Dr.Steve Turnbull - We Know Him!

Funny - you play around in the shark world long enough and you start seeing names of people you have met, or worked with, or both.

In this case shark diver/shark researcher Dr. Steve Turnbull is in a news article this week about a basker that washed up near his hometown of St.John's, Canada.

We met Steve at Isla Guadalupe a few years ago.The article makes great reading and as it turns out Steve's genuinely nice fellow:

Steve Turnbull, a shark researcher at UNBSJ, said little is known about the basking shark, which is a vulnerable species. Because 25 per cent of its weight is liver, the prehistoric beast was almost hunted to extinction for its oil.

"He's an early arriver," Turnbull said. "Usually they come in with the food source," in the summer.Warmer waters bring plankton and the gaping mouths of the basking sharks.

While it's a hulking beast and has a row of tiny teeth, the basking shark is a harmless filter feeder. "They open their mouths and everything goes through," Turnbull said as he inspected the shark.

Complete story

Sea Shepherd - Hemorrhaging on the Law

As the months grind on for Sea Shepherd and titular head Paul Watson, you have to ask the question "do they even have a plan anymore?".

As we have documented over the past year SSCS direct action policy is floundering both in Canada and Australia where the SSCS have come up against something they frequently demand International adherence to - the rule of law.

It would seem when SSCS quote the rule of law it justifies almost any action from ramming vessels to fabricating media output. When the rule of law is against them, those "others" are quickly and skillfully transformed into pirates, evil doers, and eco monsters by the SSCS media machine. Often to little effect as the rule of law grinds on and over the SSCS.

Your ongoing donations are fueling this wholesale direct action disaster.

In Canada, direct action vessel Farley Mowat was seized and auctioned off to howls of protest by SSCS who devoted their time to rewriting and blogging about the "facts" of the encounter and Canadian rule of law. The vessel was caught breaking the law and in due process lost SSCS donors close to one million dollars when this vessel was sold off last month. Fact is the SSCS anti-sealing plan failed in a spectacular gamble that might have worked better if SSCS had just handed a cool million to the sealers and told them to go home.

To add to the ongoing gamble, Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands and 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden failed to appear in Canadian court on April 27th. They will be tried in absentia and most likely found guilty, banned from Canada forever as fugitives.

Direct Action Policy

The rule of law is not pretty, particularly when applied to wildlife. Treaties and governments often produce rules and regulations that do great damage to wildlife. These are also the constraints that all eco group with credibility operate under. There is a playing field, there are rules. If you want to get anything done in the eco world you have to build alliances, consensus, and work within the confines, or just outside the confines of the rule of law. This works and groups help wildlife everyday, changing rules, saving wildlife.

SSCS failed 1970's direct action techniques are costing donors millions, and as with the case in Japan have now opened near shore whaling operations - handing down a death sentence to whales off the coasts of Japan. This is the true face of direct action when applied without skill, and without a coherent plan with an eye to the rule of law.

Let's rethink the plan. Hemorrhaging eco dollars and media into high profile wildlife issues gains little and helps no one.

Shark Conservation Protest Video Canada

What started with an idea on an obscure shark conservation board has become something so much more. Canada has lit the torch, congratulations to the "Ones" who came up with the International Year of the Shark:

GEERG-You want to dive with the Greenland Shark?

Canada is fast becoming the "land of sharks" and none more sexy than the ice cold Greenland Shark. Turns out an estimated 100 million sharks live off Canada's shores...good luck seeing any of them as the waters here tend to run from pea soup to Beijing smog on a good day.

We blogged about this unlikely critter a few months ago and now would like to introduce you to the cutting edge guys who make shark diving with these cold water animals a reality:

The mission of GEERG is to study the Greenland shark and other Canadian shark species in their natural environment in order to better understand and protect them. The results of our work are made available to the scientific community and to the general public, in particular to sport divers, educational institutions, schools and museums.

Editors Note: Kudos to GEERG's webmaster. The video player is a nice touch and we're impressed with the mission statement. Overall great website, pro shark and hugely informative.

Canada-Maple Syrup, Nice People and Sharks?

According to a recent study more than 100 million sharks inhabit the cold dark miserable waters off Canada's Atlantic coast.

Here's a quick run down of what you might see if you were to dive there:

SHARK SPECIES

Of about 400 species of sharks found in the world’s oceans, 19 of those species are regularly found in or are occasional visitors to Atlantic Canadian waters:

•Atlantic sharpnose shark

•Basking shark

•Black dogfish shark

•Blue shark

•Deepsea cat shark

•Dusky shark

•Great white shark

•Greenland shark

•Oceanic whitetip shark

•Porbeagle shark

•Portuguese shark

•Rough sagre shark

•Sand tiger shark

•Shortfin mako shark

•Smooth dogfish shark

•Smooth hammerhead shark

•Spiny dogfish shark

•Thresher shark

•Tiger shark

Editors Note: The critter in this picture is the Porbeagle shark, a close relative of Alaska's Salmon shark and a distant relative of the Great White shark...the thing coming out of it's mouth is a strawberry flavored liquorice whip. Shark researchers have found this flavour calms the sharks so they can work on them better.

Why Shark Tagging is Important-Baskers Make "5000+ Mile Trek"

During a simply amazing power point presentation, researchers from the U.K unveiled a Basking sharks 5000+ mile migration from the U.K to Canada and back.

Partially funded by the Save our Seas Foundation-a rabidly pro shark org, this latest data underscores the point that our oceans are not just a series of coastlines "owned and managed" by individual countries, rather an interconnected web of life and pathways.

Marine life it seems does not recognize borders, treaties, and Marine Protected Areas. Life instead follows ancient and well defined undersea highways often becoming the policy definition of more than one country at a time.

Food for thought.

Six Gill Shark: Rare Find

It's not every day you happen to be walking along the beach and discover a Six Gill Shark. Normally you find these critters at depths up to 1500' and greater.

The Six Gills we have encountered were typically shy, rare, and amazing animals to see in person. These ancient sharks have spiked and serrated teeth that rip and tear the meat off of whatever dead animal drifts down to the cold dark depths.

You can only imagine this guys surprise when a 9 foot beast washed up on his local beach this week:

"Poulsbo resident Andy Woodford was combing the beach for shells when he made the unusual find. The shark is an immature sixgill female, found with no signs of trauma or obvious cause of death."

Here's the whole story