Worlds Largest Oil Spill - On Fire

We have been covering what is now the world's largest oil spill. Ten weeks into the disaster a "blazing middle finger" erupted in the Timor Sea this week as the actual drilling platform caught on fire. No crews were on board at the time and no one from PTTEP the company responsible for the platform knows how it started.

The ongoing disaster is being curiously under reported by main stream media. Estimates of 400 barrels of oil being spilled each day are coming from the oil company and not independent agencies who estimate many more barrels are gushing from this once productive well head many kilometers under the sea bed.

Oil Disaster Week Ten Numbers

70 - Number of days the Montera Oil Platform spill has been sending oil into the Timor Sea.

74,000 - Number of kilometers the spill now covers (the size of Liberia).

11, 760,000 - Estimated number of gallons of crude oil spilled off the coast of Australia.

Mossel Bay Shark Death Confirmed

Images like these serve as reminders that big sharks are not safe anywhere.

Rumors of a large shark caught in Mossel Bay, S.A home to several commercial shark diving companies have been floating around the industry for weeks:

"Commenting on the shark in the photographs, Geremy Cliff, head of research at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, confirmed that the 4,3-metre shark was caught in the shark nets off Zinkwazi beach on August 31."

We have been posting about how the death of just "one shark" can become the instrument for shark conservation change. Perhaps this shark will be that animal. For the many commercial shark diving companies in that region the loss of such a big animal will be felt. In the end it will be up to them with a coalition of NGO's to seek the regional changes necessary to save these magnificent animals from further catches.

S.A newspaper, The Witness, has the complete story.

Editors Note: See surprising update.

Dear Isla Guadalupe Operators - What part of this is wrong?

O.K folks it's time for "The Chat -Version Two."

As you may recall we have been blogging about the absolutely moronic series of piss poor media hits members of our own industry have been streaming to the planet via You Tube, Facebook, mainstream media and more. It has been a bad year for operators who have been handing the anti-shark diving lobby the story that we, as an entire industry, are little more than idiotic thrill seekers bent on getting folks killed.

Since the beginning of 2009, full cage breaches, tiger shark media disasters, and image gaffs have been blasted to every major media outlet on the planet.

Is anyone out there listening? Does anyone care?

Clearly not.

Shark Week 2009 displayed the worst in a series to date to an estimated 30 million viewers. A stunning media achievement, alas setting the sharks we know at this very site back to the stone age in terms of the public perception of them.

Well done industry guys!

So it is with little surprise to this blog that we discover yet another remarkably stupid video placed on You Tube under the guise of "conservation". We're pretty sure the folks who actually shot this video are meant well, and they are completely unaware of the ongoing fluid and tenuous situation with Mexican lawmakers who are asking for this site to be shut down.

UPDATE: This video was not enabled by any operator at Isla Guadalupe it was shot on a private vessel shooting with National Geographic, adding an interesting twist to the shark media landscape at this pristine shark site.

Here's why this video fails on all levels except for the gratuitous "lookee here" factor:

1. Mexican park authorities do not sanction out of cage diving at this site.

2. Mexico's anti shark diving lobby (Green Party) who are looking for reasons for closure, and who, as recently as 2007/8, called for a complete ban on shark cage diving.

3. Anti-shark diving lobby, who once again have been handed a media win and who will use this video to further their efforts at maligning our industry.

4. Apart from a small group of shark diving insiders, this video places patently false expectations on white shark encounters.

There's a number of alternate reasons why this video should be pulled, but it becomes exhausting to go over them - yet again. Suffice to say none of the operators we have spoken with think this is anything but a poorly done shark stunt that will harm all the operators at this site.

Shark conservation is not shark stunt work. Let's get that straight.

Note: The person behind this stunt is also well known for his deep involvement in production Shark Porn. Shows that ultimately serve to demonize sharks to the general public.

Here is his CV.