Commercial Shark Diving - Mexico's Bull Shark Conundrum

When news of dead Playa del Carmen Bull sharks surfaced last week, shark conservation groups went into action mode.

Word rapidly spread and conservation action began in the form of the Blue Heart Society.

Last week another voice has surfaced, Steven Spencer, who, in rather pointed open letter is suggesting that local dive shops are partially to blame for the actions taken by fishermen.

His letter serves as a wake up call to dive shops and new shark diving operations including those who would guide these nascent operations to best practices.

Without a strong conservation program in place on the opening day of shark operations, regional shark populations run the risk of "commercial promotion without representation".

More from Da Shark in Fiji.

Steven Spencer on Playa Killings

My name is Steven and i am writing in relation to some horrific Shark killings that have been happening close to the shores of Playa Del Carmen Mexico. You may have already heard something of this news but i am writing because all of the news that i am hearing and reading is very biased and largely untrue so i wish to write a true account to the best of my knowledge about these incidents and what has led to them.

I do not know if there is something that your organisation, or any organisation that you know can do about these occurrences, but i feel the need to write in true detail of what is happening as i am sure that if anything can be done then you will know better than i the people that could do something.

Playa Del Carmen is a tourist area that has grown considerably in the past decade. I have been diving there for 7 years, i have done many dives there as i have spent 5 months there every year for the past 7 years.

Bull Sharks visit these shores during the months between November and March. In my first 5 years of diving there i frequently saw groups of 2 to a maximum of 5 BullSharks in various dive sites, mainly Tortugas, Pared Verde and Barracuda. BullShark sightings were frequent during these months if diving regularly but could not be guaranteed.

Eventually one dive store called ‘Phantom divers’ began to feed an area regularly close to shore near a dive site called ‘Jardines’ and eventually the sightings of these BullSharks were very rare in other locations.

Phantom diveshop then began taking divers to the fed area close to Jardines and feeding these BullSharks whilst wearing a chainmail suit. BullSharks would gather there everyday during these months every year and eventually every other divestore in town hypocritically began running ‘BullShark dives’. I state hypocritically because every other diveshop spoke of their disliking of the Shark feeding but continued to make very good money from these dives.

I dived with these magnificent creatures many times, when they were in behaving naturally and when the feeding programmes began. Once the feeding programmes began they behaved very differently to before, if a boat passed overhead they would go into a frenzy as they expected food coming to them.

Anyway, the BullShark is not a protected species in Mexico and local fisherman have always killed 2 or 3 a year but now everything has all come to a very sad situation. I am aware of one true report where 9 were killed by a fisherman in one day and other reports have suggested that 25 were killed in 3 days. During my 5 months every year in Playa i would dive most days and i would estimate that there wouldn’t be much more than 50 BullSharks that visit these shores each year as i was frequently seeing the same ones, i only counted approximately 20 different ones. If this is the case then it is a large percentage of decline of this species there.

I am therefore 100% sure that because of this feeding programme it has herded them into one area making it very easy for them to be fished and slaughtered by local fisherman who now have the knowledge of their whereabouts. 2 or 3 killed a year before, and 9 killed in one day proves this is no coincidence and they would therefore have a better chance of survival if they were spread around as before.

Phantom divers is currently fighting for the rights for the BullSharks not to be fished for at this certain feeding point during the months that they visit the area, stating that the BullSharks congregate there to give birth, this information i know to be incorrect. They congregate there for the food that is fed to them and for no other reason.

It is obvious that the only interest in Phantom divers minds is the proffit that can be made from the BullSharks.

My interest is for the survival of these magnificent creatures and i hope by voicing my opinions, whether loved or hated might help towards this.

I thank you for your time in reading this and thank you for passing this information on to anyone who might be able to assist with this sad situation and if there is anything else i can do i would be happy to.

Steven Spencer.

The Demons of Durban - Part 2

From the Team Rebel Fishing Blog.

Today's land based shark fishing is 99% catch, tag, and release.

This was not always the case and this week the TRS blog launched a multi-part expose on land based shark fishing roots.

The Demons of Durban Part Two

The anglers would load up their newly acquired whale meat and head southward on the railway that lead to the end of Durban's south jetty, with hopes of taming these beasts that constantly patrolled the harbor. But the tackle and techniques these anglers choose to use were somewhat primitive, even for the day and age they were stalking these sharks. The tackle which was most commonly used to try to tame these giants from the rock laden jetty typically consisted of a wooden Scarborough reel, with rods constructed from locally grown bamboo. These outfits usually held anywhere from 600-800 meters of Flax line, which was then proceeded by a 30 meter length of wire or cable trace, that normally would have a dog chain link somewhere along the leader that was closer to the bait and homemade sinker. To deploy these baits off the jetty and into the shipping channel, one angler would typically hold the rod, while another angler would strip anywhere from 20-40 meters of line off the spool of the Scarborough reel, and lie it flat on the surface of the jetty.

Complete Post and Video.

DEL STONE: Shark Saturday? Why stop there?

Del Stone has just become our new favorite spokesperson for shark conservation with this weeks Op Ed in Florida's Daily News.

Sometimes a well reasoned rant is what it takes:

By Daily News Online Editor Del Stone

Given that many of the world's species of sharks are threatened with extinction, it makes perfect sense for the Destin Fishing Rodeo to sponsor a Shark Saturday.

Who but a fool would pass up a chance to see a giant, bloody carcass hanging from a hook with its entrails slopping over the dock as a drunken carpet store manager from Birmingham mugs for the camera? It's enough to make Jerry Springer slap himself on the forehead and cry out, "Why didn't I think of that?"

But why stop at sharks? Mother Nature has blessed the Emerald Coast with a variety of endangered creatures that could be exploited for the money machine.

For instance, we have pesky sea turtles crawling up on our beaches at night to dig holes. Why, a drunken teenager looking for a quiet place to have sex could stumble over a turtle and poke an eye out with his crack pipe. Besides, sea turtles attract unsavory varmints like conservationists. Destin could sponsor a Sea Turtle Recipe Roundup. I'm saving room for the Mother Kemp's Omelet with a side order of snail darter poppers and a rasher of hash-browned beach mice.

And those nasty pelicans - the same birds that were almost wiped out by DDT a few years ago - are everywhere! They're eating our fish, getting caught in our nets, and ruining our view of the concrete monads lining the coast. Why not have a game for the kiddies - Whack-A-Pelican. At least it'll get them away from the Wii for a few minutes.

Red cockaded woodpeckers also have returned to the Gulf Coast in numbers sufficient to line the pockets of a canny entrepreneur. Sure, they're endangered. But they're also drilling holes into perfectly good trees that could be used to build new tanning salons.

Dipped in a rich, heart-clogging batter, fried and served on a stick, Pecker Pickers could be the perfect culinary accompaniment to a leisurely day spent browsing the tents of a local art festival where all the paintings depict a lonely pirate wading ashore on a forgotten beach, a gnarly foul-mouthed parrot perched on his shoulder, a treasure chest overflowing with gold doubloons resting in the foreground, an unwhacked pelican sailing on a gentle coastal breeze as beach mice scatter to avoid omelet-makers in the background and a shark prowls the emerald green waters looking for a carpet store manager from Birmingham.

And why not sponsor a Republican Roundup? In the Obamaverse, Republicans are as scarce as sharks but a lot more deadly. Imagine a Humpbacked Republican strung up by his heels snarling Rush Limbaugh dialectics to an angry crowd that probably would have voted for him two years ago. It's enough to make Mitt Romney convert to Unitarian Universalism.

Yes, the Destin Fishing Rodeo has many other options than a Shark Saturday - Sea Turtle Sunday, Manic Manatee Monday and Parking Lot Tern Tuesday, to name a few.

What's needed here is a clarity of vision ... and a total disregard for the natural world that makes our house a home.