Shark Week - Prologue

Quite a coup by Discovery!

Craig Ferguson is one of my favorite comedians.
He must be one of the most pleasantly witty people out there and I was happy, and surprised to discover that has signed up to be this year's host for Shark Week.



I must also agree with George that so far, the promo we get to see is admirably neutral and like the South African clip, hinting at some genuine nature programming as opposed to the usual Shark attack garbage.



And yes, I did also like the idea of the video contest and look forward to the submissions. Shark NGOs: make us proud, here's the chance at getting out some great pro-Shark media!

Still, the whispers about Shark Porn are not going away.
Will it thus be a bag of mixed programming?
As always, we shall see!

About Biodiversity, with E. O. Wilson

The distribution of marine biodiversity varies widely throughout ocean basins. The abundance and diversity of most taxa tends to be highest near continental and island margins that are less than 2,000 meters deep. Please click to enlarge.

This is about Assumption 2.

Ed Wilson is one of my heroes.
Now 81, his mind remains as sharp as a razor.
Along with other seminal books like Quammen's The Song of the Dodo, his The Future of Life (read this great interview) is one of the publications that convinced me that something needed to be done, right now. Choosing to focus on the Oceans, and Sharks in particular, was then nothing more than a corollary and largely spawned by my life long passion for diving and underwater imagery.

Anyway, I'm digressing as usual.
Enjoy!

Tim Rock - excellent Shark Media!

Yes I'm obviously biased!

Timbo is a good friend and a good friend of BAD.
He is also a great guy, one of the world's foremost photojournalists and a staunch conservationist, and it has been an honor, and a pleasure hosting him during his forays to Fiji. The result has been a great coffee table book and a smaller book focusing on Shark Reef and our efforts to preserve Sharks, along with a whole series of articles in the adventure travel and diving media.

Now, Tim's travels to Fiji are the topic of this feature in PDN.
True to his calling, Timbo once again manages to weave in excellent pro Shark messaging - along with promo for Fiji, Continental Airlines, the books, SRMR and, yes, us! Talk about being a consummate professional!

As always Timbo: Kudos and Vinaka!

Heartbreaking!

Just look at this!



Those are Blues, Makos and Salmon Sharks being processed industrially.
And no, this is not what is commonly referred to as Shark finning, i.e. only cutting off the fins and then throwing the carcasses overboard - these Sharks have been obviously brought in whole and are now being processed for the Shark fin and maybe, the Shark meat markets.

Still think that those petitions are really addressing the problem?

Gruesome story and images here.

PS yes I'm being uncharacteristically polite - more explicit and important thoughts on the matter by Shark Diver here. As so often, I could not agree more!

But amid all the bleakness, there is good news.
The goal is not, to completely eliminate fishing, which would indeed require, as a minimum, matching, dollar for dollar, the kind of unrivaled commerce with sharks we saw coming out of Japan this week. There's hundreds of millions of people for whom eating Fish is the only source of animal protein, and millions of fishermen depend on their trade for eking out what often is a meager existence - let there never be a doubt that hey have a right to exist!
The goal is to reduce fishing to sustainable levels and there, the conservation movement has excellent chances of prevailing, as in the long term, it benefits everybody. But we must act intelligently, set realistic goals and prioritize our resources - and yes, I'm very much repeating myself!

PS2 Richard Theiss here, with more excellent reflections!

Guy on CNN!

Great feature on a great Guy (!) - including the shirts and the tournament!
Transcript here.

Into the Atlantic

This is scary!



The semantics somewhat escape me.
The authors insist that this is not a prediction but rather, a possible scenario - still, to me, it very much looks like as early as this October, all of the east coast Shark hotspots might be at risk.
Especially those along the Straights of Florida between West Palm Beach and Grand Bahama - meaning Jupiter and Tiger Beach!

Possible action?

Unststainable European Fisheries

I'm obviously far for being surprised!
Still, this newest report contains an intriguing twist: Europe is not only mismanaging its own Fish stocks, it is exporting its Fish mismanagement to other countries, many of which are poor.
European fleets are expanding into global waters where they pursue the same, or even worse destructive practices all the way to outright poaching.
May European development aid be in any way linked to this?
Honi soit qui mal y pense!

From the Executive Summary

EU fish stocks are in an unprecedentedly poor state yet fish consumption throughout Europe remains high.
The EU has been able to maintain and expand its levels of consumption by sourcing fish from other countries, both through the catches of its distant-water fleet and imports. This report highlights Europe’s increasing reliance on fish products originating from external waters for its fish supplies, and provides pointers towards a more sustainable future for dwindling global fish stocks.

In a context of finite resources and growing populations, the current EU model is unsustainable.
The EU’s increasing ‘fish dependence’ has implications for the sustainability of fish stocks in other countries, which are also overfished, and for the communities that depend on them. The main message of this report is that rising fish consumption in a context of declining stocks is a model that is environmentally unviable and socially unfair.

The EU has highly productive waters that have the potential to sustain a long-term and stable supply of fish, jobs and related social and economic benefits, but only if its fish resources are managed responsibly.
The reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) offers a unique opportunity to put the structures in place to turn this situation around. In order for this to happen, policymakers need to look beyond the short-term costs that could result from reform and give priority to the long-term benefits that healthy marine resources will provide.

From the Conclusions

In the context of a steadily growing population, the trend towards the fishing of stocks to depletion before moving on to another resource (either through targeting distant-water fishing grounds or importing produce) is unsustainable, environmentally ruinous and potentially damaging for poorer countries and their development.
Many of the costs of EU fish mismanagement are being exported, with direct consequences on the fish stocks of non-EU countries, simply to meet EU demand.
Change is desperately needed if we are to break this pattern – the EU needs to focus efforts on restoring its own marine ecosystems and to move towards consumption levels that are commensurate with ecosystem capacity.

Abstract here and full report here: for once, well worth reading in its entirety!
SOSF recommendations here.

Octopus!

An octopus with an own Wikipedia page?
O tempora o mores!

Bird or Octopus?

I must confess that I hate Parrots.

That's largely due to a horrible Cockatoo named Gnasher who destroyed my titanium IWC years ago on the Lady Jenny V somewhere between Sudan and Djibouti (reminiscences by John Bantin here) - never forgotten and never forgiven!
And what about that infernal screeching!

Yes, granted, they are beautiful and according to some, highly intelligent.
But honestly, does this look like intelligent, let alone psychic to you?



Octopi on the other hand are bloody cool!
And Paul is apparently infallible on top of that!



All of which really sucks, because ever since 1974, I'm a fan of the Netherlands!
Oh well.

Guy Harvey Shirts - must buy!

It really is very very bad!
I spare you the links - but by now, the Gulf Oil Spill must surely have evolved into the worst anthropogenic marine extinction event, ever.

Action?
Have the US-based Marine Conservation orgs all re-defined their priorities and are they throwing their resources at this?
Hmmmmmm...

One that does is the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation.
Guy being who he is has designed two new shirts and one poster that are now for sale everywhere. As he explains in his blog, fifty percent of the proceeds will go to institutions researching the effects of the spill. The data are vital as they will certainly determine the thrust of any future remediation once the spill has been contained.

Please go and purchase those shirts - this is really money well spent.
Thank you.

Humpbacks!

Big surprise today on the way to Carpet Cove: breaching Humpbacks!

Fiji is a Whale sanctuary.
But whereas there used to be heaps of Humpbacks in the 50ies, the population was subsequently severely depleted as Sovjet whalers killed tens of thousands of Humpback Whales in Antarctica and very possibly eradicated the "memory" of the migratory route to Fiji.

Looks like the leviathans are making a tenuous comeback.
Two years ago, a lonely individual parked himself on Shark Reef - at which every single Shark , never having seen anything like it, decided to leave!
During last year's winter, we kept hearing their songs on nearly every dive and now, it appears, we're in for more encounters.

Great - provided that the Sharks remember who's the top dog!

Poetic License!

43m/30', two deco stops and 7 Bulls circling overhead?
A client assisting the feeder?
Really?

No, really not!
Tom Neal Tacker must have been madly, truly, deeply confused!
The Fiji Shark Dive is this - without exception and also, without any deco apart from the customary 3' safety stop. But with heaps upon heaps of Bulls!

Apart from that, always nice to get a honorable mention in the mainstream Ozzie media!
And: I did like the Shark conservation sound bites!

Peekaboo?

Please click to enlarge.

This sure is an unusual picture!

Some novel, previously unrecorded behavior?
Is that Reef Blacktip really turning its head to look at Sasha, as is being speculated in the post? My personal interpretation is that this is most probably a freeze frame of a Blacktip shaking its head after having grasped a piece of bait. That's what they usually do and it would also account for the open mouth and the entire s-shaped body posture.
Still - great shot!

Or - may it be a reflection of Fiji's famous multiculturalism?
As in this?

Talking of which, some minor cultural challenges persist - alas!
Enjoy!

The Running, and not, of the Bulls!

Now THATs what I call dangerous - click to enlarge!

Pamplona is about to unleash!
A big Bula Vinaka from Fiji, and may everything go well!

As to our own Running of the Bulls, it actually happens in January.
But as the El Niño has fizzled out and may well be slowly evolving into a proper La Niña, the numbers continue to be impressive, with a constant 30 to 40 big Bull Sharks on every dive!

With one exception last May.
For a whole week, numbers were positively dismal and the few scattered animals that deigned to turn up refused to feed, as described in this post by Sasha (translate it here and yes, that's yet another stellar pic from this year's crop!). And would you believe it - at the same time, the Manta Rays disappeared from neighboring Kadavu! And, I hear, from the Yasawas!
And then, just as suddenly as it started, all was back to normal and kept getting better until reaching our all time record in June.
Go wonder!

We've been scratching our head ever since - but may this be correlated to the weather phenomena that happened in May and are described in the link? And may Richard have experienced something related when he got skunked in the Bahamas?

Just goes to show how little we know!
Which by the way, is totally part of the fun of what we do!

Pseudomonas?

I was intrigued by this post by Patric.

A bug that eats oil?
Having looked it up, it apparently does just that - leading to Pseudomonas putida becoming the first ever patented organism in the world! More of the same here - and I'm sure that there's much more if you bother to go and search for it!

Will it work?
Now being my usual skeptic, cynic and whatnot self, I'm tempted to resort to my usual we shall see, lean back and start honing my sarcastic scalpel. But for Patric to go public, he must be pretty sure of what he's saying - and he normally follows through on his announcements.
Plus, I've just recently had to learn to be a bit more optimistic.

So here's to Patric and his super-bug!
The Gulf sure needs all the help it can get!

Terrible Tiger Sharks...

Roughing it in the SoPac - in a posh river front villa with swimming pool!

… and Beautiful Bull Sharks!

Yup the kids are on the loose again!
This is Broadreach Academic Treks’ yearly Shark Studies for High School kids, meaning loads of fun, chaos, giggles, adventure and drama! And new goodies for the staff!
You can vicariously follow events on What’s Up: select Shark Studies and then, SS11 or later on, as the next group arrives, SS21.

We just love it!

Marketing by lying?

Here we go again!

You gotta check this out.

I'm not blaming the journo for publishing those statements.
But the fact is that Shark Reef Marine Reserve was negotiated and established by myself (my 2003 project paper here - testimony here) and Manasa “Papa” Boulivou, period - with the cooperation and assistance of the villages, the then Minister of Fisheries Konisi Yabaki and his men under Aisake Batibasaga .

Certainly not by Aquatrek Beqa who were actually adamantly opposed to it; not by “me, Brandon Paige” who resigned from Aquatrek Beqa in 2002 and was then working on Taveuni; not even by Beqa Adventure Divers who however became the trustees of the reserve once it was established in 2004 and have been collecting the Marine Park Levy ever since.

By all means, don’t take my word for it: here are the relevant documents - click to enlarge.














The Fiji Shark Corridor comprising the Qoliqoli or fishing grounds of the villages of Galoa, Wainiyabia and Deuba and encompassing Shark Reef Marine Reserve and Lake Reef was established by Beqa Adventure Divers in 2007 and the three villages have since been compensated by us (only) for keeping it Shark Safe.
Here are the relevant documents
















q.e.d. - I rest my case.
How pathetic having to post this!
And yes, I wish I were a bigger man - maybe in another life!

Out of the Bag!

Juvenile GW with narrower teeth identifying him as a Fish-eater.

After months of quiet & meticulous preparation, Lawrence has unveiled his latest project.

This is as cool as it gets - and really important!
He will be trying to film juvenile Great Whites as they migrate along the coast of Southern California. This is a veritable running of the gauntlet as although GWs are protected in the USA and along Mexico's Baja peninsula, many get killed as bycatch and due to poaching.
According to some sources, there may well be as little as 3,500 GWs left world wide and those juveniles are the key to the survival of the North-Eastern Pacific population, estimated to comprise only between 200 and 300 individuals.

May the quest be successful and yield amazing images!
Full -and amazing- story here.

Savusavu covered!

Make it twenty-four - Fiji rocks!

The Copra Shed and Waitui Marina have become Shark Free Marinas!
This is a personal initiative of our marine scientist Arthur who was in Vanua Levu for a talk at a community outreach seminar organized by CORAL and Sea Web.

Those are Savusavu's principal marinas and with it being one of Fiji's principal ports of call on the SoPac milk run, the signage will undoubtedly contribute to spreading the concept among the yachting community.
Who knows, maybe one of them will even sign up a marina as he travels on towards Melanesia!

In view of the pathetic snubbing by the Shark orgs, the initiative sure needs all the help it can get!

Vinaka Art, you're the man!

For real Men!

Wilson alerts me to this game.

For real men?
I'm obviously too old and technophobic for that kind of stuff - but then again, it quite remarkably appears to be completely devoid of any attacks, chomping and killing and all of those other pedagogically valuable attributes commonly associated with Shark toys and the like. So I guess that's progress and thus a good thing!

Which brings me straight over to the Are You Man enough Shark Challenge - remember?
Looks like after having been dragged there kicking and above all, screaming, Jack Donlon has seen the light: his tournament has become catch-and-release and a continuation of the excellent trend pioneered by the Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge.
And since it's popular and thus, good business, Jack plans to roll this out even further! Yes it's ultimately all about the money - but if it entertains the plebs and saves Sharks in the process, all I can say is well done, good on him and best of success with it!

Tho I still believe that those IGFA weight records must be abolished - and that, anyway, game fishing for Sharks is for wanquers !
Yes, please excuse my French!