A Different Kind Of Feeding Frenzy

You enter the warm, tropical waters above a spectacular coral reef, adjust your mask, and start swimming. In seconds, you are mobbed by schools of damselfish, chubs, wrasses, and other deadbeat fish hovering just centimeters from your fingers. You wave your hand to shoo them away, but some of these moochers are real bullies and charge--mouths open--straight for your hands. Some will even nip at exposed areas of skin on your legs or arms. If you've snorkeled or dived any of the popular coral reef destinations of the world, you're familiar with this scenario. You're witnessing some of the more visible impacts of fish feeding.

Trying to eliminate fish feeding is one of the more contentious topics when discussing sustainable marine tourism. It's contentious because the outcome is closely tied to the happiness of two major players: tourists and tourism businesses. How do you make tourists happy? Well, if they are on a dive or snorkel boat, you make certain that they see lots of fish and can leave with lots of great pictures. And how do tourism businesses ensure this? They make certain that every tourist who enters the water has some fish bait in their hands. And what also makes this a big win-win situation for operators is that tourists are happy to shell-out hard, cold cash to buy that fish food from them. Fish food sales can be a very attractive boost to their bottom line. Happy tourists are also inclined to be tipping tourists which, not surprisingly, results in happy tourism business employees. So, everyone ends up happy. Tourists are happy. Operators are really happy. Fish? Not so much.

While fish get the immediate gratification of a full stomach, it comes at a cost. Often the "foods" provided lack anything resembling their nutritional requirements. I once dove with a group who emptied no less than 2 full cans of Easy Cheese into the ravenous mouths of fish. I mean, this shit is barely food for humans. If you hear someone rationalize fish feeding by saying, Well the data is unclear on the negative effects of fish feeding, I suggest treating their motives as suspect. Chances are they have some materially invested reason for that neutral position (or they are just blatant shills for the fish feeding crowd.)

Feeding wildlife habituates the fed animals to expect handouts and become less interested in seeking out their normal food as grazers or predators. Haven't decades of experience with bears in national parks taught us anything? Further, surveys of divers and snorkelers have also demonstrated that visitors to reefs are increasingly seeking an authentic experience with nature, not a contrived experience mediated by the offering of food. Savvy tourists are using criteria such as whether or not an establishment feeds fish in order to choose which company to patronize.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, fish feeding also makes fish more aggressive and less cautious around humans. Again, I bring up the lessons learned from overly "friendly" bears as a result of handouts. Human feeding of bears in national parks (either intentional or accidental) has resulted in the death of too many bears who have become habituated to human presence and, as a result, have become a threat to safety. I'm honestly not that torn-up over pictures of the random bites (or missing fingers) that a tourist incurs as a result of fish feeding. It's karma balance in my mind. But what does trouble me is that aggressive, non-shy fish make for easy targets to spearfishers. Do we really need to make their job any easier?

But hope and ingenuity will perhaps prevail in Hawaii. Boss Frog’s Dive & Surf Shops and Frogman Charters became the latest Maui-based business to cease fish food sales as the Take a Bite out of Fish Feeding campaign is launched. A joint effort between conservation NGO's Project S.E.A.-Link and CORAL, and the state of Hawaii's Division of Aquatic Resources, the campaign objectives are to eliminate fish feeding, along with other actions such as handling marine life when engaged in snorkeling or diving. That's Liz Foote, Project S.E.A.-Link Director and CORAL's Hawaii Field Manager with Boss Frog's Retail General Manager/Buyer Michael Webb (left) and General Manager Chris Kasper (right), displaying the "Fish Friendly Establishment" decal at their Lahaina, Maui, location.

Our belief is that tourists and operators generally want to do the right thing. They just lack awareness on the issues. We think this campaign can be a starting point for that awareness building. Perhaps armed with information of the potential risks to fish, humans, and overall reef health, dive and snorkel businesses will be convinced that selling fish food is worth reconsidering in the long view. If not, perhaps their operation may lose some of their tourist appeal (and local credibility) when compared to more sustainable businesses in the same destination. Customers certainly have no dearth of otions in selecting a dive or snorkel business in tourism destinations. Let's see what happens.