Cristina Zenato Commercial Shark Divings Great New Voice

Baiting at Isla Guadalupe 2005

Thanks to some simply awful self inflicted media coming out of South Africa this month the world of sharks, commercial shark diving, and yes shark baiting has blown up again.

We go through this cycle once a year, but this time thanks in large part to Chris Fischer and the circus surrounding the tragic death of a young South African at the hands of a white shark, this cycle seems a bit more frantic with anti-cage diving folks finding some wind in their sails to produce an onslaught of hysteria that would make even Peter Benchley cringe.

Thankfully the commercial shark diving world has Cristina Zenato who has begun to post her observations on our industry in a way that's refreshing, to the point, and for those who have an issue with commercial shark diving, informative.

We have been fans of Cristina for quite a few years and watched her quiet rise through the industry with anticipation. She's a smart, edgy, no nonsense kind of person who speaks to the issues surrounding sharks with a compassionate voice.

Read her latest blog post  Shark Diving, Shark Feeding and Common Sense.

This is as good as it get's and for our industry the timing is perfect.

Simply defining the interaction with all sharks as a feeding or a non-feeding situation is too simplistic. It would collect approximately 400 species of sharks under the single umbrella of generalized gray, tubular, finned, toothed creatures who just swim around the oceans behaving as we would want them to behave. Instead we can, and should, take the time to learn how each and every shark species behaves. This can be a controversial and difficult topic to present -- please understand that there will always be unique situations and habitat niches. As with any complex issue, knowledge and understanding are key.

 Kudos Cristina.

Cristina Zenato - The First Lady of Shark Diving

Image : Eddy Raphael

"I view them in a different way – sharks are animals, and like any other animals, we just need to learn how to interact with them, live with them, we can't wipe out the ocean of sharks just to make it safer, and educate people about how can we do that safely... There's times when you can be in the water with sharks and there's times when you don't see them and you should not be in the water. It's all about knowledge. Without knowledge, we fear." 

A quick quote from this weeks Freeport News article featuring UNEXSO's shark programs manager in residence Cristina Zenato.

The article is as good as it gets and a tribute to the shark diving industry, if you have 5 minutes today you'll want to be reading this. Cristina manages to bring home the balance between humans and sharks without any of the standard anthropomorphological quotes you tend to see in the industry equating sharks to anything but what they truly are - predators.

If you're looking for talking points for your next shark diving interview the 5 minute read is all but mandatory, spoken by a shark diving professional whose world is fortunate enough to intersect with these magnificent animals on a daily basis.

Kudos.

Dermal Denticles, Cristina Zenato, and Anti-Bac?

This week CBS news (not known for pro-shark coverage) was in the Bahamas with the First Lady of Shark Diving, Cristina Zenato, to discuss sharks, dermal denticles and researchers use of simulated sharks skin for new anti-bacterial efforts in the lab and beyond.

It's nice to see pro-shark media coming from the Bahamas especially when a critical push to make the Bahamas a full fledged Shark Sanctuary is in the works by many of the regional stakeholders including for the first time shark diving operations.

Image by Christy Fisher.

Complete article here.

Cristina Zenato - First Lady of Shark Diving

In the world of commercial shark diving there is only one Cristina Zenato.

She is the First Lady of Shark Diving having shepherded the commercial shark encounter program at UNEXSO in the Bahamas for years making it her own.

Today she is the head of diving at UNEXSO and this week it was announced that Cristina will be inducted in The Women's Divers Hall of Fame.

As far as we're concerned, this honor could not have happened soon enough.

For those who do not know her, Cristina is one of the most dedicated shark handlers on the planet. She is also a long time shark conservationist as well.

Kudos to Cristina. If you're lucky enough to meet her or get to dive with her you'll soon come to understand why she will be inducted into The Women's Divers Hall of Fame along with other industry luminaries like Dr. Carole Baldwin, Dr. Ann H Kristovich, and Capt. Diann Karin Lynn.

Today was a good day for the industry.