Flirting with danger -- and death
Caged divers pay for private version of 'Jaws'
March 3, 1996
Web posted at: 8:30 a.m ESTFrom Correspondent Rusty Dornin
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- It's their own private viewing of "Jaws." Only this time, the sharks are no plastic dummies, and their hunger is graphically real. In Monterey Bay, caged divers pay hefty sums to be lowered into the ocean depths and watch great whites come circling by, smelling the blood and guts that are used to entice them in the first place.
The thrill sport is called "chumming," and some see it as a diving opportunity of a lifetime. For others, it is the flirting with danger -- and possibly death -- that is the biggest attraction of all.
But surfers in the area say anyone in waters near the divers could be victims of the sharks' hunger. A few see it as simply providing cheap thrills to an elite group of sport fishermen. They say allowing such a practice contradicts the purpose of the national marine sanctuary in Monterey Bay.
The federal government wants to put an end to it. It proposes to ban chumming within 3 miles of the shore in the national marine sanctuary of the bay.
Some environmentalists say the feeding frenzy created by chumming is unnatural, likening it to a situation where bears have begun to depend on local dumps for their next meal.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ed Euber says top-line predators habituate fairly quickly. "Then, they become a problem not only to themselves but to others," he says.
Shark dive operator John Capella says the excitement of seeing a great white is what he is selling, and that it poses no danger to others.
"If the public chooses to recreate out here, I am not increasing the risk of them running into any sharks out here."
Those who enjoy chumming say banning it would be unfair.
"It's a large amount of money for me to save up and for me to go out and do this dive trip, and I don't see any reasonable rational reason to deny me that," says one diver.
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