Philippe!

It's a wrap.

We've just hosted a small shoot.

It's for an educational travel series called Awesome Planet that focuses on earth science topics, is geared towards the 13-19 year old audience, and is hosted by Philippe Cousteau. The show is in production for the 5th season  and averages around 700,000 viewers a week nationwide (with an additional 20,000 / month on Amazon Prime).

And now that I've met him, I must say that I really like the dude.

Highly knowledgeable and undoubtedly passionate, world renown and yet refreshingly humble and funny, he is the real deal, and it has been a true delight and also an honor working with him.

This is exactly what we like to facilitate.

Like the episodes of Einstein, this is something respectful and educational that doesn't want to exploit the Sharks and focuses on what we actually do as opposed to some contrived story line featuring the usual assortment of self-enamored media whores.

Which brings me straight to that shit with Ronda Rousey.

No it was certainly not us - along with many other reputable people ranging from potential hosts to researchers to shooters we decided to turn it down as we ultimately want nothing to do with all that gratuitous hype and mental midgetry that are this show in particular and Shark Week in general. 

But of course there will always be some desperate operator enabling that horrible exploitative crap; and of course one can always count on the usual pathetic assortment of self-promoting hypocrites like the king of Shark porn and the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of pseudo-conservation who will always be all-too-happy to come clowning around in front of the camera and molest some poor unsuspecting Shark. 

Case in point - yes that would be conservation messaging, or whatever, and I can certainly leave it at that!

But I'm digressing as usual.

What I really wanted to say is, merci beaucoup, ça a été un vrai plaisir - and a big shout out to Jason of Silver Shark Media for having organized and managed the shoot impeccably!

À la prochaine!
 

Südsee: Paradies am Abgrund!

Check this out.

Faszination Erde by the ZDF is Germanic blue-chip nature programming, and Dirk Steffens is their Attenborough.

Very nice indeed.

Projects Abroad and Mangroves for Fiji 09:00ff, BAD 18:15ff.

Enjoy!

Are Bull Sharks particularly aggressive?

Of course not!

In fact, rather the opposite!

Contrary to much more assertive species like e.g. Silvertips, Galapagos' and Grey Reefies that have no qualms approaching, and sometimes even harassing SCUBA divers, Bulls are much more wary and appear to actively avoid us, to the point that they will generally only approach people underwater when attracted by food. I call them shy bodybuilders - but bodybuilders they are, large and immensely strong, and they definitely demand to be always treated with great circumspection and respect!

And the numerous bites?

Like our newly minted sharxpert (my oh my! :) ) Lindsay explains, Bull Shark habitat coincides with the areas most frequented by people, meaning that the chances for encounters are comparatively larger - and then, everything goes, from mostly nothing to mistakes to agonism (= aggression) all the way to outright predation = not aggression! 

But yes - forget the legends about the exceptional aggression, the testosterone and the high territoriality that are nothing but unsupported BS!

Anyway, just saying!

I was away and have only now seen Lindsay's interview, and wanted to state that I very much agree. Nothing beats personal experience - and that she certainly got!

Attagirl - well said!

Eli - Monster Mako!

Source.

Love it!

This is good television, and good Shark media to boot.

Big kudos to Eli for a job well done - and for the cojones, too!

Although we rarely speak and although I don't really follow what he does, the tidbits I see and read document a remarkable evolution that I cannot but applaud. In brief, he really continues to grow on me - and I must alas also add that conversely, the abject jealousy and pathetic Wadenbeissergekläffe of his serial detractors is really becoming terminally insufferable!

No no names - you know who you are!

And the bloody flipping of the Tigers?

Like I said back then, it doesn't harm the Sharks; plus, now that it has been trivialized as everybody and his dog has started to copy it, betcha that it will be phased out sooner rather than later - the more since manhandling Sharks will lead to lousy scores on SustainableSharkDiving!

But I'm digressing as always.

Enjoy the video!

>

PS - talking of which, look at this - amazing!
 

Jimmy, Neil and Al Jazeera - great Shark Media!

Affectionate Sharks? Hmmmm...

And talking of bimbos and Sharks.

Watch this.

This is how you do it!

No drama and undue hype but instead, plenty of science and passion garnished with the right conservation messaging that is being delivered unobtrusively between the lines as opposed the usual tired old unappealing pathos. This is really excellent, highly entertaining and highly informative programming - love not loss, remember?

Kudos!

And bless Jimmy!

His love and passion for his Sharks is just infectious and really quite endearing.

Tho the Tigers and affection thingy, hmmm...

Tricky tricky. I've not been to TB and have never met those specific, highly conditioned individuals. And I totally respect Jimmy for arguably being the world's foremost authority on diving with them, and I also believe him when he states that there's something going on.
 

Still, from my own, granted much more limited experience, I do consider Tiger Sharks to be highly deceiving.
Yes they certainly appear mellow but the way I see it, they are actually always probing for opportunities and likely to pounce when not properly acknowledged and dominated = what I call a head on a swivel Shark that requires constant supervision and should never be underestimated!

Case in point.

To me, that is typical Tiger.

Yes the situation can usually be defused by reacting assertively, much like that dude did with the attacking Blue - but IMO this is never the less a highly dangerous Shark that should never be taken for granted! But who knows - maybe the TB sharks are somehow different? I say, possibly but not very likely. So, please, don't do that at home - and if you really must, then only with great circumspection and flanked with copious amounts of fishy bribes!

Anyway.

Love love love that feature and once again, big congratulations to everybody that has made it possible!

Imagine then, an Ocean without its Monsters; loveless and boring.

 And I cite.

After fishing out the big sharks from the east coast waters, either through fishing methods that involve a lot of bycatch like long lines and gillnets, or through targeted shark fisheries, the ecosystem changed.
In the absence of large predators, a sizeable population (for which we had no fishery) of adorable cow-nosed rays began foraging in the eelgrass for their preferred shellfish food. I don’t blame them. It would take very little to convince me to rummage face-first in the mud for fresh scallops. The mechanical disturbance of foraging rays to the eelgrass, uprooted those plants. The habitat for all of the invertebrates and fish that need it for shelter was lost. By that same token, the rookery habitat for the juvenile fish for which we had our own fisheries was lost; damaging the fisheries and our economy. Our fishery economy was further damaged by the loss of shellfish to ray predation. Without shellfish to filter the water, pollutants were retained and plankton bloomed, causing a depletion of oxygen and creating dead-zones and poor water quality.

Plankton bloomed?

I like this guy - for obvious reasons!

I've found his long 5-part treatise about Sharks, from trophic cascades to Shark strikes, by pure serendipity when searching for a picture of a PSAT tag. Please do take the time to read it in its entirety, from first to fifth post as it is really as good as it gets - highly entertaining, intriguing, exhaustive and remarkably erudite.

Fifth post here, with links to the preceding ones.

From what I understand, the author is likely Chris Reeves - this guy.

In any case - kudos, well done!

Celebrando México: Jorge Cervera!

Source.

Really nice! :)
That's how you do it - bravo Jorge!

Podcasts - thank you Helen!

Helen Scales: unabashedly monstrous - and yes that is a link!

Yeah I know I know...

Three days and STILL no rant - but fear not, evidence is being collated! :)

But not now.

Good stuff has happened in my absence, and it needs to be mentioned first. Case in point, two rather brilliant podcasts on the BBC by the equally charming, witty and erudite Helen about her experience on the Fiji Shark dive. You can listen to them here and here, and the sharky bits are around the 22 and 27 minute marks, respectively.

Very nice, thank you! :)

Enjoy!

Stefanie in the Wall Street Journal!

Source.

Good on Stef!
Great person, excellent messaging!

Enjoy!

Shark Free Marinas in Fiji - Video!

Jillian and Duncan - great people! Source.

Bless Jillian and Duncan!

They're some of my very fave people out there - and now even more so! :)

This is the result of their all-too-short short trip to Fiji and celebrates the fact that Fiji is STILL one of the standout countries for the SFMI.

Stellar report about the Fiji Shark Dive here!

Enjoy!

PS: Jillian the original! Shark Girl here!

Artists United for Sharks!

Just got this message from Timbo.

Not bad overall. 
And, Ol' Scarface gets her 15 secs of fame

Indeed! :)
Many thanks to everybody - and especially to you my friend!
Story here - and this is the OAS!

Carl Meyer - thank you!

Carl Meyer and Yannis Papastamatiou from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Source.

This is as good as it gets.

Another issue which has generated a lot of heat here in Hawaii and elsewhere is shark cage diving ecotourism. 

These activities have proven hugely controversial. 

We’ve done a fair bit of work on the one here on Oahu, including a meta analysis of logbook data and tracking long-term movements of sharks captured at the cage diving sites -

the takeaway message is that there’s absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever that the existing operations off Oahu are a threat to public safety, which has been people’s major concern.

Full interview here.

It's a great read that touches on many sometimes controversial topics and is garnished with many useful links - much too exhaustive and also, much to good to be synthesized in an abbreviated synopsis.

Once again - required reading!

Enjoy!

Ozzie Sam on TV!

Fastest Shark - pretty obvious why!

Check out the interview!

Great - and I can post one more of those pics!
In terms of pro-Shark media, it really doesn't get much better than this.
Kudos Sam, and thank you!

Enjoy!

Eco-Byte!

Whale Shark by Sasha.

That's one BIG Whale Shark! Darwin?
Enjoy!

Shark Harbour!

Remember this post?

This is now the finished product.
I must say, I am rather impressed by how they have managed to successfully negotiate the pitfalls of reporting about the controversial subject of Shark attacks by analyzing them from a principally scientific viewpoint. The researchers come across as totally knowledgeable and objective and also, respectful of the animals and emphatic with the victims.
I commend Michael Lynch and his team for a job well done - especially when juxtaposed to those horrible comparable productions by Discovery!
Kudos!

This is a full-length feature so relax, lean back and enjoy!

Tune in to Alisi!

For our Fijian readers!

Alisi Rabukawaqa our newly minted Miss South Pacific and Queen of Sharks will be interviewed on FBC Radio live tomorrow December 22 between 7 and 8 pm.

The interview will be shown on FBC TV at 10.30pm on Monday December 26nd and again at 11.00am on Tuesday December 27.

Please tune in and give her your support!

Fred Buyle - excellent Interview!

Unsuccessful - attempt to tag a Bull in La Réunion.

This is Frederic Buyle.



From the interview.

Il y a vraiment un paradoxe car on voudrait prendre des mesures mais on ne peut pas sécuriser un milieu comme celui là. Je pense que maintenant ce qu’il faut faire, c’est responsabiliser les usagers de la mer.

Ce que je pense, c’est que maintenant, on va à la mer comme on va au supermarché.
Les gens ne sont plus responsabilisés. Vous allez en Afrique du Sud ou en Australie, où il y a un vrai problème de requins, il y a des panneaux. Vous connaissez les dangers, ce qu’il faut faire pour les éviter. Après, c’est à vous de prendre le risque ou pas. Les gens s’éduquent. Dès lors que l’on informe les gens, ils vont d’eux-mêmes aller chercher d’autres informations.

Translation here - not great but you'll certainly get the gist.
Could not agree more!

The backdrop are obviously the recent Shark strikes in La Réunion.
Fred and several friends had mounted an expedition to go and tag some Sharks which failed miserably: in 17 days of searching, they did not find a single Shark with the exception of a few Bulls that were however incredibly timid; and once they managed to get closer by offering some bait, the Bull Sharks' skin proved to be simply too tough - and haven't we experienced that!

You can read Fred's report in this excellent blog post.
I was particularly interested in hearing about the proximity of fishing ports and beaches, and was once again particularly impressed by Fred's pragmatic advocacy of caution and common sense.

Kudos again!

PS further details by Fred himself in the comments section!

Alisi - Miss South Pacific!

Alisi has won the pageant!
That's a great achievement both for Fiji and for the cause of protecting the Sharks in the SoPac!

Alisi did also win the best pre-pageant interview, based on her platform of the preservation of sharks.

Congratulations!

Alisi - making Fiji proud!

Bravo Alisi!
Alisi Rabukawaqa is Fiji's reigning beauty queen and next week, she will contest the Miss South Pacific Pageant in Samoa.
Alsis's mother hails from Caukadrove where the islanders are related to the Shark God Dakuwaqa, and she has decided to honor her traditional covenant with the Sharks by championing Shark conservation at the pageant.

“Sharks have a critical role to play in keeping the marine ecosystem in balance.
As Pacific island people who rely heavily on our marine resources we must be in the forefront of protecting these resources and support initiatives that drive governmental policy changes to save sharks from extinction and at the same time protect the future health of our seas.”

Very well said, you are making Fiji proud!
Story here.

CNN and the Shark Free Marinas!

Cool!
Stories here, here and here!
Enjoy!