Let me give you some background information here.
This all actually started with
Juerg and
Christine Ward-Paige.
Christine did publish
this excellent open source paper about the value of having recreational divers count elasmobranchs and in the lively discussion that ensued, Juerg proposed and Christine very graciously accepted to test the concept here in Fiji. Christine has currently another job but she will provide for the scientific oversight and analyze the data under the umbrella of
eShark, and this completely on her own time and with no incremental funding! Potential donors:
hint hint - funding this will make you shine for many years to come!Christine thank you!
Fiji is of course the ideal destination for this endeavor.
Thankfully and in spite of the recent
highly disturbing developments, we do still have a reasonable number of Sharks and Rays, and even Turtles.
Plus, the dive and tourism industry is tight knit and forward looking, as witnessed by the many past initiatives that were able to unite everybody around a common goal.
In 2008, we had the first tourism-based
Great Butterflyfish Count that was repeated in 2009 and then alas fizzled out for lack of funding.
In 2009, Fiji organized the only nation-wide initiative to
celebrate the Year of the Shark, the
Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project with various government departments, the tourism industry and several NGOs contributing to make this Fiji's first country-wide Shark campaign. 2009 also saw the only nation-wide drive to contribute to the
Shark Free Marinas Initiative where to this day, Fiji is one
of the principal participants.
In 2010 we took a breather to launch
our own initiative aimed at protecting vital habitat and Shark nurseries whilst cleaning up our carbon footprint,
Mangroves for Fiji, only to
announce mission accomplished late last year.
2011 then saw the rolling out of the
Fiji Shark Sanctuary Campaign where a plethora of largely unheralded events further contributed to Shark awareness all the way to the local grass-roots level.
Long story short: there sure is track record!
Enter the local project team.
She won't like me saying it but IMO,
Helen Sykes of
Marine Ecology Consulting is Fiji's most pugnacious, and thus most efficient and strictly (as opposed to agenda- and money-) goal oriented marine conservation professional for which she has all of my respect - and this despite her being dead-set against the feeding of any wildlife inclusive of Sharks, something that will regularly pitch us in super-heated debates where we pull no punches but always end up smiling as we both understand this to be an excellent means of furthering our knowledge! Anyway, it is great news that she has once again accepted to take the lead in this, like she did for the Butterflyfish Count of which this is the logical
crescendo - and let's face it, Sharks are
way sexier than Butterfly Fishes! :)
Same-same for
Stuart Gow of
Resort Support who has been our
friend and advisor for many, many years. Among many other things, he is the current Chairman of the Dive Commission of the Fiji Hotel & Tourism Association, i.e. the highest representative of Fiji's dive industry. He is also a Director of
Matava and in that incarnation, he has been instrumental in
making Fiji Shark Free. Stuart is acting as our web- and spin-master, and having him help us behind the scenes is a phenomenal asset indeed!
And then there is
Nani, Arthur and our new marine scientist Chris of BADs conservation brand SRMR that will be assisting in a thousand ways when it comes to keeping up the daily dialogue and coordination among the participants - and yes, yours truly will just sit back, continue hiding behind his computer and rant about others as always! :)
Please also check out our
partners.
These are the people who are contributing money, or money and lots of passionate work like
Samantha Whitcraft of
Shark Savers. Sam is the
indefatigable! driver of Shark Savers'
Sharks Count program and as such, she has been an invaluable team member who has contributed money, leadership and know how but above all, an inordinate amount of work.
Then there are the pillars of reliability and generosity when it comes to sponsoring Juerg's
research (blog
here!) in Fiji, the unequaled
Shark Foundation and
Save our Seas Foundation.
And finally, there is
Ocean Soaps, a division of Punjas who already greatly assisted in the Butterflyfish Count.
And I also want to mention the great
photographers and friends who have donated images!
Thank you all!
And how about you?If you so wish and decide to come to Fiji in April, you can partake in the first nation-wide Shark count anywhere! To do that, follow the instructions
here.
And before the usual geniuses start whispering that this is just about BAD making a buck: we have been counting Sharks since 2003 and thus your contribution would be most significant elsewhere! As the dive ops and resorts will start confirming their participation, the
list of participants will grow and I urge you to go and help them and not us, always by mentioning that you're coming for the Count!
You can then always
book a couple of Shark dives at the end as a treat and reward - and if you prove that you've taken part in the Count, we'll throw in a little something extra for you, how about that! :)
Now to be precise.
The aim is
not to find out how many Sharks there are in Fiji!
For that, one would have to try and mobilize everybody everywhere, something that is impossible and would be fraught with immense costs, immense logistical problems and a staggering margin of error!
The aim here is to do a first random sampling and to then regularly repeat the exercise in the same locations. This way, we would be able to establish a first baseline and the starting point of
long term monitoring via so-called
transects (i.e. your dives, snorkeling excursions and even game fishing trips) which is an
excellent scientific tool that will enable us to eventually
detect a trend.
And the practical application?
As an example, should the Shark Sanctuary eventuate, the trend would provide for a confirmation (or lack of) of its effectiveness and thus be a great educational tool for policymakers. And should the Sanctuary not eventuate, I fear that the trend will document the rapid decline of Shark stocks and the absolute necessity of immediate conservation measures.
But that is then and it will take several years to make those statements, especially considering the fact that the vagaries of the
ENSO will add a good amount of variation and unpredictability, like they have done to our own Shark data.
So, please, give it some thought.
I know it's sort of short notice: but it's cool and fun and above all, it's good solid and innovative science!
See you in April!
