Guadalupe Island -Topside

Very few people have had a chance to view Isla Guadalupe from the air. It is a breathtaking sight.

Now, thanks to one mans efforts, everyone can share in the experience. These images are the perfect compliment to undersea encounters with great white sharks at this wild and remote island.

Thanks Eddie, this is really great footage.

The changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure

An updated paper on the shifting financial impact of whale shark tourism in Australia's Ningaloo region is a must read for those within the shark diving industry.

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was $894 per trip, total expenditure was $6.0 million (all figures are in Australian dollars), and between $2.4 and $4.6 million would have been lost to the region if whale shark tourism did not exist. Our measure of participants' expenditure is substantially lower than the calculation of $2370 per participant from a previous study of whale shark tourists using data collected in 1995. We argue that this is consistent with a change in the types of wildlife tourists that participate in an activity as the industry reaches the point of consolidation. Our results also suggest that using old data to forecast wildlife tourists' expenditure needs to take into account the industry's stage of development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Paper Here.

Taiwan civic groups protest chain stores selling shark-fin soup

Smart direct action protests begin with indigenous populations. The issue of sharks fin soup has been a tricky one with the perception of Westerns trying to influence a primarily Asian cultural issue.

Asians, for good reason, are resistant to heavy handed direct action eco push by outsiders. A fact many within the Western shark conservation community have discovered first hand over the years.

So, how do you change destructive indigenous cultural practices?

The IUCN has an idea, protesting and messaging with local populations:

"Lured by high profits, fishermen kill sharks only for their fins. They cut off shark's fins and dump the sharks into the sea and let them bleed to death," said Wang Yu-min, director of the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan. "Each year, some 4,000 to 7,000 sharks are killed for their fins. The International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that 111 species of shark are being threatened, of which 20 species are seriously threatened and 25 species face
extinction," she said.


Complete Story.