Institutionalized Bias? - Australian Commercial Shark Diving

With some alarm we watched the following ABC news piece this morning on Australia's white shark tourism industry. Well known for "doing things right," leading the rest of the global industry with initiatives that run the gamut from embedded research to advances in cage diving technology.

It would appear that Australian government scientists are now releasing data showing that white sharks are being impacted by these operators and that this data will be used to drop two operations from the area and reduce the number of days the last surviving operations can operate.

Is this institutionalized bias?

We tend to think so as we have seen this same brand of anti-shark diving creep before. Most notably at the Gulf of the Farallones islands off the coast of California where laws and regulations make it impossible to attract white sharks in any manner save static decoys and have enforced a 164 foot rule as of 2009.

Operations must now stay 164 feet away from white sharks at this site at all times.

We will be keeping a wary eye on events as they transpire in Australia as elsewhere with white shark commercial operations. Australia, with folks like Rodney and Andrew Fox remain beacons within an industry often maligned and attributed with all manner of institutional and media bias.

What happens in Australia resonates across the rest of the planet for our industry, and this weeks news is not good.

White Sharks with a Sibilant "S"

Thanks for Greg Grivetto for the video find. Yes, even folks with speech impediments love white sharks...perhaps a bit too much:

California Whale Bite CSI - Dana Point San Diego

What you are looking at is the fluke of a migrating Grey Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) off the coast of San Diego at Dana Point last week. A fluke with a recent bite out of it.

The image is courtesy of Dana Wharf Whale-Watching with a hat-tip to Peter Thomas Outdoors who brought it to our attention.

Click on the image for the full size.

What we noticed almost immediately were tell tale triangular marks of what might be a bite from the Great White shark.

Typically at this time of year it is the Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) that is the predator de jour of the Grey Whale, and tail bites are their signature.

This whale will survive, and probably be a bit wiser from it's latest encounter with a predator.

Our question of the day - which predator was it?

Oxnard California Sportfishing for White Sharks? Nasty Response

This morning we posted our concerns over a sport fishing site based in California that offers white sharks under the "types of sharks caught".

The apparent understanding is that these animals are on the menu for five fleet vessels operating from Oxnard to Marina del Ray at $1,800 a day.

Fortunately since the mid 90's white sharks off the California coast are protected by law.

Or are they?

Our post caught the attention of a shark conservationist who contacted the apparent owner of sharks.us only to receive the following threatening email, in which Captain Mike Schmidt tracked Jennifer XXX down (we redacted her business information) and seems to threaten her in person.

He also made a statement in a previous email where he threatens to "kill a shark" for every "tree hugger" email she or any of her friends sends him. He doubles down on that threat in this follow up email.

Very classy guy.

Here's the email:

From:Capt. Mike Schmidt [mailto:chum@sharks.us]
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 12:33 PM
To: JenniferXXX
Subject: Re:

Did you think I could not find you?
Do you think I will not call administration and report you?

Try me, and we will add another shark to the list and make a few phone calls as well!
You are not far now are you?

(business contact information for Jennifer xxx redacted)

Capt. Mike Schmidt
C.L.P.
1720 N. Voyager Ave #A
Simi Valley, Cal. 93063
Tel: 1-877-807-2423
Cell: 1-818-262-6022
Fax: 1-800-760-1172
www.sharks.us/charters
www.Sharks.us
chum@sharks.us