The shark diving industry blog covering sharks, shark cage diving, shark conservation and things we find "amusing" since 2008 www.sharkdiver.com, www.sharkdivers.com, www.divingwithsharks.com
Matava and Bite Me Gamefishing Charters in Fiji are taking a leading role in the international shark conservation efforts, organizing Fiji to become the first country to fully participate in the Shark-Free Marina Initiative (SFMI).
The SFMI works with marinas, boaters and fishermen to develop policy designed to protect sharks as a vital component of the oceans health. The SFMI has a singular purpose, to reduce worldwide shark mortality. Working with marinas, fishermen and like minded non-profit groups, the Initiative forms community conscious policy and increase awareness of the need to encourage shark conservation.
Shark Free Marinas work with, not against, the recreational and commercial fishing community, in order to raise awareness of the importance of a healthy shark population for our oceans, and to contribute to their ongoing survival.
Matava, together with partners in Fiji, has helped many marinas and charter fishing boats become SFMI certified, and Fiji now has more certified Shark-Free Marinas than any other country in the world. Stuart Gow, Director of Matava, said that his team has been actively promoting the SFMI, and distributing information about the Initiative, with the long-term goal of making Fiji “the first country to be proud to announce itself as a ‘Shark-Free Marinas’ Country”.
The majority of shark species caught by recreational and sport anglers are currently listed by the IUCN as “Threatened” (or worse) and each year, half a million of these sharks are killed in the US alone. It is estimated that 70-100 million sharks are killed yearly worldwide.
Matava is an eco adventure getaway in Fiji, offering a unique blend of cultural experiences and adventure activities in the pristine and remote island of Kadavu, Fiji. Matava is a PADI Dive Resort as well as a Project AWARE GoEco Operator, a title awarded to demonstrate a commitment to conservation and provide customers with experiences that enhance visitor awareness, appreciation and understanding of the environment. Matava is also one of the supporters of the Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project, which aims to raise global awareness of their imminent extinction of sharks and the crises facing our oceans.
With more than 12 years experience in the Fiji Islands, Matava is recognized as a leading educational dive center. Matava is participating in TIES ecoDestinations project (currently featuring “beaches, marine and coastal ecotourism experience”) as one of the Summer Special 2009 sponsors.
We have come to admire Scotty Gray owner/operator and driving force behind Blue Iguana Charters in the Florida Keys.
Scotty was the calm cool captain behind a few of our Tiger shark film shoots last season in the Bahamas. If it's sharky-Scotty will know about it or can take you there.
He recently sent over a dive offer he's calling the "Florida Keys Shipwreck Trail". We asked Scotty if this 3 day live aboard dive adventure was also "sharky" and his answer was-yes. Join him and his crew at a discounted rate of $285 per day and dive the following wrecks and a whole lotta reefs...plus a few sharks in between:
USS Spiegel Grove
USCGC Duane
USCGCBibb
The Eagle
The Benwood
The City of Washington
Scotty can be found here tell him the Shark Diver Guys sent you to get the special dive rate and good hunting!
Last month Shark Diver in conjunction with the boys from 689Design Ocean Reef and Bathys dive watches offered the Trip of a Lifetime-an all inclusive 5 day adventure to Isla Guadalupe.
The numbers of entrants exceeded even our wildest calculations and after spending several weeks in Florida counting hanging chads, dimpled chads, and chaddy chads we said "Nuts to this" and picked someone at random out of a 1920's Top Hat found floating in the Atlantic after the sinking of the Titanic-true story.
O.K-The winner is....Jennifer McCormick
Congratulations we'll be calling you today to set up your next great adventure!
Another stellar week at Isla Guadalupe although our seasonal record was broken this week:
Hi All,
We didn't have the beautiful sunrises that we are accustomed to at Guadalupe the fog bank at the top of the 4000' island peak saw to that, but we had amazing weather to make up for it.
Glassy calm sea once again today with 80 degrees on the back deck under sunny skies once that fog broke. Thewater was a balmy 71 degrees, with vis in the 100 foot range. Sharking was slow this morning with deep passes being the norm. We brokeour string of 44 straight cage rotations spanning two trips with at least one shark in play.
We had one rotation without a shark this morning...ohmy! But we made up for it as the action got good this afternoon with 4sharks arriving on scene by 1:30. The remainder of the afternoon wasfilled up with Mau and three others that we have not yet ID'd monopolizingthe back deck and our divers attention.
We also had a 3 foot blue shark arrive on scene...it quickly left as it'slarger cousins gave it a scare. Boy he walked off into the rough part oftown!
We're now underway heading toward San Diego with 16 happy Shark Divers we'll update you if we see anything like last weeks Blue Whales and Hammerheads!
Editors Note: Shark Diver and Shark Diver New Zealand will no longer be supporting or marketing the commercial efforts at Stewart Island until further notice.
The revelation that one of the operations on site has a second commercial vessel that engages in commercial shark finning was a non starter for us. We'll keep you updated as new, conservation minded operations start here.
Shark diver Bill Wieger joined us a few years ago at Isla Guadalupe.
At the time he was fresh face in another week long batch of excited divers we see each season, but we quickly came to know Bill as an artist.
On his first expedition to I.G he was introduced to a simply stunning female shark we named "Mystery" for her ability to just appear when she wanted to and vanish just as quickly.
As you know by now the I.G site is known for 100 foot visibility-so that's a pretty neat trick considering this animal is simply huge.
Bill went home and reproduced "Mystery" as a sculpture and now produces limited editions for interested divers and shark fans worldwide. As you can see from this image, he's got talent!
Right about now about 20% of you have your credit card out and we're pretty sure he will not mind if we post his email for interested buyers: billwieger@att.net
It's always nice to get noticed in your time and today Shark Diver was noticed in a big way by Wejetset Magazine the webs source for all things travel gear related.
Over the years we have noticed a number of sites like these. Keeping fresh travel content alive on these sites is always a challenge.
From the initial look these guys are masters of the art and we look forward to seeing more sharky content up in the coming months.
Oh, and by the way, we highly suggest snagging the Magnetic Sudoku which provides endless gameplay and portability...you know, in between 90 foot shark dives somewhere tropical.
Since when did big aquariums decide that they would open their tanks to every Joe Diver in the world for instant shark thrills?
It started a few years ago with one or two smaller aquariums offering shark dives. Then as we reported last month the Grand Daddy of them all the Georgia Aquarium decided to offer interactive Whale Shark encounters.
Here's the rub, for years, aquariums have fought for legitimacy, saying that animals in captivity were ambassadors for the species. In 99% of these cases they were right.
Now the party line has shifted as aquariums look for new ways to generate revenue and to attract media attention. In the case of Florida they have been at this since 2001, about the same time that all commercial shark diving in the ocean was banned.
May we suggest a middle ground here?
Perhaps, if someone with say, $500,000,000 would be interested in building the ultimate dive attraction, it could be created for divers from around the world, indoors, with plenty of sharks for all.
Total commercial, total experience, instant sharks for all. Shark Diver is standing by with site plans and a logo.
Over the years we have had many memorable moments at our Isla Guadalupe dive site.
When you are fortunate enough to have had as many years of Great White shark encounters as we have had-things just have a way of happening.
Take Sterling Wilson and crew here. They joined us from Texas (the cool part) and like so many divers were hoping to just "see a great white shark".
By day two of their dive adventure our crew had personally introduced them to well over 20 different animals and they were beginning to run out of film. That's when they said they wanted to get a group picture.
All four intrepid divers decided to siton top of the shark cages with Cuban Cigars to get this memorable shot. It was the last dive of the day, and the sharks had disappeared for an hour-"Let's go!".
It's moments like these that make a shark diving adventure. Good friends, great sharkin', and a Cubano. Does it get any better?
As we gear up for another month in the Bahamas to go play with Tigers this year-we just can't help pointing out other dive sites for your review.
A lot of shark divers think that you have to "go with the pro's" and that's just not the case. For example, this video was sent in to us today by Jillian and Tom. Apparently, this is Kuramathi Island in the Maldives- and from the looks of things we'll be diving here soon.
Not all sharks will allow divers to just jump in with them, but if this was us, at this site, we would be in there with those critters faster than Jimmie Johnson at NASCAR.
Grab a tank, snorkle, mask, and get in the water. The shark diving is fine:
Oct. 1-5 2007: Great White Shark Diving with Shark Diver.com
Let me start off by saying that this is the third trip I have taken with Shark Diver.com to Isla Guadalupe. My first trip in Oct. of 2005 was so amazing that I immediately started counting down the days until I could return again and signed up for the following year. My Oct. 2006 trip was even better and, once again, I signed up for another tour at Guadalupe. I thought I knew what to expect this third time around and was even worried that I might not have as good of a time going back again. I was WRONG!!!
The first difference on this trip was plan for departure. Due to the new passports requirements, instead of boarding the boat in San Diego, we took a bus down to Ensenada and boarded the boat there. The bus ride went by pretty quickly as I took the time to get to know some of the people I would be sharing small spaces with for the next week. We also had a little sight-seeing along the way including a great view of one of the largest's tuna fisheries around.
Once all the gear was loaded and we were assigned our cabins, the boat headed out for the long ride across the Pacific. I had my first inclination that this trip might be a little special when we had the pleasure of cruising with a huge pod of pilot whales. I had only seen one in the wild before and there must have been 50 in this pod. They actually swam with us for a while and seemed to be playing with the wake of the boat.
After a nice day of getting to know my shipmates and watching the pilot whales, we sat down to our first dinner on board. The meal was the equivalent of anything served at some of the finer restaurants in the Bay area – a far cry from the greasy burgers one might expect to eat on a typical fishing vessel. With a fantastic meal and some red wine performing an elegant dance in my belly, I descended down into my bunk to let the boat gently rock me into my oceanic slumber.
The next morning, we arrived at the island, anchored and the crews immediately began to prepare for three days of diving. The first shark showed up before the cages were even completely setup - yet another sign that we could be in for an unbelievable week!
There are two cages that comfortably hold four divers each so there are hourly rotations with eight divers. With only 16 divers max, that means you are in the cage for an hour and topside for the next hour all day - plenty of dive time for everyone! I ended up in the second rotation which gave me time to get my camera gear setup and let my breakfast settle a bit. That was the start of three solid days of non-stop action and excitement!
There were sharks on every single rotation and when I say sharks plural, I mean it! There were multiple sharks each time and several times, I counted five different sharks circling the cage during one rotation. Sometimes they took turns coming up for a close look at us in the cages. Other times they ambushed us in pairs. The "slow" times were when sharks just circled the cages below - still in sight, but not close enough to see the pupils of their eyes!
As if multiple Great Whites on the cage at a time wasn't enough, the next thing that happened caused my jaw to drop to the bottom of the cage. I was watching one large female (named Chica) slowly cruising around with an entourage of three smaller males following her around. They were swimming faster, circling each other, facing off, darting up to the cages and then back down to follow her again. That is when the unexpected happened. One of the young males abruptly turned his head up, got completely vertical and then put on the speed - straight up and OUT - he just DISAPPEARED! We had just witnessed a Great White breach and we had a front row, underwater seat to that amazing spectacle! I couldn't believe my eyes!!
And that was STILL not all that was going to make this the most amazing trip I have been on to date! Not only did we witness more breaches, but my cabin-mate actually caught the first one on camera!! She was supposed to be in the cage with me and would have seen it from underneath, but she had been feeling ill that morning and was sitting on the top deck trying to get some fresh air. She had her camera in her lap, heard the splash, looked up and raised the camera just in time to snap the shot! I have to admit that I was a little (ok, maybe a LOT) jealous that she was able to get the shot, but I was more excited than "green" .
You think I'm done, right?? Well, not quite yet!! On the third day of diving, I dropped in the cage for another rotation and still hoping to get "the shot". About 10 mins. into the rotation, there was a strange "vibe" in the water and I saw tons of bubbles from the panga boat circling above. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew it was BIG. Then the cage was pulled over to the boat and the divemaster was knocking rapidly on the cage. I looked over and my cagemates were starting to exit. All kinds of reasons started going through my head about why we had to be pulled out of the cage so rapidly. However, NONE of them were correct!!
It was a predation!!! The topside group had actually witnessed a Great White kill a seal and they were pulling us all out of the cages so we could join in and watch the feeding. I had never seen so much bright red blood in the water. I was mesmerized by the scene that was unfolding in front of us. The video was posted on YouTube, but if you haven't seen it yet - you should definitely check it out!! Here is the video:
Talk about ending the trip with an exclamation point!!! WOW! It just can't get better than that...or CAN it? Well, for me, there was one more event that was the icing on the cake. It was the final rotation of the final day and I was still snapping off pictures of the sharks who had been visiting all week long. There were only about 15 or 20 minutes left before we would have to return to our normal lives when my favorite shark of all time decided to pay us a visit - the infamous SHREDDER!!! I was so excited, that I actually screamed out his name through my regulator and tried telling all my cagemates that THIS was the shark I had been talking about all week. He came at the bait on my side of the cage and opened wide so I could get the shot I had been waiting for - mouth open wide with gill slits showing!
If you are looking for a trip to take or are one of those people who have always wanted to see a Great White, but just haven't made it happen, I would highly suggest you put this trip on the list. It is truly an amazing adventure!!
Matava and Bite Me Gamefishing Charters in Fiji are taking a leading role in the international shark conservation efforts, organizing Fiji to become the first country to fully participate in the Shark-Free Marina Initiative (SFMI).
