We got BIG NEWS!
Read this - see it at the very end?
We've finally moved into our very own custom-built premises on our very own little slice of paradise right next door to our previous location - yup, that would be those buildings with the blue roof, with more appearing as Google Earth gets updated!
The new dive shop is everything we've ever wished for, and then some - this very much inclusive of Tashi Blue's Fiji Shark Lab, this in large part courtesy of dozens upon dozens of proud shark parents who have made an adoption via Tashi's My Fiji Shark project. So thank you thank you thank you - hope you're as pleased as we are! 😊
Incidentally, she's currently hosting the coolest of shark dudes
and doing some real cool shark stuff - but that's for her and not me to
report!
But how, I hear you ask.
Yes the bloody pandemic has been hard hard hard - and that's a colossal understatement.
Plus, I posted that piece back in February 2021, with another ten dreadful months of zero income, personal tragedy and existential angst to go.
But, we are resilient.
And more importantly, we do have a long proven track record of real and often pioneering conservation and research achievements and of global industry leadership, and have a reputation for getting things done on time and on budget - incidentally with zero per diems and zero time and money wasted on junkets, conferences and committees!
And so it came to pass that we got a call by the United Nations.
And after many interminable months of meticulous scrutiny and mountains of paperwork, we were ultimately selected as Fiji's first recipient of a blended finance package under the Global Fund for Coral Reefs!
Hardest thing I've ever done - and trust me, I've done a few. But do it we did.
Anyway, we've since been exceptionally busy.
Apart from the building project and trying to rebuild our business, our main focus has been to properly document and then try to counter and possibly even reverse the extraordinary damage to our fish populations from all the overfishing and poaching during the Covid emergency.
Ain't gonna be easy.
We've conducted several scientific surveys (thank you PADI for the co-sponsorship!) that have confirmed our worst fears insofar as it looks like our coast including the SRMR has been pretty much completely stripped of all prized fish. This has been compounded by the last government's tragic decision to reverse the fishing ban on our grouper aggregations, and by several large-scale coral bleaching events owing to an unprecedented triple-dip La Niña.
The sharks are largely OK - but our big groupers, jacks, snappers, sweetlips, emperors, parrots and surgeonfishes etc are all missing in action.
Solutions?
We've embarked on a series of community consultations paired with an aggressive series of day- and nighttime poaching patrols in cooperation with Fisheries and the Navy, and poaching has decreased substantially.
But this may merely be a reflection of the fact that there's nothing left to poach. Plus, this is unlikely to ever go completely away as some of the people who have become poachers when they lost their job during the pandemic are not going back and will continue to ply their infamous trade, the more since as stocks continue to decrease, the prices of fish continue to increase.
And finally, only time will tell whether the professed commitment to sustainability of our newly elected government is truly genuine - so fingers crossed.
PS: so far so good = excellent decision, and looking forward to helping enforce it!
But even in the best of cases, fixing this will take time.
We're assisting where we can, by running the patrols but also by e.g. establishing a nursery of selected heat-tolerant corals in order to restock the reef. And we will also reseed the reef with giant clams, mainly T. derasa and squamosa, and even a few gigas, all courtesy of the hatchery on Makogai.
But reestablishing our fish populations will be a huge challenge and require constant vigilance and above all, lots of patience as biological processes are slow - and having obliterated generations of pregnant groupers sure ain't helping.
Anyway, we're on it, and cautiously optimistic.
And finally, on a personal note.
If the pandemic has taught me a lesson, it was the value of going back to basics = a simple, harmonious, personally fulfilling life with a few really good people and a modicum of happiness. And obviously, great cheese!
And in that light, spending all my time and energy on public shark advocacy just doesn't cut it anymore. And don't get me going on those ever-increasing hordes of self-promoting pathetic shark people - that, too is not going away but getting worse by the day.
Long story short, I'm done with this.
I'm retiring! Again!
And lemme tell you: what a bloody relief!
It's now a full 20 years since I've come to Fiji to devote my life to shark research and conservation, and it's past time for me to pass on the baton.
And I could not ask for better successors: our team is the best we've ever had, and Andrew and Tashi Blue are young, energetic, enthused and phenomenally capable, and will continue to carry the torch, fight the good fight and continue to make us incredibly proud in the process.
So here's to freedom!
I still have ONE unfinished project which I will continue to personally curate lest I get too bored - but other than that, I am officially embarking on a strict regimen of personal shark dives and dolce far niente!
And obviously, great cheese!
To the many who have helped - Thank You.
To our detractors, all is forgiven - NOT! Drop dead!
Anyway.
Ciao ciao - see you in the water!
