The Value of Shark Diving in the Bahamas - Paper!

Caribbean Reefies contribute 94% of total revenues - source.

Nice!

Read this paper!

Shark Diving in the Bahamas is worth $ 109m per annum.

That is great - but it could be a lot better. 

Turns out that owing to those foreign liveaboards, approx. 50% of potential domestic revenues are lost in Bimini, approx. 85% in Cat and a whopping 97% in Tiger Beach - and more money is being lost to those mooching film crews that barge in without the required shooting permits.

No wonder the BDA wants those foreign vessels gone.

Anyway, great paper.

Enjoy!

Rick about Shark Diving!

Awesome!

So here's the whole presentation.

I did miss it since early in the morning I'm at best sub-human and even scarier than usual (and yes Rick there will be hell to pay!) - but it is exactly as anticipated, highly informative, highly erudite and with the right focus on all the relevant aspects, so bravo bravo bravo!

And the picture at top?

Nothing to do with Sharks but everything to do with Rick - do check out his twitter feed and join the resistance!

But I'm digressing as always.

Enjoy!

Shark Feeding in Hawaii?

Cool - watch.

And here is the really nice piece by Nathan.

As very much intended, this has generated quite a debate behind the scenes - so for the benefit of the wailing whacknuts and Hawaiian anti-Shark lobby, let me state the following as unequivocally as possible: I'm on the record as being against Shark feeding for the sake of it - and I certainly do not at all advocate trying to establish near-shore Shark feeding tourism in the central, highly populated islands of Hawaii!

So there:

• First and foremost, any such operation would lack the required social license.
  Yes I totally consider the whole 'aumākua bullshit and its hypocritical high priests to be nothing but a scam, and that the haoles parroting that nonsense are either naive, or crazy, or clueless, or gutless, or all of the above - but the Hawaiian anti-Shark-feeding lobby with its hypocritical native con men is very much alive, and history shows that any attempt at setting up such a venture would be instantly suppressed by widespread public outcry all the way to outright violence.

• There are also important public safety considerations.
  Any regular near-shore baiting would undoubtedly end up attracting and aggregating Tiger Sharks, the one species most implicated in local Shark attacks - and given Hawaii's bathymetry, this would inevitably happen very close to shore and in close proximity to population and tourism centers and/or recreational hotspots like the surf breaks. With that in mind, any such attempt would be simply unconscionable.

• And finally, there may simply not be enough other coastal Sharks to justify setting up dedicated businesses.
  Yes the mentioned paper by Marc Nandon may, or may not have technical flaws that would likely be revealed in his upcoming follow-up paper; but I'm equally convinced that its gist is spot on, insofar as the collapse of Hawaii's coastal fish populations, see below, is undoubtedly severely depressing the population of Reef Sharks - see the comments section to that post.

So cool down folks.

We may very much differ on the details - but the end result is the same!

But that is all irrelevant anyway.

Shark feeding in Hawaiian state waters is, and will certainly remain illegal; and soon and very much courtesy of the clamoring Floridian troglodytes (and here) and little Marco, it will also become illegal in federal waters, as will operating boats that carry divers to Shark feeds.  

And places like the Bahamas, Mexico and yes, Fiji will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

That said, I however strongly advocate the establishment of coastal no-take MPAs! 

Central Hawaii's coastal fish populations are but a shadow of the past (and here!) and continue to get hammered by the natives and by the hypocritical new age whacks. But despite of the irrefutable evidence and the urgency of the situation, even the slightest attempt at setting aside some urgently needed fully protected areas continues to get thwarted by the usual native con artists and those corrupt bastards at WESPAC (and here!) - and the haoles and especially, local government simply lack the balls to show some leadership and finally put an end to the reverse racism and the never-ending appalling shenanigans (Makani Christensen right here!).

And THAT is what I told Nathan.

Anyway.

It is what it is - and with all that pervasive aloha-spirit-induced spinelessness, I got zero expectations that things will change anytime soon.

But hope, as they say, springs eternal.

Aloha everybody! :)

Shark Proof?

And talking of pied pipers.

My pal Jaap alerts me to this article.

I must say, I rather like it - the gist being that the Shark Shield is OK (albeit with caveats) whereas the rest is essentially crap.

Bingo.

And yes,

In reality, the best technology we have is probably first aid. Modern skills and medicine mean that the chances of shark attack survival are around 80%.

Absolutely!

Get a couple of these as having used quite a few, I can attest that they really work - and then, don't do anything stupid and enjoy the ocean!

Bull Shark vs Spearo!

Wow - watch.

A shame for the Shark.

But that's one helluvan aggressive animal and the reaction by the spear fisherman was definitely in self defense and meant to only fend away, the more as he did not fire the gun.

Story here, usual reactions here.

Yes they are running!

And this is why we love this dive so much.

Wildify?

I'm pissed off, so there.

And I cite,

What if conservation became easier than rallies, protests, radical groups and letter writing? What if the ability to save ecosystems, species and ultimately humanity was put into your hands and was as easy as the click of the mouse? What if the power returned to the people? What if we united and started a revolution to save the planet, and ultimately ourselves?

Right.

Regular readers may remember that stupidity from the 2012 recap where Julie Andersen's disastrous Operation Requiem and Rob Stewards moronic United Conservationists got the treatment they deserved. Thankfully, Andersen and the Shark Angels have since become utterly irrelevant, and I can certainly leave it at that; and with the whole moronic Revolution thingy having gone down the drain like anticipated, I was actually hoping that Rob would finally have the decency to just go away.

Alas, no such luck.

Turns out that the increasingly ghastly Justin Bieber of Sharkitarianism is still at it.

Don't get me wrong here.

Back then, Sea Shepherd's Sharkwater was different and did touch a nerve, and seeing the little privileged kid go and dive with Sharks and talk to actual Shark people was somewhat endearing. 

But far from being the genesis for the shark conservation movement, it was an early product of it. And rather than saving Sharks, the whole circus marked the beginning of the Dolphinization of Sharks and spawned a whole generation of self-promoting copycat Shark media whores and charlatans that have since become the bane of serious Shark conservation efforts worldwide.

And much like little once endearing Justin, little once endearing Rob has quite obviously since morphed into a little bizarre self-important  narcissistic megalomaniac.

To wit, this frankly shocking piece of smug garbage in the SOSF mag.

Wildify huh -  Pass the kouchie 'pon the lef' hand side!

But then again, totally not surprised.

Not by the smug brain farts, not by the fact that the new movie is once again gonna be a product of Sea Shepherd's slick  bullshit media machine, not by the resounding success of the funding drive despite of the usual conceited BS. After all, considering that 2016 marks the moment in time where Idiocracy became a reality, Rob's disjointed visions, or whatever, sound positively intellectual by comparison.

What however shocks me is the endorsement by the once stalwart, science-centric SOSF.

Or maybe not. Whereas the principal has always shunned any publicity and personality cult, the underlings and their sycophantic entourage increasingly do not - and shit like this is the inevitable consequence of that.

Oh well, whatever.

And yes, granted, maybe a tad harsh.

But it pisses me off. There are plenty of great people out there actually doing incredibly impressive stuff and achieving remarkable, hard-won progress - and having that little egocentric shit publicly belittle that collective effort is deeply offensive.

So get smart, people, and stop glorifying those pied pipers.

And should you really want to inform yourself about Conservation Ecology, stop listening to the self serving propaganda and e.g. start reading this excellent blog.

Minicene anybody?

Anyway.

Happy New Year! :)

Sharkbanz Test!

Repellent my ass!

And if that bite wasn't revealing enough.

Just saw this.

Doesn't come much clearer than that does it.

Shame on those con artists at Sharkbanz - and again, shame on Shark Defense that continues to promote the indefensible.
Pun intended!