New Caledonia - Shark Sanctuary!

 Mating Whitetips - now protected in New Caledonia! Source.

Great News!

New Caledonia has declared its EEZ a Shark Sanctuary.

This article explains that any fishing, possession, commercialization etc of Sharks and their parts is now forbidden within national waters - whilst fishing for Sharks in the lagoon where there is a small food fishery for Mako Sharks remains legal for as long as the concerned provinces do not prohibit it.

Kudos!

And Fiji?

Nada de nada de nada, still pondering, or whatever, a NPoA Sharks that will likely fail due to inadequate resources for its implementation. Having long missed the chance to be the first Shark Sanctuary in the SoPac, it has now missed the chance of being the forerunner in Melanesia.

And in the meantime, our valuable Sharks are being fished away.

Enough said.

Sharks in Nouméa!

Great stuff!

As I said, the Kiwi GWS are traveling right now.

Along with Fiji, Tonga and Oz, one of the destinations is New Caledonia where a particularly lucky diver was able to snap this great image in 2007 - here's another one!

Case in point, this recent encounter with a GWS in the very same (!) pass of Dumbéa right outside of Nouméa. From what I can discern, this is a popular surfing and kite surfing spot that is also being frequented by divers and by spearos. One of those had just shot a fish when he saw the dorsal fin and back-pedaled to his boat where a couple of friends managed to haul him aboard. The Shark stayed with the boat for 5-6 minutes and is believed to have been 4.50-4.80m long.
Update: the Shark has been identified, see comments section!

Enjoy!

New Caledonia also boasts a healthy population of other Sharks.

Friends tell me about having encountered Tigers and Bulls, along with several of the smaller Carcharhinids. I went rummaging and found this clip of a Tiger devouring a deer smack at the entrance of Nouméa harbor.

And here is an encounter with approx 40 Sharks feeding on something resembling some sort of a bait ball (?).

And yes you guessed it: the Baie de Saint Marie is in Nouméa as well! The story mentions Lemons and Greys - but to me, they frankly look much more like Sandbars which are certainly present there.

JSD - any opinion?

Anyway, enjoy!

Great Whites on Sea Mounts!

Click for detail!

A Great White on a coral reef?

Yes that would be a sea mount in New Caledonia!
The pic was taken in September, 2007 by one Luc Bourdil who if I understand it correctly (Note: I did not, see Luc's explanation in the comments section) was leading a group of divers. Everybody made it up safely, then three very much intrepid (and I would add, very much Gallic) plongeurs went back down to further admire the spectacle, very much proving that GWs are not at all what they are made out to be. And, that Gallic plongeurs are certainly very intrepid and possibly also quite stupid.
More pictures here.

I just got sent the pic by Clinton Duffy.
Clinton is the man who tagged Grim the Fiji tourist and he was also kind enough to send me these tracks of Grim's gallivanting about in Bligh Waters. The yellow ellipses denote the scope of possible position errors and no, he definitely did not traipse around on Vanua Levu like Dakuwaqa!


And there's more that Grim did not do.
It appears pretty clear that he did not visit Plantation Island after all, which must be a great relief to the tourism industry there. And having been given the chance to ask some questions, many of which undoubtedly stupid, Clinton informs me that in his opinion, the NZ GWs who migrate north in winter do not seem to be following the Humpback Whales like I assumed. There is of course temporal overlap but the spatial overlap seems to be, if at all, more or less entirely fortuitous.

In Clinton's words.

While whites definitely visit the same areas the humpbacks do the fit between the movements of these species is not particularly tight.
Some whites are definitely on the grounds at the same time the whales are but some arrive after the whales should have gone and stay on. So while I think there is some link there I don't think the whites are dependent on the humpbacks but I have no doubt they would check them out when they're in the neighbourhood.

I'm also pretty sure that whites from NZ visit Fiji every winter-early summer (July-January), I think its just an artefact of small sample size that only one of the sharks we've tagged so far has been tracked there.

Places you're most likely to encounter them would be on seamounts and in the entrances to deep passes. They've been seen by divers in both habitats in Tonga (2 yrs in a row on the same seamount - Happy Ha'apai Divers) and New Caledonia respectively.

Wow wow wow!
As far as I know, no diver has seen a GW in Fiji yet - or am I mistaken?
Anyway, just imagine if one would pop up on the Shark dive amid the gaggle of Bulls - would that be awesome, or what! :)

Vinaka Clinton - all very very interesting!
Much appreciated indeed!