Changes to Fisheries Laws - Florida

An extraordinary and diverse group of conservationists, divers, and shark people banded together to effect a change in shark fisheries along the coasts of Florida this year. Kudos to the effort.

We got the final synopsis from Guy Harvey this week:

On December 10^th, the Florida Wildlife Commission approved new measures aimed at protecting several distressed shark populations in Florida state waters. Beginning in mid-January 2010, the harvesting of sandbar, silky and Caribbean sharpnose sharks is prohibited within state waters. These species are either currently being overfished or are in danger of being overfished.

In addition, the FWC implemented several other protective measures, including 1) the prohibition against the removal of shark heads and tails at sea, 2) a rule allowing for only hook-and-line gear to harvest sharks and 3) the establishment of a minimum fork length on several shark species.

Another encouraging development at the Dec. 10^th meeting was the proposal of a rule that would prohibit both recreational and commercial harvest of lemon sharks from state waters. Lemon sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing, so conservationists – including representatives of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation – have been lobbying the FWC for some time to adopt more aggressive protective measures for lemons. The FWC will hold one more public meeting on this proposal before putting it to a final vote.

All in all, the Dec 10^th meeting of the FWC was a great day for shark conservation efforts in the state of Florida. Many thanks to the FWC for taking a leadership role in the protection of our marine ecosystems!

For more information about the new rules, and to view the presentations on shark management and lemon sharks that were used at the meeting, see the official FWC press release published on the FWC web site.

Cheers!

Additional in depth look into Florida shark fisheries here from the Paxton Blog.

Australia's Tourism "Shark Holocaust"

Australia's Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, Tim Mulherin, believes in anti shark programs for tourism.

This week it was announced Australia's long standing drum line program had successfully killed 500 breeding aged animals from 14 foot Great whites to 12 foot Tigers.

All in the name of tourism and "incident free beaches."

"Any size shark can cause serious injury or death if they attack. However, sharks more than 2m long are particularly dangerous and are more likely to cause fatal injuries, he said."

Drum lines and shark nets are a surprising 1960's answer to shark attacks worldwide and indiscriminately destroy regional populations of sharks and assorted by catch from dolphins to turtles.

Sadly there are viable options for regional governments that would work to preserve shark populations.

This blog proposed viable "human netting options"
many months ago along with a first alert tagging program.

In the end it is up to regional efforts lead by local stakeholders to effect conservation change.

Until the public is made aware of the abject waste of top predators in their waters the killing will continue and future shark generation will continue to decline.

It would seem that sharks in Australia just cannot seem to get a break. An ecological disaster in the making since 1963.

Shark Survivability 0% To 80%

A very large percentage of "shark fishermen" are in fact "accidental fishermen" - like these fine examples from New Jersey.

After watching this video shark conservation folks can do two things:

1. Get angry and rail at all shark fishermen.

2. Produce the tools for shark survivability.

A series of well placed informational videos highlighting catch and release techniques with real sharks would "educate fishermen" how to save sharks. The fishermen in this video unknowing killed this animal. They just lacked any clear idea how to deal with a shark, from gaffing, to hook removal.

With an industry leader like, Guy Harvey, and the backing of the IGFA, these videos would do more for sport caught shark survivability then most efforts currently being promoted.

Education is the golden key to sport caught sharks.

As shark conservation folks why don't we lead this issue instead of reacting to it? Any takers?

Tammy Jo Anderson - Op Ed Guam

Tammy Jo Anderson is the education coordinator for UnderWater World Guam and an advocate for sharks. This week she offered a well thought out Op Ed on the reasons for keeping wild shark populations. Here is an excerpt:

Sharks are a different story.

These fish have been swimming our oceans for millions of years before even dinosaurs were walking around on the planet. Sharks have survived massive changes in climate and numerous other hazards to make it to today.

Now, the main thing that is threatening their existence is us.

Complete Story

Shark Hating Voyeuristic Parasite?!

Kevin Harris. You either agree what he has to say, or hate what he has to say. Either way you are obligated to have an opinion-because that's how he's set himself up.

One of our favourite shark blogs penned by the folks over at Beqa Adventure Divers all but detonated on Kevin Harris this morning. It's interesting reading.

For the record we're on the fence with Kevin. He skates a fine line between 70's conventional wisdom about sharks that often fail to take into account recent data trends and shark research. The difference, for example, between chumming for pelagic shark species vs reef sharks and a host of other salient points when lumping together "opines" on everything from shark attacks to site closures.

On the plus side Kevin has gone where no one has gone before taking a deeper look into industry shark attacks and poking about in places where our industry does not typically want anyone poking about. This is the blogger equivalent of the 400,000 soldiers who marched straight line into machine gun nests during the battle of Ypres in 1916...when you come out into this industry with opinions there's no where to hide.

One thing is for sure Mr.Harris is not the mindless WOW playing shut in behind the Cyber Diver Network whose anti-shark diving crusade is nothing short of pathological. We would humbly submit to you in the realm of "Shark Hating Voyeuristic Parasites" this fellow gets the award post dated to 2000.

Mr.Harris, his website and opinions, are more nuanced than that. As we said back in September:

"An industry is only an industry when people discuss views, organize, and debate topics affecting that them. Kevin Harris provides the starting point for many of those debates for the commercial shark diving industry".

He also has managed to raise the ire of many along the way, which we suppose, was part of the game plan from day one.