Compiled by Outside Online

November 2, 2001 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has voted to ban the feeding of sharks and other marine animals by scuba divers.

In a Thursday vote, the Commission banned all marine life feeding by divers, as well as boat tours that ferry passengers "to observe fish feeding." The ban takes affect January 1.

Anti-feeding groups have argued that "interactive diving" expeditions, which escort tourists into waters where sharks, rays, eels, and barracudas are fed by dive leaders, teach sharks to associate humans with food, increasing the risk of attacks on humans.

Opponents of the ban maintain that the dives are safe and that there is no evidence to suggest they make attacks more likely.

Diving Equipment and Marketing Association spokesman John Stewart told the Associated Press that if shark feeding were dangerous, divers would have been attacked on one of the tours. No such attacks have been recorded.

"There is no scientific evidence to support the ban," Erich Ritter, a scientist at the Shark Research Institute, told the AP.

Scuba boat operators and divers opposed to the ban have filed a lawsuit to overturn it.

While the Florida commission stressed that no connection exists between shark feeding and recent shark attacks, it concluded that "any practice that modifies natural feeding habits of marine species is unacceptable."

So far, 36 shark attacks have been reported in Florida this year, according to the AP.