Some Grand Bahama commercial divers said that chumming to attract sharks for tourist viewing is leading to alarming behavioral changes in the aquatic animals.

During the past week, a 73-year-old woman from Marshall Town, Iowa, was admitted to Rand Memorial Hospital after suffering a severe shark bite to her lower calf while she stood on the stern ladder of a vessel sailing on the waters south of Taino Beach.

Prior to the attack, she was with a group of people who had finished a snorkeling tour near the popular shark diving site, Shark Junction.

Sunn Odyssey Divers owner and instructor Nicholas Rolle said the incident was not surprising as he has observed sharks becoming more aggressive over the last two years.

"These sharks are not acting in the comfortable state that they're used to," Rolle said.

"They're at the point where they're swimming straight at you. ... For someone like me, who's been diving for almost 50 years in this particular area, I'm a little uncomfortable."

He described the sharks' recent change in behavior as erratic, and believes it's due to chumming - throwing raw food in the water to attract fish.

In a previous Grand Bahama News report, certified diver Gregory Paton-Ash described witnessing someone chumming at Shark Junction in December while preparing for a dive.

Paton-Ash described the usual behavior of the sharks as "docile", but found them to be excitable and noted that they had increased in number.

Fred Riger, operator of Grand Bahama Scuba, said he recently witnessed chumming at the same site.

A diver for 41 years, he described the sharks' recent behavior as unusual, noting that their behavior typically can be predicted by their species, sex, and age.

Riger identified the species found at Shark Junction as Caribbean Reef sharks. He said the females typically are territorial and steal food from other predators while the juveniles wait for their chance to feed.

Despite their behavioral differences, he further noted that the sharks are calm during dives and controlled feedings as they often wait to be fed at the sea floor expressing little interest in the divers other than the food they bring.

When chumming is involved, Riger explained, the sharks race to the surface to compete over the food.

"The sharks, they follow other predators, then they follow humans, then they take food from humans. So, they're learning, and now they're learning that the boat is another thing to follow," he said.

Riger noted that the incident this past week could have a negative impact on tourism.

"The rumors and the hysteria may cause ill-advised regulation to be put into place which will ultimately hurt the business of The Bahamas," he said.

"Instead, we should ask, 'Why is it that there hasn't been an incident like this? Why is it that it just happened for the first time even though Shark Junction has been an attraction since 1988?' Shark Junction had 60,000 people a year going down there and watching the sharks get fed without a single incident in close to 30 years."

If the chumming issue is left unresolved, Riger noted that commercial diving operations would be forced to avoid the diving site therefore reducing the number and type of diving experiences that can be safely offered to tourists.

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