Haitourismus und Wissenschaft!

Für undere deutschsprachigen Freunde!

Danke Tom!

Dieses ist mal wieder saubere Arbeit: interessant, informativ, schön bebildert und vor allem wissenschaflich korrekt! 

Viel Spass beim lesen!

 

15 Years of BAD Videos - Coming of Age!

And here we are!

Needless to say that we're mighty proud - and after much trial-and error, it also looks like we might be finally doing something right! :)

Anyway, notable more recent clips include:

Howard and Michele!



Fiji's first National Marine Park!

Happy, and very funny clients - and the FOOTAGE IS 100% REAL! :)

Philippe!



Jason!



Juerg and Kerstin!





16:55ff: Tashi Blue and My Fiji Shark!

Lemme tell'ya, it has been quite the adventure!

And although the job is by no means done, we're certainly getting there, baby step by baby step, with BIG NEWS looming in the not-too-distant future!

To be continued!

And THAT's a promise!

15 Years of BAD Videos - Getting There!

Happy days.

And the saga continues.

Among many, many short and long film productions:

Behold the Fiji Shark Sanctuary that wasn't.

And lest anyone forgets: thank you Julie Andersen and her disastrous Operation Requiem for sabotaging years of hard work!

 

Shark Free Marinas in Fiji!



My favorite trailer for David's Of Shark and Man, filmed in 2011.




Hello Projects Abroad!



Jero and Ana of Pelagic Life in Fiji!



Shark Reef video!



Goodbye my friend and hero, Ron Taylor.



RIP my friend and buddy, Rusi.



To be continued!

15 Years of BAD Videos - Growing up!

Our Viking BAD girl Lill dove with us for most of 2009 and provided us with a steady stream of great pictures - this is Chopper.

Welcome back! :)

So here are some videos from our middle years.

I had just come back from a rather traumatic multi-year hiatus in Tonga, things were challenging with first a coup d'état and then a constitutional crisis in Fiji, and a recession globally; and then to top it off our land lord went bust and we were temporarily shut down - and thank you Frank for personally saving our ass with a strategically placed phone call!

And yet we did progress in leaps and bounds, did really crank up the scientific work and also greatly refined our protocols.

And then there was the International Year of the Shark!

We coordinated the only nation-wide roll-out of this initiative and produced Fiji's first Shark PSA, to wit.

This is a nice little program we did with local Mai TV.









The following two productions are incidentally both by Basque visitors.





And finally, more goodies by Mai TV, this time about our early work in the river nurseries.





To be continued!

15 Years of BAD Videos - the Beginning!

Oh my - how time flies!

Behold a small selection of videos from the very early days.

These are from approx 2003-2007 when we did a lot of experimenting and frankly also crazy shit, to wit the selection of bloopers and close calls in the "Naughty File".

 

Featuring Rusi and "Papa" Manasa but also David and Mini!

And this is our very first, very cheesy marketing video! :)

And talking about crazy shit.

How about Rusi a) removing a hook from, and then at the end b) mouth-feeeding Scarface!

And here's the famous BBC clip from 2006!



To be continued! :)

Oslob - bloody Quagmire!

Source - click for detail!

The q being, am I gonna wade straight in?

You betcha I will! :)

But fear not - this is way too complex, inconclusive and also, way too agenda-driven for me to take a strong position and start unleashing.

Just this.

Alessandro Ponzo (che tutt'ora rima con stronzo) and his cohort of Shark huggers are still at it in trying to bring down the Whale Shark feeding industry in Oslob, e.g. here. My pal Mark Meekan and creepy Judi are pushing against it which is essentially a good thing. 

And there sure is a lot of controversy as per eg this thread.

Methinks that the truth lays somewhere in the middle.

Despite of their best efforts, the detractors have so far failed to come up with clear evidence that the Sharks are being harmed, period - and in that respect, invoking the precautionary principle and asking for the reversal of the burden of proof is just unacceptable, especially considering the consequences for the local community.

But that's obviously not the whole story.

The documented non-adherence to the protocols is a cause for concern and needs to be addressed - this especially considering that the financial success of Oslob is already spawning copycat procedures = feeding in other juvenile Whale Shark aggregations across the Coral Triangle. The massive demand for these interactions can easily lead to unchecked development and if so, it is certain to have deleterious consequences if not managed properly - so once again, people get your fucking act together!

And that's it.

Once again it's probably not the WHAT but the HOW - and whereas for now the what appears unproblematic, the how needs urgent attention!

In diesem Sinne.

Let's go Shark diving - responsibly!

Shark Diving in Fiji 2019!

Hunter and Predator - click for detail! 

Behold!

Very nice!

Tom calls it a little teaser, and we are obviously very much looking forward to what is to follow.

More info by Tom here and here.

Enjoy - and a big Vinaka Vakalevu!

Apex Predator Tourism - Paper!

Behold!

I say, not too bad = a big improvement over last time!

Yes it's once again one of those papers where the academic intelligentsia is meddling and wants to tell us what to do - but when put into context like they have done here, those recommendations do make much more sense. And it's obviously nice that they mention the SRMR, and they also do get extra points for mentioning Rick's SSD!

And the whole mumbo jumbo about the need for regulation?

When it comes to Shark diving, it remains highly irritating - but I'm really not gonna waste my time and try to reformulate what I've said here, so please go and read it there = far from being the rule, regulation all the way to bans (!) is only opportune at a very last resort, i.e. only once common sense, voluntary codes of conduct and self regulation have utterly failed!

And yes, Florida troglodytes, I'm totally looking at you!

Oh and.

Considering the current rampant biodiversity loss within all non-managed ecosystems, I personally find the reference to moral, ethical, and philosophical questions about the commodification of nature naive and highly disturbing - and I can certainly leave it at that!

The good news?

This fad appears to be petering out and from what I can discern, this is very likely one of the last papers on the subject - thankfully!

Anyway.

Judge for yourselves = enjoy the paper!

River of Eden!

Source.

Awesome!

Just found this now.

Story here - enjoy!

Are we killing them with Kindness?

No we are certainly NOT!

Check this out.
I would have never thought that I would have to say this about a paper co-authored by Juerg and Adam, ever - but I find it pretty much shite, and pretty useless to boot. Alas!

To me it smells like some student needed some grades and was told to compile some lists - and like many such meta-analyses, the result is everything and nothing, however very unfortunately with a subliminal anti-industry message at its core, as very much evidenced by the stupid title.
Mind you, methinks that had it not been for my friends, it would have been even worse; plus, there is nothing inherently inaccurate about its findings, and the recommendations are probably formally correct - but it still annoys the heck out of me.

But maybe it's just me.

Thing is, it fatally reminds me of the overwhelming hostility displayed by most researchers and NGOs when we embarked into the Fiji Shark Project 13 years ago.
There was no specific criticism - just a widespread aversion against messing with nature, something that has continued hounding us til today whereby some quarters continue to try and nitpick on what we do despite of the clear benefits the SRMR has brought to Fiji and its Sharks.
Yes of course any wildlife tourism will have an effect (dooh!), and of course those effects need to be analyzed and mitigated which is precisely what we've been doing and also blogging about (yup those would be 100+ posts, and counting!) for years - but to even hint that we may be the problem is just simply unconscionable.
 

Who is killing them are first and foremost the fishermen and hunters, and the people who destroy and pollute their habitat, and humankind that emits too much CO2 etc etc - and far from being complicit, marine ecotourism is one of the factors that is counteracting that unholy trend and slowing down the biodiversity loss by creating alternative income and employment opportunities, and by instilling a sense of awe and love in the public!

Or am I missing something here?

Which brings me straight over to this opus - press release here.

First and foremost, it's always nice to see one's work being publicly acknowledged along with the honorable mention of the GFSC; also, being one of the (recalcitrant) industry representatives who have been consulted, I'm partially responsible for the final product.

This has been in the making for a very long time indeed.

I did blog about it here and very much stand by what I said then, i.e.

Nice to have academia and the NGO intelligentsia look into our industry and hopefully give us some valuable unbiased pointers for improvement - but any such code will only succeed if there is considerable industry buy-in. And for that to happen, any such rules will not only have to reflect some eco wish list but also be flexible and above all, factually and economically practicable!

So how does this rate by those metrics?

I can say that it is much improved compared to its initial versions where there clearly was a don't mess with nature undertone as per the above, and where the overall gist was much more geared towards the need for regulation (re-read this!).
I can also say that I did submit it for review to GSD and got back a polite average score of 7 out of 10 - but I can also equally unequivocally state that nobody was highly impressed let alone enthused, and that most certainly none of us is now gonna run and follow the suggestions to e.g. (re)define his business core values or get certified by some tree-hugging agency, or the like.

And on a more personal note.
Despite of clear improvements, Tool 7 remains highly irritating because of its largely negative bias.  Precautionary approach my ass! And, we have actually chosen (!) to hand feed as provided that it is done responsibly, we find it highly selective and actually safer than the alternatives. And no, we're absolutely not gonna change our feeding times = opening hours on a daily basis - I mean, seriously!
 

And then I find other stupidities like e.g. that fucking flash photography ban which is apparently vital when snorkeling with Whale Sharks but not with equally surface-dwelling Mantas and Baskers, or when cage diving with GWS - let alone with the other Sharks at depth whose pupils will be comparatively more distended????!

But now it's me nitpicking.
Overall the guide is quite nice - and nicely presented which will make the donors happy! :)

Long story short?

A. Although this is well meaning and certainly not terrible, the Best Practice Guide is also not great.

With that in mind, I very much doubt that there will be the abovementioned substantial industry buy-in, the more as I don't see any mechanism for encouraging adherence e.g. via an own rating system or failing that, by using one's outreach to strongly endorse and promote Rick's SSD. Yes Project AWARE I'm looking at you!

The good ones among us don't need your help but very much conduct their own research as evidenced by the bylaws of GSD whereby research is a precondition for membership; and failing some form of gentle coercion (and again, I'm looking at you PADI!), the bad operators will simply refuse to cooperate as e.g. already evidenced by their obvious boycott of SSD.
All of which obviously begs the question, cui bono = and could those resources have been invested into something more useful?

B. We are not the problem.

Instead, even the worst ones among us are a part of the solution, see above! But yes we always need to learn, evolve and improve - and this ideally via self regulation. And if not, then regulation is certainly both opportune and necessary!

C. When it comes to the whole fucking never-ending controversy about provisioning.

People who feed and condition Sharks are called fishermen - not a few dive operators! And anyway, this is one of the safest underwater activities by far = with one single fatality during thousands upon thousands of baited dives, it is orders of magnitude safer than ordinary SCUBA!

Yes there are effects on the animals, the principal one being conditioning - but they are largely short-term, localized and sublethal, and in no way comparable to the threats Sharks face otherwise! But yes there too we need to minimize our impact - and guess what, most of us largely do!

D. And finally, to those researchers and NGOs.

We did not ask for this - and all this incessant nagging and lecturing by people who ultimately have no clue about, and zero investment into our industry is frankly becoming terminally irksome. There is now a whole cabal of incidentally mainly female researchers whose academic niche (and thus career and thus income) is predicated upon being considered ecotourism experts, or whatever, and who appear to be operating with questionable agendas and also appear to desperately want to meddle instead of waiting to be asked.

Anyway.

When it comes to the global Shark diving industry in general, there are now one excellent paper and one good one (both, incidentally, by experienced Shark divers!) and several that are not, see e.g. here and also here, with links.

And now there is this.

That's plenty enough, thank you very much.
And now, please, why don't you just fuck off - because we actually got work to do, salaries to pay and tourists to wow!
 

No hard feelings, love you all! :)

 

Tourism Sustainability!

Multi-awarded: Best Dive Shop 2006 + Tourism Sustainability 2012 and 2015! 

Remember this short remark?

Then it happened right on the verge of Winston and it was really not appropriate to dwell - but I really owe it  to the staff, and to our many friends and supporters who have chosen to undertake this long and often arduous journey with us, to say a word or two.

So there.

Yes we've done it - again!

We were short listed in December and then declared finalists shortly before the ceremony, so it did not come as a complete surprise; but we are certainly thankful, honored and humbled by this recognition. Together with our past awards, this quite possibly makes us one, if not the most locally awarded Fijian dive center, ever!

The award recognizes, and I cite

the efforts and contributions made by individuals and organisations who have successfully implemented environmentally sustainable initiatives, demonstrable by long-term commitment and performance. It also recognises the promotion, development and engagement with the Fijian people and operators understanding of Fiji’s Green Growth Framework.

Nani - strategically positioned! :)

Compared to last time, notable new achievements include

• First and foremost, the establishment of Fiji's first National Marine Park after more than ten years of advocacy.


• The development of Fiji's first biggest and most successful Shark-centric volontourism program together with our partners of Projects Abroad. And let me add: Beware of cheap imitations!


• The co-founding of Global Shark Diving, the world's first, only and obviously best alliance of responsible conservation-minded Shark diving operators.

Plus we've of course continued the ongoing sustainable tourism and conservation work inclusive of more research and more stellar research papers by Juerg, with new and exciting initiatives coming soon! In brief, the recipe for our success is that we DO things - as opposed to all the whinging and announcing of some quarters!

My only regret?

Having won automatically means that the Barefoot Collection who were vying for the same award have fallen short. These are really good people doing remarkable ecotourism and conservation work in the Yasawas, and we are proud to be cooperating on several projects with them. If you can, do pay them a visit - especially now after Winston where everybody here is thankful for every tourism dollar!

PS - Martin here. Thanks buddy! :)

World Class Liveaboard Adventures!

Great stuff - and the variety is simply spectacular!

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions are obviously a member of Global Shark Diving, your one stop shop for responsible, safe and long term sustainable Shark diving!

Enjoy!

Phantom Divers join Global Shark Diving!

Behold!

Needless to say that I'm elated.

Ever since I started blogging, about the then problems in Playa del Carmen, e.g. here, Chino and his group of passionate Shark divers at Phantom Divers have been advancing in leaps and bounds.

Thanks to the remarkable progress both in terms of conservation but also protocols, Playa is now  among the very best and most sustainable Shark diving destinations anywhere. This has taken an enormous effort both personally but also very much financially, and I must really commend them for their unwavering tenacity and passion.

So welcome aboard my dear friends - this is highly welcome and highly deserved!

GSD will of course continue expanding, albeit slowly.

We are really fully beholden to our mission and principles, meaning that potential candidates need to undergo a  rigorous vetting process where they must above all document a proven track record in every single one of our principles - and lemme tell you, with every candidacy requiring the consensus by all members, that is a tall order indeed!

But, we're already working on the next candidacy!

Onward and Upward!

HT: Eli, for having made the introductions. Thanks brother! :)

Guadalupe - the Regulations!

Click for detail!

My bad.

After so much ranting, I've totally missed them!

So here they are, in English and Spanish -  and they could not be clearer!

Do read them and pass them around!

I must really say that I like them.

Yes they are a tad stifling, possibly unnecessarily so - and no I'm definitely not alluding to the ban on going cageless and taking selfies etc which I very much applaud!

But this is after all a biosphere, meaning that the special circumspection is totally warranted. And after all the shenanigans by the shark molesting bimbettes all the way to the adrenaline junkies and their enablers, it is also not unsurprising that the pendulum has swung the other way. The really good news being that it will not at all affect business as instead of being suckered into the Great Slide (we miss you buddy!), the operators will instead be able to continue to offer an awesome, safe and long term sustainable experience with a likely minimal ecological impact, like it should be.

And the dreaded enforcement?

Looks like even there, progress has been remarkable. 

Two completely unrelated sources report that Ritter and his sharkitarians have been prevented from exiting the cage, incidentally much to the dismay of the poor googly eyed suckers that were coldly refused any refund, mind you by Ritter and Wirodive. 

Which begs the question, are they still fans?

And the other perpetrators?

Dunno - but by the same token, for the first time, I am really hopeful. 

And yes, mark this day in your diary! :)

So here's to that - and very well done indeed!

Jawline!

Great video!

This was shot aboard the luxurious Nautilus Belle Amie, the new flagship of Nautilus Explorer & Nautilus Belle Amie. The Nautilus Group are a member of Global Shark Diving, your one stop shop for responsible, safe and long term sustainable Shark diving.

Enjoy!

Rodney Fox Highlights!

Amazing Shark action - source.

Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions are a member of Global Shark Diving, your one stop shop for responsible, safe and long term sustainable Shark diving.

Enjoy!

Oslob - killing the Golden Goose?

Forbidden interaction - pulled directly from the website of an operator no less! This is just fucking stupid!

Oh FFS - have you seen this paper?

And I cite.

Compliance to the required minimum distance from the shark was investigated during the 1,082 complete focal follows. During 907 focal follows (84%) at least one snorkeler or boat-holder was observed being less than 2 m away from the whale shark, inconsistent with the code of conduct (Table 2). On average there were 1.9 snorkelers or boat-holders (S.D. = 2.6) and 0.2 scuba divers (S.D. = 0.9) within 2 m of the whale shark recorded every 5 min. The maximum number of snorkelers and boat-holders around a single shark was observed on 7 September 2013 when 19 people were recorded within 2 m of a whale shark and, respectively, on 10 December 2012 when 10 scuba divers were closer than 2 m from the shark.

Data on the number of guests within 10 m of sharks was missing from 62 focal follows in 2012, the remaining 1,020 focal follows showed that in 56.1% of the surveys the maximum number of snorkelers allowed per shark (i.e., 6) was exceeded. The maximum number of snorkelers and boat-holders within 10 m of a shark was 33. Records of the number of scuba divers within 10 m of a shark only started in July 2013. During these 406 focal follows, the maximum of 4 scuba divers was exceeded on 79 occasions (19.5%). Twenty-one scuba divers within 10 m of a shark was the highest number of divers recorded per shark.

From May 2012 to January 2013, researchers systematically counted the amount of active touches from guests and feeders on sharks. A total of 4,832 active touches were recorded over 545 focal follows. Feeders pushing away sharks with their feet or petting the sharks with their hands accounted for the majority of these active contacts (97.6%); while guests were observed touching sharks 117 times. During the 2013 and 2014 survey seasons, feeder touches were no longer systematically counted, because of the lack of reaction observed in the whale sharks. On 114 occasions guests were recorded to actively touch whale sharks during this same period...

The assessment of the compliance to the code of conduct revealed very low adherence to the regulations in place in Oslob.
Most worrying was the decreasing trend of compliance from 21.4% in 2012 to only 3.4% compliance in 2014 in terms of minimal distance to the whale shark. Our numbers are conservative because only people within 2 m of the shark were included in the count, whereas the code of conduct regulating the whale shark watching activities in Oslob dictates a minimum distance of 5 m from the side and tail of the sharks, which means that the real compliance might have been even lower. Free swimming, snorkelling guests tended to have lower compliance than guests holding on to the boat while watching the shark underwater. Snorkelers can control the distance to the shark by either actively approaching the animal or swimming away to keep the required distance; nevertheless 85% of snorkelers were too close to the shark in 2014.

Seriously, WTF?

I've been a staunch supporter of Oslob's highly controversial Whale Shark feeding encounters, but this only provided that there are good interaction protocols, and that the rules are being followed - and this is just highly disappointing, and pretty darn stupid to boot.
One may question the usefulness of certain prescriptions - but if so, they can be changed. Simply ignoring them is reinforcing the arguments of the many detractors and will undoubtedly precipitate some unwelcome reactions by the Authorities.

C'mon people!

And the other effects?

Yup, there's conditioning by positive reinforcement, leading to a higher tolerance towards people by the WS, more vertical feeding etc etc. This deviates from the behavior of non-fed, non-conditioned "wild" WS - but that's all one can say at the moment, meaning that the concerns by the researchers about possible associated risks to the WS' well-being are so far undocumented and thus merely speculative.

So far, not to worry.

But the non-compliance sucks big time.

I say, follow the bloody rules or you may spoil it for everybody.
 

This is not rocket science - so just fucking do it!

Whale Shark tourism in Ningaloo - Paper!

The strobe ban is baloney (and should be exchanged for a ban on self-promoting peroxide piranhas) - but other than that, this is excellent. Source - click for detail.
 

Wonderful!

Love love love the paper!

Great to see longterm monitoring much like we do here and has been done by Avi in Cocos! Also great to see that grouper challenge  winner Rob is being mentored by Shark tourism supremos Jessica and Mark. And finally, great to see yet another piece of evidence that when done correctly, Shark tourism does not harm either the animals or their environment!

This is obviously different, meaning that it is high time for the regulator to step in and step up - re-read this!

But I'm digressing.

Very well done!

Enjoy the paper!

Pelagic Life - the Call of the Shark!

This is as good as it gets.

I've been begging Jero to make it public - and here it is.

This is all I love about Pelagic Life, from the stellar images to the stellar interviews to the stellar animals to the great people to the emotional connection they are able to create.

Details here.

Excellent work - the video and the project!

Enjoy!

PS - want to join an expedition?
Details here!

South African Verdict - Reactions?

Source.

Watch.

And the extra precautions as per the title?

To me, this looks like business as usual - as it should be!

Cage diving is one of the safest, most sustainable Shark tourism practices, with next to zero ecological footprint - so there's absolutely no need to panic.

Well done!