Shark and ray dive ecotourism (aka shark-diving) has dramatically increased over the last two decades, with over half a million participants annually in 85 countries. This practice is widely regarded as an indispensable conservation tool – particularly for vulnerable and endangered species – because it assigns non-fishing economic value to sharks and rays, while also educating tourists about these top predators. Though the shark-diving industry encompasses a broad range of regions, species, and regulations, nearly all operators use bait to attract species to dive sites, a practice known as provisioning. While effective at bringing people-averse sharks and rays closer to tourists, using bait has the potential to negatively impact animal behavior and health, including altered diets and foraging behavior, changes in habitat use, and provoking aggressive behavior towards divers. Despite the global extent and popularity of this industry, as well as its potential to negatively impact vulnerable species and ecosystems, there are currently no science-based recommendations to promote best practices that encourage conservation, animal welfare, and user experience. Our proposed project will address this critical conservation need by quantifying the potential negative effects of shark and ray provisioning, as well as experimentally validating ways in which shark-diving operators can minimize these impacts. Importantly, though the intent of our study is to minimize the impacts of provisioning, the results of our study will have broad implications for reducing negative human-shark interactions in the presence of bait, including spear fishing, which is prevalent throughout French Polynesia, including Tetiaroa. In pursuit of these goals, our primary objectives will be to answer the follow questions: 1) Does provisioning (repeatedly baited sites) result in learned, anticipatory behaviors for sharks? 2) Does provisioning impact sharks’ spatiotemporal distributions? 3) How long after provisioning stops do any learned behaviors dissipate? 4) Do sharks show increased aggression towards divers in the presence of bait? 5) Can any learned behaviors be minimized by alterations to provisioning protocols (e.g., using bait but not feeding, randomizing feeding locations, randomizing feeding times)? It is important to note that given the relatively short timeframe over which provisioning is planned to take place for this project, the project PIs do not anticipate any long-term ecological detriments to the animals or ecosystem being sampled.

Approved