalent as compared to areas outside of these dive sites. These results suggest that feeding sharks may disrupt their social organization, but only temporarily, as the study found that tiger sharks resumed their social groupings outside of the dive sites.
Credit
University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
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Neil Hammerschlag, Ph.D.
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