SRMR - first Management Meeting!

Epic boatload: Elisabeth; SRMR managers Ian, Bati and El Ciro; El Diego and Kira from Projects Abroad; and a whole gaggle of BAD boyz - click for detail!

Great day!

But first things first.

That lady in the bottom right hand corner is none other than Elisabeth Holland, a veritable Nobel Prize laureate! On our boat!
Who would have thought that possible when we embarked on this crazy journey eleven years ago! Needless to say that she is (obviously!) smart and incredibly passionate - but she's also refreshingly humble, very witty and just a genuinely nice person on top of that.

Really nice meeting her - and yes, we are incredibly honored!

And then we had our first management meeting.

Juerg is abroad but will be here next month - but with the freshly coined Director of Fisheries, Aisake "Bati" Batibasaga, El Ciro and Ian we did have a quorum and were able to formulate a first set of immediate initiatives, first of which will be a substantial increase both in the number of fish wardens and the number of patrols. 

We've just received our first baseline report (= detailed Coral cover assessment, and rough assessment of Fish and Invertebrate abundance) from Helen, and there are indications of recent small-scale fishing. In itself, this is not terribly worrisome - but it IS poaching and we need to nip it in the bud.

And after that, there will be other stuff.

No as usual I'm not telling as it's way too early to divulge any details, let alone make breathy announcements - but i can assure you that you will like it! :)

So, keep watching this space!

Michael!

Left-to-right: Mavoa, Michael, Api, Aceni, Tumbee at the top an Manoa at the bottom, El Diego, El Ciro and Rusi!

What can I say.

He was here.

For those of you in the know, this is nothing short of a miracle - who would have thought this possible just a couple of years ago!
But I've finally done what I always wanted to do and thrown him to the Sharks. As is usual during this time of the year, the dive was not for the faint of heart, see below - but I can report that he did not even flinch!

Yes the big females are all back - click for detail!

I must really say that Michael Domeier is one great guy.

And lucky, too - his wife Amy Grace is one helluva nice lady!

Anyway, I've had a fabulous time, and so did El Diego and El Ciro that joined us on the dive and later, for an extended round of discussions. Oh - and I'm now the proud owner of a jar of very rare and very premium Great White Honey - simply delicious, get one!

Great stuff!

Moce mada amigo - and come back soon!

WWF - Shark Reef Marine Reserve!

Yet another stellar pic by Allen!

Very nice.

Read this!

So the cat is out of the bag: the management committee for Fiji's first National Marine Park will comprise Aisake Batibasaga from the Department of Fisheries as representative of Government, with full ultimate decision authority; Ian Campbell, Manager of the Pacific Shark Programme, a joint initiative between WWF and TRAFFIC as the representative of civil society; Juerg Brunnschweiler and Ciro Rico as the representatives of academia; and finally yours truly as the representative of BAD which has been tasked with the day-to-day management of the park. 

We are all Shark divers, have all dived the SRMR multiple times and are all uniquely equipped to make the best decisions for safeguarding the long-term future of the SRMR but above all, that of its priceless Shark population - so the future looks bright indeed!

One last word about the management model.

This public/private partnership is truly ground-breaking, and I sure hope that the delegates at the upcoming IUCN World Parks Congress are going to take notice. As an example for its practical application, the governments of lesser developed countries could deputize the local staff of those countless beach resorts whereby they could monitor the resorts' foreshore and apprehend any poachers etc; or mutatis mutandis, the same powers could be bestowed upon those liveaboard vessels plying the remote waters of Raja Ampat or e.g Cocos, Malpelo and the Galapagos - and the list goes on and on and on! In brief, the private operators would be investing their resources into defending their most precious business assets whilst relieving those resource-strapped governments from part of their burden.

Talk about a big win-win for everybody involved, and especially for marine conservation!

So here's to this model being quickly adopted elsewhere.

Fingers crossed!

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!