Great Fiji Shark Count - Paper!

Behold!

Yeah I know I know.

39 dive operators doing 30,668 dives and making 146,304 shark observations on 592 dive sites, and then collating, triaging and analyzing those data is a lot of effort - and the concrete results are comparatively lean. BUT, it was always meant to be long term monitoring in order to detect trends and not a population census, and 5 years are really not that long - so there. 

In any case, thank you and congratulations to everybody involved, be it the participating dive ops, the tourists = citizen scientists, the donors, the project management and finally, the scientists: this has been quite impressive.

The good news?

Compared to other places, our Sharks populations appear to be faring OK - but despite of the recent fin export- and import ban, there is equally still ample room for improvement, especially when it comes to the continued fishing in the Shark nurseries.

As always we shall see.

Fiji's Shark Commitments are due by the end of this year..

Having looked, I notice that last year's mandated progress report is overdue which is not good - but methinks that as always, there will be some frantic last-minute activity to push matters over the finish line, the more as there is simply no way that Frank will accept any failures in an initiative he very much personally and publicly chaired.

So, our fingers are crossed and we continue to be hopeful - at least for now.

But back to the paper.

We have terminated the GFSC as it is just too much work and the management team was frankly getting increasingly frustrated at the lack and quality of participation and data. Also, this is merely a pre-print pending the tedious peer review process - but the raw data will not change, and this is now a great baseline from which one will be able to measure any future developments, be it progress or lack of.

So consider this an important intermediary step.

Should we get the feeling that matters have changed be it for the better or the worse, we will most certainly organize a recount and report about developments. And in the meantime, we here have already initiated new efforts to monitor some important sub-populations about which we shall be reporting shortly.

In the meantime, enjoy the paper.

To be continued no doubt.

Everything you need to know about Shark Diving in Fiji!

Nice! :)

Kudos to Sam for having listened and above all, understood!

She was here during the very low season when the pregnant bulls go to the rivers and the others abscond for mating, so thank you for still having found it worthy of a piece on Singapore's online dive mag GoodVis. With Singapore being Fiji Airway's newest destination in Asia, this could not have come at a better moment.

Much appreciated!
 

And talking of The Great Fiji Shark Count.

With five full years finally in the bag it's time for some data analysis and publishing of results - so keep watching this space!

Enjoy Sam's article!

Great Fiji Shark Count - WWF!

Great!

Read this.

Just as we were resigning ourselves to forever having to pay for the GFSC out of our own pocket, here comes the welcome support by the WWF. As you may remember, WWF and partners are developing a Shark RAT, and the GFSC is definitely going to be part of the mix both in terms of actual data but also as a template for similar undertakings in equally data-poor regions.

Welcome aboard folks - much appreciated!

 

Great Fiji Shark Count!

Wow.

We've just started count # 10.

And once this November count is done, we'll have collected a full five years of invaluable data and will finally be in a position to do some in-depth analysis and publish a first set of conclusions. Remember, this is not a census but long-term monitoring in the hopes of documenting trends in Fiji's populations of Sharks, Rays and Turtles - and with thousands upon thousands of records, document we certainly did!

Honestly, I didn't think we'd come this far.

Fiji's diving industry is characterized by a remarkably high turnover of expat owners and dive shop managers, and participation volatility has been according; donors that have given enthusiastically at the start did eventually lose patience, and funds have fizzled out; personal issues and personality clashes have been at times highly disruptive.

Yes it has also been lots of fun, and good tourism - but challenging! :)

But we've persevered - and here we are!

So, count count count - and then it will be up to the management team to dazzle you with facts, maps and trends! If I look at our own data that are definitely documenting a creeping loss of Bull Sharks, I'm not at all confident that the findings will be all positive - but let's first see what has happened Fiji-wide; and if warranted, we'll be finally able to advocate for the according remedies based on facts and not mere hearsay.

To be continued - and that's a promise!

PS: Fiji Times here!
 

Great Fiji Shark Count - Funds for Christine!

Please have a look at this page.

Christine has been with the GSFC since day one.

Like announced back then, she has so far worked completely pro bono whereas the little donor funding has been completely invested into print materials and necessary admin. Now in it's fifth year, this ground-breaking project has generated an enormous mountain of data from tens of thousands of dives all across Fiji and is rapidly nearing the stage where there is enough information to start discerning long-term population trends.

But for citizen science to be good science, there needs to be verification.

This means that in order to start her analytical work, Christine needs to (finally!) come to Fiji to personally witness and fact check the current, exceptionally tedious data collection process from recreational divers to dive operators all the way to Helen's painstaking verification and then, transcription into Excel spreadsheets.

Alas there are no GFSC funds left.

Nowadays, donors appear to expect instant gratification and with the GFSC being long-term monitoring generating only very sporadic and rather unspectacular interim results, donor contributions have slowly fizzled out. In fact, BAD have financed the last three counts out of cash flow as along with Kerstin's continued research into local Shark fishing, we believe this to be invaluable information for better managing Fiji's coastal Shark populations.

So there you have it - this is the back story.

Please, if you can, do make a contribution towards Christine's research.

Thank you.

Great Fiji Shark Count - a Message from Helen!

And talking about the GFSC.

Helen Sykes our irreducible GFSC manager has just issued the following statistics - click on the pictures for detail!

Results of Three Years of the Great Fiji Shark Count

 April 2015 

Over the past three years, dive operators across the Fiji Islands and their diving and snorkeling guests have been recording their Shark, Ray and Turtle sightings over the months of April and November. Thanks to those dedicated divers, we now have some interesting facts to share about Shark populations in Fiji.

The data is analyzed by the number of Shark/Ray/Turtle sightings recorded on every dive by every diver who takes part. This is called number of sightings per observation. Because there are usually many divers on each dive, we have thousands of observations every month.

We have separated dives where feeding was carried out from those where no feeding was done.

From a very enthusiastic start in April 2012, the number of participating dive operators has dropped to our reliable core team, representing operators on Viti Levu, Beqa, Taveuni, Vanua Levu, the Mamanuca and Yasawa islands, and the Lomai Viti / Vatu-i-Ra area. We'd like to thank those operators who have stuck by this project and worked hard to get the data to us in a useful format!

Even though the number of dive operators has decreased, the number of dives and of observations (every diver who takes part makes one observation per dive) has remained in the thousands, with the highest total of 4,278 observations in November 2013.

Highlights:

There have been some unexpected and exciting sightings recorded over the past three years.

• Guitarfish, previously very rarely recorded in Fiji, have been regularly seen on sites along the Coral Coast. 
• A Leatherback Turtle was seen during a dive (a very rare occurrence) in the Yasawas in November 2014 
• Schooling Hammerheads have been regularly recorded on a dive site on the South Coast of Vanua Levu 
• Mobula Rays have been recorded in the Pacific Harbour/ Beqa region and also in Namena, south of Vanua Levu 
• Tahitian Rays (Himantura fai) were recorded in the Yasawas 
• Hammerheads and Guitarfish have only been recorded on non-feeding dives 
• Rays and Turtles are more common on non-feed dives than on baited feeding dives 
• The most common sharks seen on baited feeding dives are Bull, White Tip Reef, Grey, and Black Tip Reef Sharks 
• Some sharks species, including Bull, Grey Reef and possibly White-tip Reef Sharks, exhibit seasonal patterns of higher and lower numbers, which are probably related to breeding behaviour. 
• So far no significant decrease in coastal shark populations has been seen, good news for those of us fearing that shark-fin fishing was continuing to damage shark stocks, but we can only confirm this one way or the other by continuing these surveys over the long term 

Non-Feeding Dives:

Over the years, across Fiji, divers have seen an average of 1.22 to 2.03 Sharks on every dive, plus one Ray and one Turtle every 5 to 10 dives. Shark sightings varied year by year, but the general trend appears stable or slightly increasing. Ray and Turtle sightings appear to be very stable.

Baited Dives:

You, our Contributors!

Continuity of data is vital if we are to make our case for Shark Conservation, and we'd like to recognise and thank our contributors, especially those who have been with us from the start, and continued every six months. Others have joined us recently, and are welcomed to the ranks. 

Here is our honour list: 

Six Counts 

• Beqa Adventure Divers 
• Nai'a Cruises 
• Dive Tropex Tokoriki 

Five Counts 

• Waidroka Bay Surf and Dive Resort 
• Lalati Resort 
• Taveuni Ocean Sports (Nakia Resort) 
• Dive Tropex Tokoriki • Wananavu Dive 

Four Counts 

• Taveuni Dive 
• Dolphin Bay Divers 
• Koro Sun Dive
• Reef Safaris - Barefoot Island 

Three Counts 

• Matava Eco Resort - Mad Fish Dive Centre 
• Wakaya Club and Spa 
• Viti Watersports 
• GVI - Global Vision International Two Counts 
• L'Aventure Cousteau Dive Centre 

One Count 

• Pacific Harbour Fishing Group 
• Paradise Taveuni 
• Volivoli Beach 
• Reef Safari - Shangri La Fijian Resort 
• Castaway • Adrenalin Watersports 
• Captain Cook Cruises 
• Storck Cruises 
• Reef Safari - Crystal Blue 

Great job Helen, Vinaka vakalevu!

Some ulterior comments from my side tomorrow!

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!

 

Citizen Science is good Science!

Bingo.

Read this - and here is the paper!

Now we finally dispose of some powerful evidence that despite of many critical voices, citizen science really does work.

Of course we knew that already.

We've been employing trained observers to record data on Shark Reef since 2003, and those observations have been the backbone of many of Juerg's papers where they have complemented the data obtained via acoustic and satellite telemetry. In 2012, the concept has been expanded throughout the whole of Fiji where every six months, the majority of preeminent dive operators are participating in the Great Fiji Shark Count where they are counting Sharks, Rays and Turtles with their customers and passing on the data to the project team and ultimately, Christine. On top of that, Projects Abroad are now conducting such counts on every dive and uploading the data to eShark, meaning that Beqa Lagoon is now being monitored year-round.

And the results?

This is long term monitoring, and trends will only become visible over time - but when it comes to the Sharks, anecdotal evidence is already pointing to local declines. My hope is that we may well see an improvement once the authorities will have to increase their monitoring and management effort in line with the looming implementation of CITES.

We shall see.

But that's another story.

Congratulations to the indefatigable Gabe and the dream team from Western Australia for yet again an excellent job.

Bravo! 

Great Fiji Shark Count - it's on!

Apologies!

I should have posted this before - but I've just moved house and it has been hectic!

Anyway.

The April GFSC is in full swing and dive ops across the country are counting Sharks, Rays and Turtles. Here in Pac Harbour it's both us and Projects Abroad, and the numbers are impressive!

Interested?

It's certainly not too late to make a booking - and I may add, at substantially discounted prices!

Just saying! :)

Great Fiji Shark Count - Victory!

Excellent news!

PADI AWARE is going to support the GFSC!

Thanks to YOU, we've won our category - and it really pleases me immensely that other winners comprise a Manta Ray project in Peru (watch this space!) and also a citizen science project under the leadership of our friend Christine of e-Shark.

Story here!

Thank you thank you thank you!

GFSC - last Day!

Please vote vote vote!

Thank you!

Great Fiji Shark Count - please vote!

Yes I'm back! :)

It has been long and there's heaps of urgent stuff that needs addressing - so please bear with me if it'll take a while for me to get back to your many messages.

But this can't wait.

The GFSC team has applied for a grant from PADI AWARE, and they have included it into their Ocean Action Project and are now submitting it to a public vote. These funds are really important because despite of having been extremely frugal and stretched the resources to include producing all the materials plus four instead of a budgeted two events, we now urgently need to replenish our coffers.

Here are some additional explanations on the GFSC website.

So, please vote and share share share with all your friends!

Voting closes on December 8.

 

Thank you!

Great Fiji Shark Count - all Systems go!

It's that time of the year again!

All is ready for counting Sharks, Rays and Turtles this November.

If you are interested, please familiarize yourselves with the concept and with the details - the updated list of participants is right here.

Wishing you the best of success!

Adopt a Bull Shark - T-Shirts!

Behold!

The good news is that those shirts are great.

They are not some el cheapo knockoffs but genuine pre-shrunk Gildans, navy blue with egg-white design. And the entire profit we make will go to running the GFSC.

The bad news is that they're not cheap.

Price is FJD 60.00 VIP. Plus, they are essentially only available if you come diving with us. We could send them to you, but that would most likely add another 30.00 to the bill - but should you insist, contact us and we will certainly do that!

And please, keep giving generously!

Vinaka!

Adopt a Bull Shark - Vinaka!

Fabulous!
Over two thousand bucks in a mere four days is a great start!

Details here.
Let's keep the momentum going!

Adopt a (Fiji) Bull Shark - now live!

Finally!

This has been a lot of work.

So first and foremost, thanks (I think) to the indefatigable Samantha for setting impossible time lines and whipping everybody into frenzied action, and big kudos to Jennah Caster and Natalie Torkelson for having pulled it off - ahead of time!

And yes, big thanks to the various other donors!

You can find all the details here.

In essence, this is a two-month funding drive for the Sharks Count citizen science project by Shark Savers, and for the Great Fiji Shark Count where BAD and Shark Savers (and especially Sam) play a prominent role. These are important conservation and research initiatives, and the funds will contribute to maintaining them for many years to come, with zero money spent on fluff and needless bureaucracy.

Please go and check out the Indiegogo page.

Every donation helps - really!

On a personal note.

It is really nice to see some of our Bull Sharks featured in this way. It may be nothing but anthropomorphizing fluff - but over the years, we have developed a special affection and we believe, a special understanding for the quirks of some of our unique characters of rogues, and the plan is to release the descriptions of the Sharks that are up for adoption over the course of the next few weeks. Incidentally, these are not just any Bull Sharks, they are Fiji Bull Sharks - bigger, more badass and way cooler than those puny Sardines in the Caribbean!
We actually like this so much that we may be tempted to then extend and expand this initiative after the completion of this drive, hopefully again with Shark Savers, and continue to use any funds for promoting good Shark research and conservation including the GFSC - but this will frankly depend on everybody's personal work loads and at this stage, it is more of a vague plan rather than a certainty.

So please give now, generously.

And enjoy the perks whilst knowing that you're doing something meaningful!

And one last remark.

Whilst Shark Savers may want to celebrate Shark Week, we expressly do not. 

We will never promote that shit as long as the network continues to contract Gurney and ABC4 for their Shark porn, deceive its audience and celebrate the strangling of Lynxes and the shooting of Bears. It is  everything we despise, and we shall not have any part in it, directly or indirectly!

Just wanted to make that crystal clear.

But I'm digressing as always.

Great initiative, and fingers crossed that it will be highly successful!

That of course will depend entirely on you!

Every Shark Counts!

Click and then click again!

Bravo Sam - again!

These counts are indeed great tools.

If conducted and then analyzed correctly that is - and the Sharks Count project by Shark Savers, Christine's e-Shark and our Great Fiji Shark Count where incidentally, both Sam and Christine play important roles are some of the very best examples of such worthwhile citizen science programs.

Talking of which, I just got this.

Hi Mike, 
Here are general Shark Count stats: 

• April 2012: 27 Dive operators participated, 855 dives, 3691 individual diver observations. 

• November 2013: 14 Dive operators participated, 542 dives, 2342 individual diver observations 

• April 2013: Incomplete as yet. I think a fair guesstimate for the final April 2013 count will be in the region of 15 Dive operators, 600 dives, 3000 individual diver observations.

I say, pretty awesome!

It's obviously still too early for detecting any trends, but the GFSC continues to be vibrant and will eventually provide for excellent scientific data - whilst being great tourism and outreach, and above all, great fun as well!

So bravo, and thank you to everyone involved!

Great Fiji Shark Count - that's how you do it!

Bravo Dive Wananavu!

Technically speaking, the Great Fiji Shark Count is about science.

But it was always also about tourism and showcasing our breathtaking marine environment - and above all, about having fun and making amazing discoveries.

Nobody shows it more than the folks up north.

From the timely announcement to the blog posts and regular messages like this and this one, they really embody the spirit of of what we set out to do.

Kudos - big props!

Great Fiji Shark Count - insane!

What a difference to last April!

The weather has been more than clement, and there's more Sharks than ever. In fact I had a quick peek at our log sheets and at slightly more than midway through the Great Fiji Shark Count, we've already marked down in excess of 2,000 Shark sightings - and this obviously net, without duplications!

Sam - dya hear me? :)

Case in point, the above screen shots.

They are from one and the same clip, a mere 6-7 seconds apart - that would be more than 70 big Bull Sharks on the second dive at 15 meters.

Click for detail!

Crazy stuff - and the busiest months are yet to come!

Shark counting Challenges!

From today's dive: Papa and friends - click for detail!

Counting Reefies is bloody hard, too!
Just saying! :)