Great Fiji Shark Count - still going strong!

Yes it's that time of the year again!

Wow, how time flies.

It feels like yesterday when we started, and now it's already our third November session. Thanks to the continued support of the Shark Foundation and of PADI AWARE, all materials have been distributed to the participants, and gaggles of eager divers have already started to swarm over the reefs and are busy counting Sharks, Ray and Turtles.

Have fun everybody!

 

Great Fiji Shark Count - last Day!

Nice article in the Fiji Times!

I had to laugh out loud when I read the descriptions of this month's Great Fiji Shark Count by Helen and our Nani: encouraging and interesting signify that alas, much of this month has been affected by the floods and then, the really horrible weather and that as a consequence, many operators in the Coral Coast, the Mamanucas and the Yasawas have only been able to properly unleash in the past week or so. But having said that, feedback from the other islands has been stellar and of course Pacific Harbour will contribute a plethora of sightings.

Among them, this totally unexpected find.
We saw it from the boat off Frigate's Passage right under the surface, and due to its spectacular coloration, the ID is pretty much unequivocal, the more as I've seen heaps of them in Cocos.
Check it out, here from the Azores - what a beautiful animal!


But I'm digressing as always.
The next week is devoted to obtaining all the sighting reports from the participants and then Helen and a gaggle of volunteers will embark on the tedious task of analyzing and formatting everything before passing it on to Christine. Expect a first informal analysis at the Dive Fiesta and a proper review in a few months.

Once again, thank you so much to the partners and sponsors.
The latter are are, in no particular order, the Shark Foundation, Ocean Soaps, Shark Savers, Save our Seas Foundation and yes, also the Shark Reef Marine Reserve which is the conservation brand of BAD.
And a huge thank you to Helen, Christine and Stuart - and to Nani, too!

So here's to the GFSC 1.2 in November.
Le roi est mort - vive le roi!

The Great Fiji Shark Count - Info!

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!

On Fiji One!

The clip is about to be aired on Fiji One.

As promised, here are the Dates and Times.
This is Fiji - so make sure you switch on the television a little bit earlier!

• Sat 22 6pm - News
• Sun 23 6pm - News
• Mon 24 6pm - News
• Tue 25 8pm - Talk Business
• Wed 26 9pm - News Headlines
• Thu 27 8pm - Have your Say
• Fri 28 9pm - News Headlines
• Sat 29 6pm - News
• Sun 30 6pm - News
• Mon 31 6pm - News

And whilst yer waiting (with bated breath, no doubt!), here's the English version, once again a World Premiere.

Sneak Preview!

Yes we do this, too!

The following is a world premiere.

As you know, Fiji has made it's own local contribution to the International Year of the Shark, the Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project.
The supporters are the who's who of Fiji diving and conservation and we try to continuously add new content by rolling out new initiatives, like Stuart's impressive list of Fiji-based Shark Free Marinas.

Our latest project is Fiji's first ever pro-Shark clip which is due to be aired on Fiji TV and MaiTV starting next week (yes I will post the exact days and times!).
We've tried to give it a distinct local twist by keeping part of the narration in Fijian. Rusiate is of course our famous and unsurpassed Rusi who hails from nearby Beqa Island, the very home of Dakuwaqa himself!
We hope you like it - we certainly do!

Our thanks go to the Shark Foundation and to PADI Project AWARE who generously provided the funds for the shoot and the airing. Imraz of Niuwavemedia did an excellent job of directing, shooting and editing - in record time and strictly within a massively discounted budget. Thank you guys!

OK here it is - enjoy!

Fare well, Reef Warden

Insiders know that we're all about Shark Conservation.

In fact, the Dive Shop is merely an extension of Fiji's first Marine Park dedicated to the protection of Sharks, Shark Reef Marine Reserve.
The Fiji Shark Project hinges on the concept that successful and above all, enduring Conservation requires that the Stakeholders be fairly compensated for any resulting loss of income. Beqa Adventure Divers is the vehicle by which we can generate the required cash flow to do just that.

When pondering about the best way to go ahead, it became instantly clear that one of the main challenges we would face was going to be, to successfully enforce the fishing ban.
We thus decided to sponsor the training of a dozen local Fish Wardens by the Fiji Ministry of Fisheries, two of which, Papa and Tevita, we employ. In fact, having established the Fiji Shark Corridor, we're about to process another batch in order to reflect the joining in of Deuba Village.
Fish Wardens are like Game Keepers: they are empowered by Government to police, enforce, search, impound and arrest and can avail themselves of the help by the Disciplined Forces like the Police and the Navy.

To round things up, the Swiss-based Shark Foundation generously sponsored the purchase of a special-purpose fast skiff which we named "Reef Warden" and have since maintained and used for patrolling the Reserve. The regular patrols and a couple of "incidents" ranging from stern warnings all the way to temporary arrests and the confiscation of illegal catches have sent the message that Big Brother is watching and we're reasonably confident that poaching, if any, is minimal.

In fact, after 5 years, the fishermen love us to death, as the Reserve has become saturated with big Fish and the resulting spillover has lead to substantially increased fishing yields on the neighboring unprotected reefs. It thus really looks like we've managed to create a win-win situation for everybody involved and that the local community has learned to respect and appreciate what we do.

With that in mind, Reef Warden was definitely becoming under-utilised, a bad thing for a boat that is best kept in constant motion. Also, our newly commissioned second hydrofoil catamaran MV Hunter has proven to be a superior patrolling craft in terms of comfort, eco-friendliness, running cost and speed. Having consulted the Foundation, it was resolved to sell Reef Warden and to re-invest the proceeds into other Foundation projects in Fiji, likely a new set of experiments by our indefatigable Juerg. Reef Warden has now left us for what we hope will be a new, exciting career skimming the azure waters of Beqa Lagoon.

We will miss the pretty, elegant lady.
Moce Mada, Reef Warden, and may Dakuwaqa always protect you!

The value of Sharks

There's a lot of NGOs out there and generally speaking, I'm pretty weary about them.

All too often, the global picture is that of a deplorable fragmentation of efforts, vitriolic infighting, too much bureaucracy, widespread ideological bias and finally, squandering of resources and lack of tangible results. From a "Business" and "ROI" point of view, most of the Boards concerned should be fired for incompetence and for having failed to meet their goals.

But there are notable exceptions to that.
Apart from Juerg's faithful -and I may add: highly successful- principal sponsors Shark Foundation and SOS Foundation, one organization that regularly shines in its relentless advocacy of the need to protect Sharks is Oceana.

Amid a plethora of information, and action, concerning Sharks, Oceana has released two important papers detailing the value of Sharks:

"Predators as Prey" examines the role of Sharks in safeguarding healthy ecosystems by regulating the numbers and influencing the behavior of its prey. Apart from the famous case of the demise of the North Atlantic's scallop fisheries, it details examples from Australia, Alaska and the Caribbean. This is required reading for anybody, like us, having to defend Sharks from the allegation of being useless, man-hunting vermin that is best eradicated.

"SeaTheValue" explores the value divers assign to being able to experience healthy Coral, Sharks and Sea Turtles, notabene additionally to the value of diving per se. May this be the harbinger of a paradigm shift away from pure tree-hugging and towards a more pragmatic approach to Conservation in line with our own project paper?

Well done and as we say over here, Vinaka Vakalevu!

Olympic Shark Savers

The Beijing Olympics are less than two weeks away and the celebrations will undoubtedly include thousands of portions of Shark fin soup.

This dish is one of the principal causes for the global extermination of Sharks, at a staggering rate of somewhere between 40 and 100 million killed every year. As a result, the numbers of some species have dropped by as much as 80% over the last 50 years, with devastating consequences for the ecosystems they once lived in, where the food chains and the fisheries depending on them are collapsing .
A comprehensive and chilling summary of the Global threats to Sharks can be downloaded here.

Much of the trade in Sharks' fins is derived from fins cut from living Sharks; this process is called finning. Because Shark meat is worth much less, the finless and often still-living Sharks are thrown back into the sea to make room on board the ship for more of the valuable fins. When returned to the ocean, the finless Sharks, unable to move, die from suffocation.
Apart from being wasteful, the practice of Shark finning is brutal, cruel and unethical.
In case you've never seen it, you may want to watch the following clip.

Many Shark diving operators like us are trying to buck the trend via Sustainable Tourism, Habitat Protection , Education and by sponsoring Research, often with help from NGOs like in our case, the Shark Foundation and Save our Seas Foundation.
Other more powerful organizations operate mainly via media campaigns and by influencing legislation. Two of those, WildAid and Oceana have captured the occasion by airing a series of smart video clips featuring two of the best-known, and most charming American Olympic swimmers.
We say: Well Done and Good on You!

Here is Tara Kirk.



And here, Amanda Beard.