Get out your Barf Bag!

Meet the Sharkman of Cortez!

He barged in on an interview by the Shark Safe Project and I invite you to view that remarkable document. Alas, there's no embedding feature so please go to the relevant Facebook page.
No - wait a minute! Felix just posted the YouTube video! Good find my friend!



There you go - these are the people Shark Safe and Shark Free Marinas are trying to convert.
Just long haired rednecks! Right!

It's gonna be a long, steep road!

Lots of Stuff going on!

Still trying to settle in, so once again, this will have to be short.

A lot has happened in the last two days and I invite you to go exploring the following links.

Oceanic Dreams have posted the 2009 Shark Week program - including Deadly Waters (not Bio Recon - I'll come back to that later) with the following synopsis.

SURVIVORMAN’s Les Stroud is back for more shark action — this time venturing to five of the most notorious shark infested waters in the world to find out which is the most dangerous. Les will initiate a series of immersive tests in these high-fatality “hot spots” to determine what makes these waters so deadly.

So, Fiji is now officially a "high-fatality hotspot"! Great!
So much anti-Shark evil in such a small announcement. Just remarkable!

In that respect, Underwater Thrills have re-posted a two-part series from January when Les Stroud and Gurney first got in contact with their anti-Shark garbage and which contains the infamous "experiment list". The Fiji experiments have been slightly modified - but more about that later. As the title of that post says, this is just for the record.

Underwater Thrills have proposed a media Contract for Sharks and Sharky has given it an eloquent and intelligent endorsement.
So do we. It's work in progress and we have proposed to add some further guidelines which you can see in the comments section of that post. Let's hope this will quickly progress into something tangible where many operators will sign up.

The Discovery petition is progressing well but still needs to explode into viral mode, so please make the effort to contact and motivate all your friends! Ila France Porcher of the International Year of the Shark has created a blog devoted to this topic and Gary has written an op ed about it on the Shark Safe Project blog.

Much to read!
Talk soon.

Abomination 2.0

250 bucks!

That's the weekly prize for killing the biggest Shark in Destin's month-long Fishing Rodeo.

The reasoning behind the new division is “to get more people fishing in Destin,” said Rodeo Executive Director Helen Donaldson.
With the lack of red snapper on the boards for the Rodeo, due to the closure of the fishery as of Aug. 15, the new category was birthed.
“We were just looking for a way we can help the charter boats,” said Rodeo board member Tim Broom. “And not having the red snapper, we needed something else to fish for that will draw excitement. “And a shark on the docks creates more excitement than any other fish,” Broom said.
“I think it will be a good time,” said Capt. Bud Miller, a Rodeo board member and captain of the Melanie Dawn. “And I think it will draw a big crowd when the Rodeo needs one,” he said. “You’ve heard it said, ‘People will step over a 1,000 pound blue marlin to see a 200 pound shark,’ — and they will,” Miller said.
Lemon and nurse shark are not eligible as well as any other shark that is state or federally protected.
However, shark that are open game are Bull, Mako, Hammerhead and Tiger to name a few.

Just great!
Thing is, they should know better. Apparently, this particular Shark killing event had already been discontinued due to the lobbying by one Gail Powell. But the local Chamber of Commerce, in their wisdom, think otherwise.

"I think the national spotlight is a good thing," said Shane Moody, president/CEO of the Destin Chamber of Commerce. "These people who threaten protests, were they in Pensacola when they had their shark tournament? Why are they singling out Destin?"

Indeed, why?
Did I say because yer a bunch of Shark murdering morons? Of course not!

Looks like another chance for the good folks from the Shark Safe Project to capitalize on their recent success in Ft. Myers - this time aided by a local Shark conservationist. Yes, like a prominent Shark person just wrote, Here we go again!! Its like pigs in a sac -get one and another jumps out!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Shark conservation!