Social Interactions of Sicklefin Lemon Sharks - Paper!

Click for detail!

Very nice!

Check this out.

It describes the behavior of Sicklefin Lemons at two provisioning sites in French Polynesia.

And assuming I understand the paper correctly, the observations coincide to a large degree with what we observe here with our Bulls, i.e. that these largely solitary animals develop a rudimentary etiquette when they aggregate at a provisioning site (and possibly equally at some communal feeding event like a Whale carcass) whereby a) dominance is not necessarily determined only by size and sex but rather, also by individual boldness; b) when there are many Sharks, some particularly dominant individuals react to the  increased competition by monopolizing the food source i.e. the bait cage and in our case, the suspended bin; c) as time goes by, "regular" Sharks appear to become more tolerant vis-a-vis other "regular" individuals of the same species whom they appear to recognize and d) the Sharks appear to tolerate conspecifics with equal ranking but tend to avoid more dominant individuals.

French synopsis here!

I really like it,  and the way they did collect the evidence.

We actually had a masters student do something similar a few years back with the Reefies - but it would be really cool if we were able to replicate this with our Bull Sharks that are our real focal species! The problem is the suspended vertical video camera as per the image at the top, as the rig would be unsightly for the tourists and above all, it would likely be eaten in no time - but I'm sure that we'll figure something out!

With that in mind, keep watching this space!

Enjoy the paper!

Feeding Sharks and Rays - Paper!

One of the many stupidities found here!

Johann alerts me to this new paper.

It comes to the conclusion that ecologically, provisioning can have effects at the individual, group and population level, and that those effects are generally neutral to negative.

Well what can I say - probably that's true!

It just so happens that every single one of the authors is a pal of mine - and because I know them, I also suspect that on top of the science that is probably pretty much irrefutable, the paper also has a political agenda, and that is, to obliquely address the mess that is Shark diving in French Polynesia, see the link at the top.

Now don't get me wrong here.

Shark diving in French Polynesia is nothing short of stellar.

But when it comes to the feeding dives, most local moniteurs appear to believe that they're god's gift to Shark diving, meaning that they are entirely impervious to accepting even the most common-sense advice (steel mesh gloves anybody?) - and as a consequence, bites are rife. So far, most of the accidents did involve the comparatively harmless reefies - but now that everybody and his dog is flocking to the new, completely unregulated and multi-user Tiger Shark dive just outside of Papeete, the risk profile has risen astronomically and once again, it's really only a matter of time til things will end up in tears. Same-same for the stupid idea of having snorkeling tourists hand feed the small reefies - seriously, WTF?

It's same old same old, so I'm really not gonna dwell, the more as having been there, the discourse is way too ego-driven and frankly leads to nowhere, meaning that the situation appears pretty much hopeless unless the regulator decides to finally regulate.

Hint hint! :)

But I'm digressing.

I can't really say that I love the paper because its conclusions are pretty much obvious, and because it does not really address the principal cause of most of the enumerated problems = bad procedures. As an example, the much-cited disaster at Stringray City is entirely the consequence of piss-poor management and regulations!

Anyway - worth reading!

My take-away: better procedures and more research into those possibly negative effects - pretty much done on the former (tho always learning and always adapting!), and very much working on the latter, so keep watching this space!

And one last thought if I may.

The problem is not Shark diving - not for the animals and not for the people.

Compared to the overfishing and the habitat degradation, the inconvenience caused by the industry is nothing. And yes there have been many, mostly accidental bites - but as far as I know, during literally innumerable provisioned Shark dives, there has been a grand total of ONE documented fatality. Compare that to the same time spent engaging in ordinary SCUBA and ask yourself the question, which is by far the safer activity? 

Just sayin'!

So, lets please keep things in perspective - and let's also never forget to always mention the industry's enormous contribution to both conservation and research that outweighs any of those possible minor deleterious effects by far!