Make it twenty-four - Fiji rocks!
The Copra Shed and Waitui Marina have become Shark Free Marinas!
This is a personal initiative of our marine scientist Arthur who was in Vanua Levu for a talk at a community outreach seminar organized by CORAL and Sea Web.
Those are Savusavu's principal marinas and with it being one of Fiji's principal ports of call on the SoPac milk run, the signage will undoubtedly contribute to spreading the concept among the yachting community.
Who knows, maybe one of them will even sign up a marina as he travels on towards Melanesia!
In view of the pathetic snubbing by the Shark orgs, the initiative sure needs all the help it can get!
Vinaka Art, you're the man!
The Copra Shed and Waitui Marina have become Shark Free Marinas!
This is a personal initiative of our marine scientist Arthur who was in Vanua Levu for a talk at a community outreach seminar organized by CORAL and Sea Web.
Those are Savusavu's principal marinas and with it being one of Fiji's principal ports of call on the SoPac milk run, the signage will undoubtedly contribute to spreading the concept among the yachting community.
Who knows, maybe one of them will even sign up a marina as he travels on towards Melanesia!
In view of the pathetic snubbing by the Shark orgs, the initiative sure needs all the help it can get!
Vinaka Art, you're the man!
3 comments:
Thanks Mike. As always your salty version of things made me laugh out loud this am.
Pathetic snubbing or on target initiative?
We're a conservation tool in a tool box for anyone to use. As any workshop owner will tell you always use the right tool for the job.
If others with their regional shark issues want to use a different tool it's up to them.
This initiative is divorced from ego and ownership emotion we're just happy to offer an initiative we know works, you have used it and proved it in Fiji.
This initiative does not need to be a 500 marina a day effort, in fact a slow drip is the strategy.
Proof of concept has helped larger conservation entities see how this works.
We'll get there, thanks again for the spectacular effort in your region.
Really shows you what can happen when people care about their region and their sharks and want to apply the tools they have to effect conservation change.
Thanks Patric - but as always, yer being too karmic minded.
You must really get off that hippie chai coffee!
I stick to "pathetic snubbing".
Just checked Google and "Shark Conservation" yields 3,450,000 results.
How many useless petitions? How many even more useless "friends" on useless Facebook pages?
How much brain power, passion, money spent on stuff that ultimately saves no Sharks?
This works and is totally gratis.
It however requires getting off one's couch and out of one's comfort zone - but apart from that, it's as easy as it gets and normally, a friendly conversation and a smile yield the desired result.
And the instant anybody signs up, Sharks are being saved.
Where you're right is that regional initiatives are the way to go & I applaud those who effected change in Palau, Florida, Hawaii, the Maldives, Honduras and yes, Fiji, or the heroic efforts of visionaries like PRETOMA in Costa Rica.
Gotta clean up your front yard before embarking in righteous public crusades in far away places.
I absolutely am in lock step with you there Mike. But you are assuming we're playing in that same field. We're not.
Petition folks are good folks, they care about sharks. They need an outlet, they need a community, they need to belong. For the most part a lot of personal gravitas is involved in all aspects of shark conservation.
We're a different animal.
This initiative is one of many we "have in the hopper", but conservation metrics take time and metrics based initiatives have to be vetted first.
This is why you do not see a lot of these efforts around.
Look, shark killing is not about to stop next week. I have spent enough time to understand this conservation space intimately.
With your help we have vetted the idea outside if the US. It works.
We have have also managed to get a titanic amount of media on this to launch it, that was good.
The next steps are in play. This will get done, one marina at a time and SFMI is proceeding forward.
The interm quietness is not an indication of it going away, just evaluation, strategy, and further development.
Mike you have always lead by doing, and this is another classic example of leadership in an industry and conservation climate that often rewards inanity with a self congratulatory zeal that is amusing - if the situation with sharks were not so dire.
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