[Coral-List] impact of snorkelers feeding fish
Dean Jacobson
atolldino at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 7 22:05:12 EST 2009
Brian's observations interest me, and makes me wonder how widespread this "unnatural" fish behavior has become. I have witnessed fish feeding on Guam and Palau, but not on my home on Majuro, RMI (or other local atolls). In Guam, snorkeling near Piti craters and in Tumon Bay, I simply had to wiggle my fingers to get Damsels to nibble on them (a good assay, I think, for fish behavior modification from tourist feedings). Admittedly kind of fun, but troubling from an ecological perspective.
I would welcome reports from other reefs areas.
Cheers,
Dean Jacobson
College of the Marshall Islands
--- On Mon, 12/7/09, Brian Reckenbeil <breckenbeil at verizon.net> wrote:
> From: Brian Reckenbeil <breckenbeil at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] impact of snorkelers feeding fish
> To: "Robert Goldstein" <conservationmaven at gmail.com>, coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Date: Monday, December 7, 2009, 1:28 PM
> Rob,
>
> I know this is not direct research on your asked topic, but
> it is my
> experience of how it has interrupted my behavioral and
> observational
> research.
>
> While a student at CIEE Research Station Bonaire in the
> spring of 2008,
> http://www.cieebonaire.org/index.html , I
> conducted independent research on
> the Cleaning Activity of Juvenile French Angelfish.
> Juveniles of this
> species are known to clean other fish when they are
> young. I observed and
> collected data for 20 minute integrals, which totaled
> almost 10 hours of
> observations of useable data.
>
> I say USEABLE because on at least 3 separate occasions, the
> same local
> resident liked to snorkel with some sort of food in her
> hands. She would
> always see
> me laying nearly motionless in the shallow sandy bottom
> (6-12ft), with a
> clipboard, datasheet and obvious meter stick for
> measurements. I believe
> she kept wondering what I was doing, since scuba divers are
> typically seen
> swimming along the reef, and not laying still in one spot
> for a prolonged
> period of time.
>
> Every time she swam near, chaos ensued. Fish
> immediately stopped their
> typical behaviors, and formed like a ball around her.
> It reminded me of
> watching videos of a group of piranhas attacking
> prey. I distinctly
> remember a parrotfish, which was stopped at the cleaning
> station I was
> currently observing, quickly leave to go take part in the
> food frenzy around
> this lady. I saw other fish dart towards her from at
> least 40-50 feet away.
>
> It appeared that this lady who loved to feed the fish
> interrupted my studies
> almost 10% of the time. I had a little over 30
> sessions of data recordings,
> 3 of which were not used for this reason, 27 surveys I did
> use for my
> analysis. It was quite frustrating to have her swim
> by with food... I can
> not imagine how reef interactions could change if every
> single snorkeler and
> diver brought food out into the water and feed the
> fish. I certainly would
> not have been able to perform this research has this been
> the case, as
> Bonaire is a major tourism hotspot for reef exploration,
> and divers were
> frequently entering the waters nearby.
>
> For anyone interested further in this, there is a short
> segment (2 seconds
> at time 41sec) where fish are swimming around a girls hand,
> possibly
> thinking they will be fed? in my 60 second video
> application for the
> Australian "Best Job in the World" Island Reef Job Video
> Application.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjL-CWkBUt4 (I ranked as
> high as 8th out of
> 34,000 on most popular page on final day!!)
>
> SWIMcerely,
>
> Brian Reckenbeil
> www.linkedin.com/in/brianreckenbeil
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Goldstein" <conservationmaven at gmail.com>
> To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 3:59 PM
> Subject: [Coral-List] impact of snorkelers feeding fish
>
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm curious if anyone on this list has done (or is
> doing) any research on
> > the impact of snorkelers/divers feeding fish on coral
> reef ecosystems -
> > or
> > if you know who are leading researchers on the topic.
> I'm exploring
> > writing
> > an article on the topic.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Rob Goldstein
> >
> > Conservation Maven
> > www.conservationmaven.com
> >
> > 130 Irving Street
> > San Francisco, CA 94122
> > (415) 308-4669
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>
>
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