Shark Feeding
One of the great attractions of Maldives for divers used to be the shark feeds, first made famous by a German photographer named Herwath Voightmann on Bandos Island Resort. The fashion caught on and soon five locations became popular. The house reef on Bandos, Lion's Head in the Vaadhoo Channel, Banana Split near Furana; Full Moon Beach Resort, Rasfaree near Nakatchafushi Resort and Fish Hole in Alifu Atoll. Voightmann dressed up as an underwater superman fed sharks mouth to mouth. A more notorious human "shark" who turned up in the archipelago was Richard Harley, a lawyer who staged a diving accident in the Bahamas after being convicted of taking over US$300,000 in bribes. Interpol at last caught up with him, yes, you guessed it, feeding sharks!
The knack is to feed large fish, so when the food is in the shark's mouth, there's no room for heads or hands. But tuna sends sharks into a feeding frenzy and it's preferable to use different fish. It is still possible to see a shark feed, but the event is becoming rarer for several reasons. Firstly, there is the danger. Secondly, there is the damage done to the sharks themselves, touching a shark can harm its protective body covering, making it prone to infection. Finally, feeding changes a shark's natural behavior, not only making it a lazy feeder but training it to associate divers with food. With the growing ecological awareness among divers in recent years, shark feeding is now discouraged. It is better to observe the underwater world in Maldives as it is, without human interference, particularly as it is one of the last underwater "Wilderness". In keeping with this spirit, the Maldivian government officially discourages the so called "Shark Circuses", and Herwath Voightmann has moved on.
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