GHH in Beqa Lagoon!

This is a biggie from Ovalau - source!

Behold!

Yes they are definitely here!
This one is from Project Abroad's BRUV research - and for the moment, the specific location will need to remain a secret lest some eager Shark killer be tempted to go catch himself a set of valuable fins. But it is excellent GHH habitat and we will certainly start looking a bit more closely as this is not the first time a GHH has been sighted there.

To be continued - keep watching this space!

Projects Abroad - Roughing it in Fiji!

Behold!

Life as a volunteer is, quite obviously, Hard Hard Hard!

So, what are you waiting for! :)
 

Fiji Bull Sharks - full Circle!

Kerstin - intrepid and extremely successful!

Finally!

We've detected two of our pregnant Bulls in one of our rivers!

Despite of our best efforts and more than a dozen years of research into the life history of Fiji's Bull Sharks, coming up with concrete evidence linking Shark Reef to one of the putative river nurseries has always eluded us as the tags would come off and the frequent floods would wash away the receiver arrays. But we've persevered, tinkered with the hardware, tagged a dozen pregnant Bulls in October and deployed new receivers in several rivers - and bingo, and this despite of the horrendous weather and floods a fortnight ago! With this having been little more than a small trial run, expect much, much more of the same next year!

And the river are teeming with babies!

This is obviously recruitment time, and Kerstin and her assistants from Projects Abroad and  the USP are reporting impressive numbers from all monitored rivers - the bad news being that absent any management let alone protection, the little Sharks are being obliterated by the local fishermen. 

This may well explain the disappointing numbers later in the year and is of course cause for grave concern, not least because it is also directly impacting on the long-term viability of Fiji's thriving Shark diving industry. But now that we have the evidence, we shall certainly go and speak to the powers that be - so fingers crossed!

To be continued no doubt.

Happy New Year everybody - may 2017 bring many more fantastic adventures!

Südsee: Paradies am Abgrund!

Check this out.

Faszination Erde by the ZDF is Germanic blue-chip nature programming, and Dirk Steffens is their Attenborough.

Very nice indeed.

Projects Abroad and Mangroves for Fiji 09:00ff, BAD 18:15ff.

Enjoy!

Look Who's planting Mangroves!

Source.

And if Ben can do it, so can you!

All you need to do is to get in contact with Projects Abroad or the Uprising Beach Resort, and they will show you how to offset the carbon footprint you've incurred when coming to Fiji.

But if you're diving with us, worry not - we're already doing it for you!

Vinaka Ratu Peni!

The Uprising Beach Resort joins Mangroves for Fiji!

Exemplary cooperation: Projects Abroad volunteers and staff of the Uprising Beach Resort.

Behold!

I must say that I'm very happy indeed.

Right from its inception, MFF was always meant to grow beyond merely being our vehicle for becoming completely carbon neutral - but we're not an NGO but just a Shark diving operator, and have frankly never had the manpower, time, or energy to go and do much outreach with other potential candidates.

So kudos to Projects Abroad's mangrove project.

Not only have they established a whole host of whopping mangrove nurseries and planted squillions of mangroves, but their continuous advocacy has finally convinced the Uprising under the leadership of James to do the right thing, ultimately very much also to the benefit of their reputation of being forward-thinking and eco-friendly. 

The mangroves will be grown at PA's headquarters in Pacific Harbour and planted by the volunteers in cooperation with the village of Navola.

At the same time, the Uprising will be establishing a small nursery in the resort, and educate their clients and invite them to partake in the project. To this effect, they have already installed fabulous signage, and also trained their own staff.

The signpost features individual carbon footprints incurred by the tourists when traveling to Fiji.

Way to go, very well done everybody!

Mangroves for Fiji - Social Media!

Love love love this logo - click for detail!

Finally!

Projects Abroad have been planting and nursing like crazy.

And it's about bloody time they told the public! The website has been updated accordingly, and here are the new Facebook page and blog - they are obviously still work in progress but expect many more news, videos and pictures (!) to start populating them soon!

And if all stars align, there will soon be major news.

Ever since we launched the project five years ago, MFF was meant to be open for everybody in Fiji wanting to offset their carbon footprint - but that requires a major marketing effort, and BAD is just to small, and also too busy to take on that task. Now we may have found a solution and if so, the depth and the outreach of that partnership will be simply spectacular.

So keep watching this space.

And do Like the FB page and above all, do come and do some planting yourself!

PS - Martin here. Badass huh - thanks buddy! :)
 

Fiji Shark Conservation Project 2014 - Video!

Nice!

This is what awaits you in Fiji when volunteering with Projects Abroad.

Travelogue here.

Enjoy!

¡Hasta Luego, Tot Ziens, Goodbye!

Standing, ltr: Miti, El Diego, Tumbee, Andy, Ana, Papa, Salesh, Ned, Jone and Silio - sitting: Rusi, Kira and Nani.

 

This is a sad day.

We just did bid farewell to the incomparable  El Diego, Kira and Andy.

Projects Abroad's Fiji Shark conservation Campaign is one year old, and they are moving on to new challenges and new adventures. We did one last Shark dive, tears were shed, speeches given, kava consumend, Isa Lei sung - and off they went.

Safe travels and godspeed.

You've become like family, and we will always be happy to see you again!

Stingrays in Beqa Lagoon!

This, I believe, is a pic of that Ray - uniformly grey, long tail & they are known to aggregate.

Watch.



This is one of Projects Abroad's BRUV drops.
Quick thinking by El Diego!
 
Species? :)
 

El Diego - Interview!

El Diego's favorite Shark, the Pelagic Thresher, with Cleaner Wrasse. Source.

Nice!

Meet El Diego!

Please don't tell him, or he may get even cockier than he already is - but I actually do agree with Jillian that he's a really nice guy with tons of passion, and a huge positive influence on the Shark research of Projects Abroad.

Enjoy!

El Diego - that's how you do it!

Finally!

Look at that picture!

Yes El Diego (aka the piscatorial pride of Colombia) is finally displaying some long overdue decorum - remember the boisterous showmanship that earned him a highly disapproving glare from Kira, and a scathing review by El Not Impressed D'oh?

All I can say is that it was about bloody time he cleaned up his act!

But on a more serious note.

That's a juvenile Hammerhead from the Rewa river where Diego has been invited to join a research trip to study Hammerhead shark populations in Fiji. Like announced last year, Juerg and Projects Abroad have now started to cautiously engage with local tertiary institutions. The Hammerhead study is a brand new project by the new Head of the School of Marine Studies at USP, Professor Ciro Rico, and it really looks like this is but a first step towards what will become a rather close cooperation - both academically but also in other matters that will be hopefully announced shortly. 

Ciro is planning to finally elevate the School to its true potential, for which he will need to quickly attain critical high-quality mass - meaning that he is eager to hear from talented graduate students!

So if yer diligent and hi-powered - here's you chance!

And... in your time off, you can come and experience the Best Shark Dive in the Word! :)

Now how good is that! 

To be continued!

CITES Implementation Day!

Today the CITES management of those 7 new species goes live!

This is truly a great milestone in Shark conservation.

Projects Abroad have been all over it, and celebrated this momentous occasion with a day of awareness, research and education.

Well done!

And the implementation in Fiji?

It's gonna happen - but in the Fijian way.

More in a subsequent post!

BRUVS' in Beqa Lagoon - cool!

Baby Silvertips are the cutest Sharks, ever - iconic pic by Mark!

El Diego has posted another one!

After the teenage Tiger on steroids, now this.

Last week did yield one big Tiger overhead, one small nosy one, one whopping Lemon, a beautiful Zebra and the cutest tiny Silvertip, ever! All of course part of Projects Abroad's stellar Fiji Shark program.

Enjoy!

Our Sharks on Facebook!

I can recognize 5, possibly 6 named individuals - can you name them?

Cool!

Projects Abroad have started to post pics of our Sharks.

The page will be shortly populated by many more pictures of the now 150+ identified Bulls, possibly along with the other species and hopefully with more explanations about their diagnostic features and names.

Anyway, it's a beginning.

Keep watching that page!

Feisty Tiger in Fiji!

Equally feisty: Andi, still tiny, 10 years ago - now she's 3m+!

Epic!

This is from three days ago.

El Diego decided to do someting different and instead of performing one of Project Abroad's usual standardized BRUV drops, he tied a whole Tuna carcass to a cinder block.

Talk about a teenage Tiger on steroids!

Enjoy!

Shark Conservation in Fiji - this Time with 50% more Shark!

Roughing it in paradise - source.

Indeed.
Life as a volunteer is hard!

Projects Abroad - Actions speak louder than Words!

Source.

This is yesterday's news bulletin.
Watch the two segments at 14:00 ff.

See what I mean?

You can continue wasting even more time and resources on more experts, more committees, more reports and more conferences - or you can go out into the field and actually DO something!

Bravo - I'm proud of 'ya!

Shark Conservation in Fiji!

Source.

Cute!

So this is what they do.
Enjoy!

El Diego!

 

¡Ay! Que guapo!

So this is he, the piscatorial pride of Colombia.

Standing, ecstatically - by popular demand!
Sorry no bikini clad "disenfranchised youth" quite yet - but we're working on it!