Cristina - bellissimo, brava!

Source

Watch.



For the record, I totally approve and also admire it.
And no I'm not gonna elaborate, again - but should you be interested, you can discover why in several of these blog posts.

Enjoy!

If You were born a Shark!

And THIS is why we love you Cristina.

Queen awesome!

Source.

Read this.
Brava, complimenti!
 

Cristina - Shark Love?

Source.

Watch what happens at 1:45ff...

Amazing isn't it.

A pal writes,

The romantic in me says it's LURVE. 
The cynic says the shark is assuming that position to have ectoparasites removed - and simply following what it takes to be the ecto-parasite-removing creature when it retreats. I think this shows how we, as hug-loving mammals, are hard-wired to misinterpret what is presumably going on - and hence how easily the idiots (Ritter, Treadwell et al) can go off the transcendental deep end. 

Yes and no!

Clearly, those are conditioned Sharks that as a minimum have been habituated to humans insofar as they appear to have lost their natural fear of them. This is one of the known side-effects of provisioned Shark dives that when they are conducted responsibly, leads to less agonism = defensive aggression - the flip side being that the resulting familiarity can lead to the well-known problems with those infamous beggar Sharks, hence the need for good protocols.

So yes those Sharks may well want to get cleaned.

Jimmy did show me equally amazing footage of Lemons snuggling up to divers at the Tiger Beach cleaning station, and equally only being rewarded with a friendly rub. Both Jimmy and Cristina have removed squillions of hooks, and the Sharks may indeed regard, and thus seek them out as some sort of cleaner organism as a consequence.

But maybe it's something else?

Specially in the case of Cristina that induces a trance-like state (not tonic!) by stimulating the Sharks' snout, the Sharks may simply come in for the resulting, obviously pleasurable sensation. Does that equal LURVE and affection and the like? Methinks not, it may be more akin to us, ahem, visiting a brothel - but it is totally amazing nevertheless!

And now?

Does this mean that we should all swarm out and start giving Sharks affection, or whatever, by conditioning them to come in and get petted?

Certainly not!

Back then in 2008, Patric asked

Is it not enough to "witness" these animals in all their grace and elegance? Do we need to touch them and ride them as well? Do photographers really need to shoot inside a Tigers mouth? Do we need to throw pokey-sticks at them? Where does it end, where do we call the game and set the safety goal posts?

And for me, the answer is crystal clear.

Like I never cease to repeat, Shark dives need to be regarded as wildlife encounters and subsequently, conditioning needs to be kept at an absolute minimum = limited to attracting otherwise shy species, and ensuring the necessary degree of safety. All else is just simply unwarranted and often disrespectful showmanship that benefits only the human, with only more risks for the animal.

Cristina and Jimmy of course get a pass.
Mind you, this not because of what they do but because of who they are!

The other molesters, not so much - but once you've logged thousands of Shark dives, devoted your life to Shark conservation but above all, removed hundreds of hooks, you too will be entitled to some rather superfluous, and clearly not reciprocated Shark LURVE - petting, scratching, hugging and kissing included!

In diesem Sinne - happy Shark diving!

Shark Dancer!

This is just great.

But of course there has to be a but!

Cristina is not a Shark dancer - were it not for the scores of nobodies that have already self-appropriated the moniker, she is the only one fully deserving of being called a Shark whisperer!

But I'm of course digressing.

Amazing, inspiring and intriguing as always, and great cinematography by Juriaan.

Enjoy!

Cristina!

Read this - how can you not love the gal!
And this is that video!

Cristina and Caribbean Reefie!

Just saw this.

This is why I totally respect Cristina.

This is also why when it comes to those interactions, I do give her a pass: like I've said before, this appears to be completely voluntary insofar as the Sharks appear to actively seek her out  for a friendly rub, and this irrespective of any food rewards - and again, no, this is not the dreaded tonic immobility but something else that is totally amazing and intriguing!

By the same token, there are now so many copycats that the once unique and equally amazing posing with vertical Sharks has degraded to a rather gratuitous circus stunt, meaning that it would probably be best to gradually phase it out.

Anyway, this continues to amaze me.

Enjoy!

Cristina - great Outreach!

Source.

Brava!

Once again, this is as good as it gets.

Really nice to see her evolving from prominent dive instructor doing tricks with Sharks to respected international Shark conservation advocate.

And I find this.

In the water, Zenato does a combination of petting and stroking the sharks to place them in a state of physical and mental repose, which she said is wrongly termed as tonic immobility. 

“I call it the relaxed state,” she said. “The difference between what I do and real tonic immobility is that you can force tonic immobility onto every shark of every size, gender or species. It’s done in aquariums and in the open ocean by forcefully turning the shark upside down. 

“People say, ‘Oh, we’ve been doing tonic immobility for 30 years! You’re not doing something new,’” Zenato said, rolling her eyes. “Well, I am, actually. I use minimal touch and never force. I just give them a gentle rub, and if the shark doesn’t want to be rubbed, they’ll swim away. Not everyone can put a shark to sleep. It has to be the right person, the right shark, at the right time. The shark has to want it.” 

Indeed - re-read this!

Could those people out there who continue to publicly blather about the subject finally take note that this is NOT what has been shown to harm the Sharks, and that it is NOT harassment let alone animal cruelty. And like him or not, this also applies to what Eli does with the Tigers and Lemons in TB.

But I'm digressing as always.

Brava Cristina, job well done!

Tonic - bad for the Sharks?

Tonic on OWT - source.

Hmmmm.

Read this.

The author did contact me a while ago asking what I thought about the topic, at which I replied, c/p, Methinks yer wasting yer time there… those sharks can easily stomach a bit of stress… compare to when they get hooked and have to endure long fights … or better, compare to those 100m being killed every year and ask yerself, where should you invest your time… 

Well, she has obviously persevered.

I must say that I'm rather underwhelmed - by the persevering, by the quasi-verbatim parroting of Wikipedia, and by the I believe inaccurate and confusing content. Not a big deal really, and I was gonna ignore it - but now both David and Domeier have chosen to chime in, and it is obviously creating a bit of a kerfuffle which is actually orders of magnitude more irritating than the post itself!

So there.

But first, watch this.

This is the real tonic.

Sharks go into a catatonic state when flipped upside down, and this has been used by researchers as a comparatively non-invasive method to restrain Sharks when working on them, e.g. when inserting acoustic tags etc. Contrary to what Wikipedia claims, it appears to work with most Elasmobranchs as witnessed by the above but also countless other pictures and video of all kinds of Sharks of all kinds of sizes.

It is certainly stressful but likely not life threatening and considering the alternatives = chemical sedation or restraining with ropes or hauling out of the water, I find it an elegant way to profit from a natural phenomenon and can certainly live with the bit of discomfort it causes - as probably can the Sharks!

So what about this rant?

What I find appalling there is the disrespectful forced manhandling that serves no other purpose than to create a stupid macho show for stupid tourists. That may have been cool decades ago but times have changed - now it is only pathetic and we in the industry should be better than that.

Now, watch this.

Yes this is obviously Cristina.

Ethically, the big difference here is that there is no forcing: the Sharks are obviously eager to approach her, to the point that I hear that they will sometimes push away other Sharks from her knees in order to get the "treatment".

But this is not tonic immobility!

Contrary to the real tonic that is being linked to e.g. mating, I cannot imagine any "natural application" where a Shark's sensitive snout with the many nerve endings and ampullae may ever be stimulated in this way. 

I'm clearly speculating - but I believe that the rubbing may possibly lead to sensory overload, i.e. some sort of trance-like state and/or that the sensation may be highly pleasurable, both of which would explain the total relaxation and the fact that the Sharks are apparently coming back for more and even competing for Cristina's attention. 

In any case, this is not at all what has been investigated by those researchers, and the findings of the various papers about tonic cannot simply be applied willy nilly to these specific situations!

And those pics of Eli and the Tigers?

Watch.

Does that look like tonic to you?

Whilst I can see that Eli tries, so far unsuccessfully, to stimulate their snouts, the Sharks don't appear to enter a trance-like state but instead remain in constant movement and are never really relaxed, to the point that I would argue that I see signs of irritation and/or lack of orientation. Yes the Sharks do come back for more - but IMO they do so because that's where the bait is, not because they desire more manhandling.

What Eli does, is merely to use a trick to flip those Tigers on their back that can sometimes result in one to multiple rotations around their axis - and the posted pictures of inverted and/or vertical Tiger Sharks are completely misleading as they merely depict a totally transitory state.

All this is possibly slightly stressful - but it harming them? Most likely not!

Ethical considerations?

Yes contrary to the example from Cuba, the Sharks appear to approach voluntarily - but this is essentially a circus act showcasing a person manhandling big predatory Sharks. I must say that I'm on the fence on this one which is obviously highly subjective - but I anticipate that in a couple of years, we will look back on it like we now look back unfavorably on the ubiquitous Sharks wrangling of the eighties. And this may even apply to Cristina's show and before you start, yes, even to our hand feeding of Sharks!

When it comes to the latter.

We still believe that hand feeding is the best and safest way to showcase our Bulls - but as the number of Bulls has continued to increase, we have continued to adapt our protocols and are now hand feeding way less than before, this not for ethical reasons but principally in order to manage the risk to our feeders.

May we once be forced to phase it out completely? Who knows, possibly yes - but not quite yet!

But I'm digressing as always.

Tonic or no tonic, tricks or no tricks, feeding or not: there are now simply too many unprepared and reckless people interacting closely with Sharks in places like Tiger Beach and alas, Bimini. And like the idiotic riding, the trend appears to be ever increasing, to the point that quite recently, some imbeciles have even tried to secretly set sail to Guadalupe to go and flip a GWS for some moronic show on Shark Week. I hear that they got stopped by the authorities - but they or others may try again elsewhere, and I must say that I don't like any of these developments.

Shark feeding is easy, and inducing tonic and the likes possibly too - but to do it sustainably and safely over a long period of time is not a question of bravery or of mastering some simple skills but instead requires dedication, knowledge and quite a bit of serious risk management, something Eli appears to be increasingly aware of.

And I see very little of that.

Instead, I see too much yahoo bravado and adrenaline chasing, too much self promotion, too much profiteering, too much outright stupidity - and way too less knowledge, and respect, admiration and love of the animals.

Once again the question is, quo vadis.

And alas, I'm not terribly hopeful.

BBC - Interview with Cristina!

Great outreach.

The interview starts at 16:20.

That's how you do it - whilst reaching millions in the process!

Braverrima e auguri!

Brava Cristina!

Yes it is what you think!

Way to go!

Manipulating Sharks?

And talking of not messing with Nature.

Stellar post by Cristina!

When people accuse me of “teaching” sharks to attack divers, I remind them that sharks have learned to feed from human boats, fishing lines and spears from the first day our species entered the water to procure food for ourselves (hear hear!)
If sharks truly associated humans with food, in the Bahamas we would never be able to go snorkeling or free diving. Every single shark in our waters would have learned by now to approach and attack each person in the water. Yet spearfishermen — who often lose their catch to sharks — are the first to tell you that they can be swimming for hours, looking for prey without seeing a shark, and as soon as they spear a fish, a shark appears out of nowhere to steal it. 
Where was that animal all along? 

Doesn't get much better than that!

Of course, and I'm quite confident (!) Cristina will concur, it does not mean that Sharks are nothing but big puppies and that everybody should start feeding them! Rather to the contrary, her post explains that it needs to be done responsibly - and you can read on Cristina's post, and on this one she has penned earlier, what doing so entails.

Anyway, great job - bravissima come sempre!

Cristina about removing Hooks from Sharks!

A frequent sight - Bull with hooks contracted when stealing Fish from the artisanal fishermen. 
Pic by Lill - click for detail

Nice post by Cristina!

And here's how it looks when the master does it.

I've posted about it last year and the fact happened probably in 2009-2010.

The Tigers are Scarface and Adi.

Enjoy!

Cristina - troppo carino!

Posted with permission - click for detail.

Totally cute!

Now Cristina got it all.

A statue by Victor, a painting by Pascal, an apparel line by Neptunic - and now even a doll like the Boo Boo!

And (!) an honorary feeder's job with BAD! :)

Happy New Year everybody!

Cristina about cageless diving with GWS - terrific Stuff!

Shenanigans - but great pic by Daniel!

And I cite.

People who dive with Great White Sharks without a cage need to be solely responsible for their decisions and actions. You cannot trust somebody else to make a judgment call on whether or not to exit a cage or be around a shark. You need to be able to read every single twitch and movement of the shark, or sometimes sharks, and you need to trust your own judgment and be aware of your surroundings...

Then I would want to take time to just watch the sharks and listen to these people describing what the sharks are doing, why and what is affecting them: weather and behavior, visibility and behavior, presence of other sharks and behavior. I experienced this once in my life with a Great White handler and it was pretty amazing: it felt as if a Great White was talking to me. I spent three weeks on the boat and there was not one day that the handler did not correctly judge the coming behavior of the sharks.

Could not agree more - again!

It has taken me months of observation in order to develop the confidence to venture closer to our Bulls. And to this day, any change Rusi and I implement is being effected in minuscule increments, this for our sake but above all, in order to give the animals the time to adapt to the new circumstances.
Were I to decide to go diving outside of the cage with GWS, I would proceed along the exact same guidelines.

But JSD, see comments, is of course correct.
Doing so will always remain an experiment - and thus unsuitable for commercial Shark diving.
We do not allow our customers to interact directly with our Bulls and Tigers; and by the same token, I and incidentally, 99% of the GWS dive operators remain of the firm opinion that cageless diving with GWS is equally unsuitable in a commercial context. 

And is anybody going to heed Cristina's suggestions?
Hardly, as witnessed by the comments on her post - after all, with 20 years experience of how to safely interact with Sharks, what does she know?
Having perfect control over your hearthbeat?
Indeed (and here)!

And so the shenanigans will continue.
For 10,000 bucks a pop and totally regardless of one's motivation and qualifications, let alone diving skills!

And that, alas, is a promise!

Cristina about Shark Diving Procedures - awesome as always!

 Cristina and Blacktip Reef in the SRMR - stellar pic by Ozzie Sam - click for detail!

What can I say that I haven't already.

I'm a big fan of Cristina, and this both from a strictly personal but above all, from a professional standpoint where she continues to cement her position as one of the foremost industry voices in advocating conservation, common sense and long term sustainability.

Her latest post does not disappoint.

Once again, here is the definitive list of what constitutes good commercial Shark diving: no rocket science by any means but alas, apparently already too complicated for a few irresponsible operators, see last week's posts about the erosion of commercial Shark diving in Guadalaupe - and yes, I'll certainly leave it at that!

And what about

I have read blogs about the need to have personal freedom to interact with sharks however we like. While the concept is absolutely correct...?

Totally - but with one big caveat.

It is absolutely correct when it comes to private undertakings where everybody is welcome to find their own piece of the ocean and to experiment. After all, that's precisely how all commercial Shark diving operations were established by a few adventurous, brave and often crazy pioneers!

But not on commercial Shark dives - especially in the presence of bait and especially with those large potentially lethal predatory species!

But of course I'm repeating myself.

You can find our take on this subject in countless posts, e.g. here, here and here to name but a few more substantial ones, so no need to dwell.

So here's to Cristina and to somebody finally taking heed of her sage words.

And yes, and pigs...

Cristina and the Soup!

 Bella foto! :)

It really looks like Cristina can do no wrong.

Whenever I go snooping on one of her two Facebook pages, I'm continuously amazed at the seemingly unconditional love of her fans who will applaud whatever she does or says, and this apparently regardless of the content or context.

Good on her, she has certainly earned it.

So here's to Cristina and her fans.

But above all, here's to her fans taking the time to really understand, and then heed the lessons of her latest post on the website of Shark Savers. Indeed, unless properly educated, most people will never understand why Sharks are different from other Fish - and yes, in order to be accepted and thus lead to positive results, that education needs to come from people who understand and respect the specific circumstances and cultural framework they are operating in.
Well said as always, brava!

And you certainly don't have to look as far as Asia.

I'm quite sure that this article will ignite the usual firestorm, the more as the author appears to be fully aware of the conservation status of Tigers, which is Near Threatened.
But repugnant as killing and eating Tiger Sharks may be to me and hopefully most of the readers of this post, let's also be clear about the fact that with the exception of Florida, catching and killing Tiger Sharks in the USA is perfectly legal, likely because the authorities tasked with managing the fishery deem that it is sustainable. After all, Near Threatened means Not Threatened and from what I hear, Tigers are among those Sharks whose US populations are apparently very much recovering (but beware of shifting baselines!) after much better Shark management measures have been put into place.

But the conservation status is obviously not the whole story.
As Neil writes, the meat is full of urea and also, like the meat of many large predatory Fishes, it contains methylmercury, making it only partly suitable for human consumption - but that's not a conservation issue, that's a matter of public health and as such, it falls within the authority of the FDA that so far is however limiting its advisory to pregnant women and children only.

Long story short?
I love Sharks and would personally never, ever kill one - but once again, that's merely a personal stance that got nothing to do with conservation.
Like it or not, the fact is that in the real world, the vast majority of people do want to consume protein including seafood - even, at least in my experience, the vast majority of divers who will vehemently campaign for marine conservation but then order Fish and Lobster for dinner!
And as long as that's the case, I remain of the firm conviction that sustainable wildlife extraction has to be part of the mix - and this very much including the sustainable fishing for Sharks!
This at least in theory: when it comes to the practice, it remains highly questionable whether achieving true sustainability is even possible - certification or no certification!

Talking of which - whatever happened to this stupidity?
And does anybody know whether the vociferous Ms Reed has ever come true on her proud announcement that she would be saving sharks in the USVI? No Fin no Sharks no Future, or whatever - right?
Just asking! :)

But I'm clearly digressing as usual.
Enjoy Cristina's post!

Cristina - another great one!

Pic: Unexso

Please read this latest post by Cristina.

Great stuff, by a person who really loves but above all, understands and respects the animals she works with. And... she's a Shark Angel! Just goes to show that not everyone there is a narcissistic bimbette! And here's a another brand new interview!
Brava!

And I did a bit of rummaging around.
Did you notice her description of the students, those who get it and those who then go home to boast? A great example of the former is Marina Gottlieb Sarles who wrote this beautiful piece after having just watched Cristina do her magic - really, really nice, and kudos for that.

And the others?
I'm still searching - but fear not, I've already found a couple of rather epic pagliacci!
Keep watching this space! :)

Cristina: non c'è due senza tre!

Cristina doing her thing in the SRMR - stellar pic by Ozzie Sam. Click for detail!

La Zenato has done it again!

Check out her brilliant newest blog post.
Like her previous posts here and here, it ultimately amounts to nothing more than common sense.

Indeed,
In this context, a simplistic approach that calls for stopping fishing all together is not going to work, is not realistic, and is set up for failure.
At some point the need to sustain food sources for a community clashes with the need for ‘ecological sustainability.’

And thus, this is the lesson I learned in Fiji:
Viable protection needs to come from within the place where sharks are located, it needs to be understood and promoted by the local people, and it needs to be presented in a spirit of cooperation and understanding. My personal opinion is that we need to support education and engage in an open conversation with all parties involved, including ourselves, the visitors.

Could not agree more - with one caveat.
With human development having run roughshod over marine resources, there are now too many people wanting to eat too little fish - and if that is true, both sides of that conflicting dichotomy need to be addressed.

There is only one solution, and that is, to achieve real sustainability.
And if so, it means that we must find ways to allow for those depleted fish stocks to recover; but at the same time, we must finally have the courage to speak out about the ultimate cause of the current problem, i.e. human population growth and the growth of the individual ecological footprints.

That is of course an eminently political challenge.
The clash Cristina mentions is real, especially in those developing countries where eating fish is a necessity and not merely a luxury - and I doubt that any amount of education alone will ever be sufficient to achieve the necessary consensus.

Long story short?
What I'm trying to say is that democracy is great - but when times are tough, democratic processes do not always lead to the best solutions.
Right now, what we need is leadership, and consensus will hopefully come at a later stage when the benefits of those bold measures will become apparent to everybody.
Thankfully for Fiji, it appears that we have just that.

Enjoy Cristina's post.

Hjelp Havets Haier in Fiji!

Serendipity!
Remember HHH, the Norwegian Shark conservation org?

Here are three of its rådgivers in front of our dive shop!
And would you believe it: Cristina, Juerg and Lill have never met, and this encounter was totally fortuitous - small world!

So here's to new friendships and brilliant sharky projects!