Sheep ships can have no influence whatever on the Great Whites

Drinkin' from the media fountain again?

"Shark expert Hugh Edwards and WA Agriculture Minister Terry Redman have backed the Australian Live Exporters Council in rejecting the Humane Society International’s (HSI) attempts to link recent tragic shark attacks off the WA coast to live sheep exports."

A fine howdy-do this morning as we awoke to this anti-shark/sheep media report out of Australia.

No doubt planted by our blogger nemesis in Fiji, one Da Shark, who never liked the idea of a causal link between hundreds of dead and floating "sheep pops" on the surface of the ocean to increased shark activity in a given region and unfortunate shark strikes on humans.

We cite two things wrong with this story.

1. The shark expert mentioned in this piece is a paid hack of the Australian Live Exporters Council.

2. La la la la la la la.

So there.

Meh.

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Punching Through The Blog Barrier - Da Shark!

Capt Zissou Approves - Breaking the Blog Barrier 2011

First there was the speed of sound.

Then the speed of light.

Barriers that man has surmounted with guts, know how, and heroic effort.

Today we celebrate the Shark Blog Barrier being broken in Fiji as Mike, aka Da Shark, announces his 1000th blog post.

For the past several years Da Sharks blog has been an industry mainstay, offering up ideas, kudos, and pithy, salted commentary with an industry and conservation focus. 

Why are independent industry blogs important?

Because the shark diving industry, an offshoot of the dive industry, needed it. Prior to the advent of the shark blogs, the industry was a tribal and fractured affair with little direction and no real conservation focus.

In many cases it was an industry that reveled in glorifying stupid stunts with sharks as an industry norm.

All that changed when operations discovered that not only were they being observed on an international level but actions taken with sharks were being talked about, discussed, and even picked over with the best ideas, best practices, and best conservation efforts being recognized.

Additionally the broader industry discovered that shark conservation was a key element to success.

No longer was it just acceptable to make money with sharks and repeat, the concept of regional stewardship for sharks was nurtured by the shark blogs with some first rate leadership examples and and quickly adopted by many.

It is now a fast growing trend.

The impact of the shark blogs will remain one of the shark diving industries least told stories, but today we celebrate the 1000th blog posts by one of the industries leaders. Like what he has to say or not, agree with his positions or not, the Fiji shark blog has blown open the doors on the discussion of sharks and conservation/industry development to a global audience.

And the entire shark diving industry is a better place for it.

Kudos to 1000!

Sharks - the Science - the Success!

Over in Fiji Da Shark and his entire team have a lot to be proud of when it comes to templates for sustainable and research interactive commercial shark sites - they have written the book.

We'll let Da Shark tell it in a blog post from today:

The section about Shark Tourism fascinates me.

Here are the numbers for our Sharks, in Fiji Dollars. One FJD is worth fifty US cents.

• The yearly turnover of Beqa Adventure Divers is FJD 1,100,000 (of which FJD 45,000/year marine park levy), all of which gets re-invested in country. Add to that the ancillary revenues in the tourism industry (airline tickets, transfers, accommodation, meals, souvenirs, excursions etc) and assume that the ratio is 1:2 (which is very conservative!) = FJD 2,200,000, gives a total of FJD 3,300,000.


• We work with approx 100 Sharks, meaning that every Shark contributes FJD 33,000 to the Fiji economy - not once but per year!
  


• Assuming that on average, a Shark will live for 20 years (less for Whitetips, more for Bulls), then the value of one Shark on our Shark dive is FJD 660,000.


• Our competitors work with the same Sharks. Assuming that their cash flow is similar to ours, one can double the above numbers.
  

Pretty darn impressive huh!

Shark Revolution - Great Shark Idea

Hats off (once again) to the Da Shark over at Beqa in Fiji for introductions to the Shark Revolution website.

What is the Shark Revolution?

Shark Revolution is a communication project done by Nature online aisbl, an International non profit organization. The objective of this project is to re-establish the reality of our species and to propose a truce to regulate the relationship between our two communities.

We have decided to take the initiative so that you can see what our day to day life is like.

Our website will follow our adventure. We will produce a black and white photographic exhibition. An artistic book in black and white with the best photos of our encounters. We will produce books with children’s stories with the most representative elements of our life.

More here.

For The Record