Marshall Islands "They Be Burning Shark Boats!"

50 sharks. That's all it took for a Hong Kong fishing company to receive the following from the Marshall Islands who recently declared all of their waters a Shark Sanctuary:

1. One burned boat (TBA)

2. $120,000 fine

3. Permanent banning from the Marshall Islands

A long line fishing boat has been fined 120,000 US dollars and banned from fishing in Marshall Islands water for violating the country’s ban on shark finning.

The Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph says the shark fins and skins confiscated from the vessel that fished under the aegis of the Marshall Islands Fishing Venture will be publicly burned in the near future.

Marshall Islands Fishing Venture is part of the Hong Kong-based Luen Thai Enterprises, which operates long line fishing operations in Majuro and other parts of Micronesia to export sashimi to markets in Japan and the United States.

Shark fins and skins from an estimated 50 sharks were discovered on board the long liner during a regional fisheries surveillance enforcement program in February.

Mr Joseph says they will not relicense the vessel to fish in Marshall Islands waters.

He says the message they want to get out to anyone operating in Marshall Islands waters is that they are serious (about the shark ban), and it is the law.

Meanwhile, Marshall Islands Fishing Venture manager Derrick Wang says it regrets the actions taken by the captain of this particular vessel, and appropriate actions have been taken to ensure future incidents with this vessel and other vessels under of it will not happen.

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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.

WWF, AlJazeera, and Whale Sharks?

If you want to see some really good conservation reporting - go to AlJazeera this week. 

AlJazeera you say? Yes.

Kudos to Gelareh Darabi and her entire crew for this production.

For the past three years AlJazeera has produced a series of  top notch and in depth looks at our planet and the many conservation issues facing it.

This week the program Earthwise focused on Donsol and commercial whale shark diving there along with actual bots on the ground conservation efforts by the WWF who have made Donsol home for the past decade.

The look at how commercial shark diving helps local communities is a breath of fresh air, and for a global commercial shark diving industry proof positive that the net effects of commercial shark diving are good for local economies, conservation, and ultimnately the animals themselves.

Sustainable tourism trumps extractive fisheries every single time.

"Whale shark hunting hit a peak in the 1990s, with prices of up to $800 per kilogramme of dried fin meat attracting a fresh influx of hunters to Donsol in the Philippines. In 1997, around 200 of the creatures were slaughtered. Whale sightings started to diminish. After campaigning by the local community and conservation groups, whale shark hunting became punishable by Philippine law in 1998. WWF Philippines, the UNDP and the local government together developed a community-based ecotourism and conservation programme, with the aim of providing local people with a sustainable income whilst protecting the species. In a few years Donsol had transformed from a small coastal community into one of the world's most popular destinations for whale shark tourism."

Watch video here.

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving, film television productions, 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.

Counting Fiji Sharks 1...2...3

The folks in Fiji, I mean where do we start?

You want to do conservation right?

Here's where you start.

Mike aka Da Shark has unveiled a multi group effort to count the sharks in Fiji - and we like it.

You can actually join them in April if you are of the counting and diving type, hmm April in Fiji?

Take note Florida, Bahamas, elsewhere, you all have a nice new tool to use underwater and it's a winning combination of groups who are supporting this effort.

As Da Shark says:

"Everybody has been duly notified and barring the advent of a couple of Johnny-come-latelies, these are the operations who care and thus, the places where you should book your April vacation in Fiji. They are all excellent outfits and I highly recommend every single one of them. And should this be too short term, don't despair as we're likely to repeat the exercise in November!"

Hmm, November in Fiji?

Mark Harding vs Irrational Exuberance

Latest Facebook petition, "Save the B and W Sharks!"

We keep an eye on Mark Hardings conservation musings, his on target posts, and his homespun war on Irrational Exuberance and we like what we see.

Mark is one of a few within the industry of those who make a living with the ocean willing to say what he thinks. Swimming upstream against a tide of Facebook Conservation Hysteria where actual conservation has been diluted down to a few images (regardless of their pedigree and age) and a few petitions filled with factoids, whole cloth imagineering, and no end of self serving racist undertones.

Marks conservation posts seek the calmer freestone waters of complex thought and actual hard facts (now with 20% more links), where he can quietly sow the seeds and lay a foundation of thoughtful conversation and strategy.

Case in point, Latin American fisheries loopholes. Read this post.

Shark conservation is an evolving discussion and ongoing global strategy. There are no "wins", there is no "end" and for the foreseeable future only a series of branching conservation paths to choose from if we want to actually put a dent in the global decline of sharks.

To celebrate the Maldives Shark Sanctuary as "finished and done" is to walk away from the glaring Achilles Heel of the entire Sanctuary Movement. Governments change, and the the new boss, when it comes to conservation, is not always the same as the old boss.

Fingers crossed for the Maldives this year and next.

Read Marks blog, and bookmark it. When Mark decides to speak on an issue, you know he's thinking of the next generation who will one day choose to perhaps follow his lead. To be fearless about saying what they think, always swimming upstream, and adding their own DNA to thoughtful conversation and strategy.

We can use a few more like this.

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.

New paper on the economic value of sicklefin lemon sharks in Moorea

Business partner or simple catch? The economic value of the sicklefin lemon shark in French Polynesia by Clua, E, N. Buray, P. Legendre, J. Mourier & S. Planes (2011).

Most arguments invoked so far by the scientific community in favour of shark conservation rely on the ecological importance of sharks, and have little impact on management policies. During a 57-month study, we were able to individually recognise 39 sicklefin lemon sharks that support a shark-feeding ecotourism activity in Moorea Island, French Polynesia.

We calculated the direct global revenue generated by the provisioning site, based on the expenses of local and international divers. The total yearly revenue was around USD5.4 million and the 13 sharks most often observed at the site had an average contribution each of around USD316 699. Any one of these sharks represents a potential contribution of USD2.64 million during its life span.

We argue that publicising economic values per individual will be more effective than general declarations about their ecological importance for convincing policy makers and fishers that a live shark is more valuable than a dead shark for the local economy. Studies monitoring the potential negative ecological effects of long-term feeding of sharks should, however, be conducted to ensure these are also considered. Besides declarations about the non-consumptive direct-use value of sharks, as promoted by ecotourism, the calculation of their other economic values should also benefit shark conservation.

Complete paper here.