Special Great White Shark Expedition to Guadalupe Island.

Shark Diver is excited to announce that we will have a very special expedition to Guadalupe Island this fall. From Sept. 8-13 we will have both Nicole Nasby-Lucas, the scientist responsible for the Guadalupe Photo ID database and Tanya Houppermans, a world renowned underwater photographer on board.

Nicole Nasby-Lucas

Nicole has been studying the white sharks of Guadalupe Island, Mexico since 2001. Her research includes satellite tagging and tracking studies to examine migration patterns and behavior. She also manages the Guadalupe Island white shark photo-ID program and maintains a database of all sharks sighted at Guadalupe Island since 1999. The photo-ID program is important for tracking the visitation patterns of individual sharks as well as monitoring the overall status of the population. By using the unique coloration of these sharks, she’s been able to identify over 360 individuals to date. This project started in 2001 and some of these sharks have been seen every year since. All of this research is crucial for the management and conservation of northeastern Pacific white sharks.

All our guests will receive a copy of the official Guadalupe Shark Photo ID database. How awesome would it be if you can say "this is the shark that swam right next to me" the next time you watch Shark Week?

Tanya Houppermans is a world renowned underwater photographer and conservationist best known for her images depicting the grace and beauty of sharks.

 

Tanya Houppermans

 

A former mathematician and research operations analyst, she left the corporate world behind in 2015 to concentrate full time on conservation after learning that over 70 million sharks are killed every year with many species being on the verge of extinction. Her articles and images have been published around the world, and she is the recipient of several prestigious awards for her photography including her photo "Harmony" which won:

First Place awards in the ‘Sharks’ category in the World Shootout in 2017, First Place in the ‘Portrait’ category in the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition, and the Grand Prize in the California Academy of Sciences Big Picture Natural World Photography Competition. 

"Harmony"

 

A prominent public speaker, Tanya has shared her experiences in the underwater world with international audiences in locations such as Singapore, Shanghai, Paris, and Washington D.C. She is actively involved in cutting-edge shark research and helped to develop the citizen science program Spot A Shark USA to study sand tiger shark populations along the east coast of the Unites States. Tanya can be seen in the program ‘Shark Gangs’ that highlights her work with the sand tiger sharks of North Carolina as part of National Geographic’s SharkFest 2021.

Sand Tiger aggregation

 

On our expedition Tanya will share her vast knowledge of underwater photography, giving tips and advise to our guest as well as talk about her work in conservation.

Having both Nicole and Tanya on board will give our guests the unique opportunity to get to know our sharks, some of which we have known for over 20 years now, participate in the research and learn how to take awesome pictures and videos or our toothy "friends". 

We only have a limited number of spaces left on this special expedition. Call us at 619.887.4275 or email crew@sharkdiver.com for more info.

Let's go shark diving!

Cheers,

Martin Graf

CEO Shark Diver

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 crew@sharkdiver.com.

Is shark diving good for conservation?

Conservation and Shark Diving are often seen as opposites and not compatible. Let's look at some of the concerns raised and see how valid they are.


The biggest issue a lot of people have with shark diving and specifically feeding dives is that "It conditions sharks to associate people and divers with food!" While it does indeed condition sharks to associate divers with food, it definitely doesn't condition those sharks to associate divers AS food. The sharks at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve are being fed 5 days a week and I dove on a non feeding day. I got to about 45 ft when a few Bull Sharks sharks approached me, clearly looking for food. After they swam around me for a little bit, they realized that I didn't bring any food and they left. At no point did they show any indication that they looked at me as food or made any attempt to bite me. I actually think that being around divers at feeding sites makes the sharks less likely to attack. If I would be approached by a bunch of Bull Sharks at a non feeding site, I would be a lot more concerned, since it is unusual for them to approach divers without being attracted by some kind of food or chum source.

Another argument against feeding sharks is that it alters their feeding and migration behavior. Since I'm not a scientist that has studied this issue,  my experience comes from observing and diving with sharks, I defer to those who actually studied this issue. There are a few good papers out that are addressing this.

This one is from 2013 by Juerg Brunnschweiler and Adam Barnett: https://fijisharkdiving.blogspot.com/2013/03/feeding-bull-sharks-in-fiji-paper.html 

Or this one: http://fijisharkdiving.blogspot.com/2010/06/does-shark-feeding-influence-shark.html 

Essentially they are saying that it has no real impact on their migration and hunting behavior. Click on the links above for more detailed information.

OK, so shark feeding is not as bad as people think, but is it actually good for conservation? While there are certainly some outfits that don't have conservation in mind when they do their shark dives, there are also responsible operators who care deeply about conservation and who have accomplished some amazing things.

We all know about the problem associated with the overfishing of sharks. If we want to protect sharks, we have to find a way for the shark fishermen to make a living doing something else.When we argue that a life sharks is worth hundreds of times the amount of a dead shark, we have to make sure that a life shark is worth more to the fishermen as well and not just to the tourism industry.

This is what Beqa Adventure Divers (BAD) has accomplished in Fiji. They got a fishing village to agree to not fish on a reef in exchange for a fee paid by all the divers. "They also hired people from fishing villages and trained them to be Divemasters, Instructors and Boat Captains. When they started diving at that reef, an initial fish count netted about 280 different species of fish, which for the south pacific is very dismal. Ten years later, another fish count showed over 480 different species. The number of sharks seen at the feeds also increased from a handful to sometimes over 100.

The efforts of BAD has resulted in the reef the shark dive takes place on being declared a national underwater marine park, the Shark Reef Marine Reserve. To my knowledge this is the first time a private entity managed to create a national park. Not only does the fishing village continue to receive money from the divers, which they use for educating their children, creating opportunities outside of fishing for them, but the ones who are still fishing now catch more fish outside of the reserve than they ever caught in and outside. This is clearly a win win situation, where the sharks, the divers and the fishermen all profit.

So clearly, operating a shark feeding dive has benefited not only the sharks, but the reef as a whole. Shark Diver is proud to support BAD by taking a group of divers to dive with them every year. This year we are heading there in May. Since we are based out of a hotel, the dates are flexible. Call Cindy at 619.887.4275 or email crew@sharkdiver.com for more info.

Here is a little video of what you can expect to see on your trip.

 

Let's go Shark Diving!

Cheers,
Martin Graf

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 staff@sharkdiver.com.

Red Truck Fly Fishing - Why We Fish

As the CEO of a shark diving company I have what many consider an "odd hobby" that has nothing to do with sharks, conservation, or even the dive world.

It is a hobby that has found me over the years at 12,000 feet chasing Golden Trout
on the side of a mountain, and on backwoods "roads" in the western states where only a Toyota 4Runner could navigate. It has found me on more rivers and lakes then I care to remember all over the planet, on snow lined banks in the dead of winter where the deep freeze crystallizes the earth, and sleeping trout slurp buggy nymph patterns. It has found me camping overnight on stream sides where the morning dew coats everything in a rain forest like embrace of perfect wetness.

My hobby is more than a hobby.

Over the years it has turned me into an entomologist, a naturalist, a geologist, and a river keeper. Up until now I have not been able to share my hobby with those outside the fly fishing world because it is a world that is hard to describe and even harder to capture visually...until now.

The good folks over at Red Truck Fly Fishing have managed the impossible and have captured my other world in fantastic and riveting detail.

Welcome to my other world:

Lithodes galapagensis "all you can eat"

The place on the Internet for underwater news is Underwater Times.

They have been the leader in "breaking underwater news" from whale strandings to this weeks announcement of a new species of King Crab discovered by Sally Hall, a PhD student at the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES).

As huge fans of crustaceans in all forms this is an exciting announcement. Unfortunately Lithodes galapagensis is found in deep water off the Galapagos and is much bigger than it's Alaskan cousins.

Looks like a tasty discovery to us.

Can anyone say Deadliest Catch Galapagos?

Life of Brian:Not the "Peoples Judean Front"

The Advertiser--Seal Recovers From Shark Attack.

An emaciated seal pup named "Brian" by his care givers washed up on the shores of Gleelong, Australia (where else?) this week. The pup was attacked by a shark and starved for three days on the beach while his wounds became infected.

Luckily, plucky "Brian" was discovered on Indented Head beach and concerned beach-goers contacted Leopold Wildlife Shelter and Wildlife Rescue Service. Think Steve Irwin in even tighter shorts.

Wildlife angels David and Helen Burrell swooped in and picked up the emaciated seal a week ago and have given him around-the-clock care since. Mr Burrell said the seal, which they christened "Brian", was "very lucky''.

Here's the whole story and a bonus video from Monty Pythons "Life of Brian":