Shark Hope Video - First Rate Conservation Messaging

From TheDorsalFin on Aug.30, 2011 at 10:54 am, under Shark Videos.

Shark Defenders have posted the trailer above for a documentary titled “Shark Hope” to their YouTube channel. According to the video description the documentary is a collaboration between Walker Films, Ratu Manoa Rasagitale, the Coral Reef Alliance and Pew Environment Group. The documentary focuses on efforts to create Fiji National Shark Sanctuary.

Kudos to everyone involved in this project, this is first rate shark conservation outreach and messaging:

Dear Shark Conservationist How About a Modicum of Style?

Dear Shark Conservationist,

It has come to our attention that your shark conservation public outreach displays seem a little, what's the word here, lame?

Yes you have the tents, along with the hand drawn signs in some sort of day glow crayon that cry out "Save The Sharks!" and as always the cute, fuzzy, plush shark toys.

Seriously, this is five years of shark conservation public outreach? Have any of you ever done corporate display work?

Fact is the folks who market and trade shark products for money do not have cute, fuzzy, shark plush toys at their trade shows. They are in the business of selling shark products to the wider public and as such are trying to make a positive impression.

Ouch.

May we suggest that the next few dollars you manage to acquire from some well meaning donor be spent wisely and that you beef up or at least try and create memorable and professional displays for your public outreach work.

Here's one thought, let's get rid of those plush toys and replace them with a few dozen of these (see video).

When it comes to marketing sharks give the public what they want and deliver it to them with style:

Conservation (hic) Drinking for the Sharks

We loves our outta da box shark conservation initiatives.

Especially ones that generate funds for sharks.

Welcome to White Tip Lager Caybrews latest tasty lager in a partnership between the brewery and the Cayman Island Department of Environment.

The Cayman Brewery is also using the White Tip Lager to save marine wildlife.

“The Department of Environment’s Mat Cottam came to us and asked if there was there any chance of us actually partnering with them to use beer as a vehicle to push conservation and awareness in the Cayman Islands,” Mr. Mansfield said.

“Beer’s more interesting than a brochure usually,” said Mr. Cottam, manager of the Terrestrial Ecology Unit at the department, “and they were completely for it, they thought it was a great idea.”

The White Tip label was designed to promote awareness about dwindling shark populations worldwide and the environmental significance of this misunderstood predator.

The beer can is covered in snippets of information, as well as a 2D barcode that smart phone users can scan to be directed to the Department of Environment’s web page of shark information.

In addition to being a drinkable source of information, beer sales will also contribute to the department’s shark conservation efforts monetarily: Five cents from each can sold will go towards shark research, awareness and conservation programmes.

Story here.

Discovery Channel with the Shark Conservation Wrap

Discovery Networks has the wrap on shark conservation efforts worldwide this week.

2011 is the Year of the Shark, can it get any better?

Hat Tip: The Dorsal Fin for the video find.

Conservation Authority Guy Harvey Reiterates Shark Free Marina Policies

Guy Harvey, Chairman of Guy Harvey Outpost Resorts, underscores need for clear policy prohibiting the landing of sharks at a Shark Free Marina.

Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) June 16, 2011

Conservation and marine science authority Dr. Guy Harvey, Chairman of Guy Harvey Outpost LTD., announced today that a photographic image of a Mako shark, taken at the weigh in station of the Bimini Big Game Club and circulating on the internet, was authentic. “It is extremely disappointing that this occurred and is a clear violation of my shark conservation principles and efforts”, said Dr. Harvey, an recognized marine conservation authority and acclaimed artist. The Big Game Club operates under license from Guy Harvey Outpost, a company he co-founded to promote sustainable tourism and marine conservation among water sport enthusiasts and the legions of Guy Harvey followers worldwide.

He confirmed the shark was caught by a visitor to the Big Game Club while vacationing in Bimini over the Memorial Day weekend and the resort's dock staff assisted in hanging the shark up for photographs. The boat's captain, Chase Camacho, confirmed his charter angler fought the shark for over two hours after hooking it while deep drop fishing off the Bimini coast. "It's important to have a black and white policy with no grey areas when it comes to operating as a Shark Free Marina, particularly when my name is on the door”, Guy said in addressing the event.

“The boat's captain believed the shark was stressed to the point of dying, and thought it proper to bring it back to the dock so it could be given to the church for distribution to needy locals,” clarified Dr. Harvey, who holds a PhD in Marine Biology and directs shark research worldwide with the efforts of his scientific staff at the Guy Harvey Research Institute. Underscoring a common misunderstanding among anglers on the resilience of sharks, Guy noted “a nearly dead shark has a much better chance of surviving in the water than on the dock. Sharks are very tough animals.”

Professor Mahmood Shivji, Director of the “Save our Seas Shark Center” at Nova Southeastern University echoed Guy's sentiment. “It's a food cycle issue. We are dealing with a marine ecosystem such that a dead or dying fish provides food resource to the entire marine ecosystem and its best to let the ecosystem operate without intervention, however well intentioned.” Dr. Harvey characterized the event “an unfortunate learning moment for all anglers.” He went on to acknowledge the angler and captain erred with good intentions, and the shark was donated to the local community as intended but noted “in today's world there's nothing to celebrate in bringing any shark to the dock for a photo opportunity”.

With a Guy Harvey designed logo to identify member marinas worldwide, 'Shark-Free' marinas participate in a voluntary program to prohibit sharks from being landed at their facility. “Shark Free marina policies were designed to foster catch and release fishing methods by discouraging any thought of landing a shark for any reason”, Harvey went on to say. “Our Outpost team took immediate action to investigate this when first brought to my attention. Staff has been reminded of their role in helping promote shark conservation awareness by enforcing the policies of a 'Shark Free' marina." The Shark-Free Marina Initiative is a project of The Humane Society of the United States and supported in part by the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, an organization Dr. Harvey chairs to foster marine research and conservation.

The Shark Free Marina Institute's web site indicates that as many as 100 million sharks are killed annually, posing a serious threat to the oceans health. The stated purpose of a Shark-Free Marinas is to help reduce the take of sharks and encourage responsible use of the oceans. “With my worldwide efforts to promote shark conservation, particularly in the Bahamas, and my name on the front door of the Big Game Club, I've reminded staff that our marina will adhere to the Shark Free Marina Initiative policies, no exceptions” added Dr. Harvey. “We all have to play a part in protecting these magnificent animals.”

PADI Project AWARE - Shark Free Marinas Fiji

Shark-Free Marinas, Fiji

Fiji’s marinas and resorts are taking the lead on shark conservation. A Project AWARE grant supported the International Shark-Free Marina Initiative by working with marinas, boaters and fishermen to develop local shark protection policy that prohibits the landing of sharks.

Fishermen are not permitted to bring shark catches into any participating marina.

Under the leadership of Stuart Gow, Matava- Fiji's Premier Eco Adventure Resort, 13 marinas and fishing charters on Fiji's tropical islands have signed their commitment. Job well done Stuart!

Shark-Free Marinas New Website, New Marinas, Florida Focus

What started several years ago as a "conservation concept" born from the shark diving community has, in the capable hands of Luke Tipple, become so much more.

Welcome to the newly invigorated Shark-Free Marinas Initiative now with more participating marinas and PSA's featuring Slash, Guy Harvey, Alex Baldwin, Elizebeth Berkley, Nigel Barker, Jim Toomey, Bill Maher with the full support and backing of the Humane Society of the USA.

The Shark-Free Marinas Initiative now features a new division called Shark-Friendly Marinas a natural expansion of the original concept:

We'd like to register every marina as Shark-Free, however some state laws or private companies have policies which do not allow for a complete ban on killing sharks. In these cases we offer the Shark-Friendly classification which discourages the intentional killing of sharks.

The SFMI's early start was a rocky one. Thanks to several members of our own community who adopted this concept and brought into being by acting as self motivated boots on the ground, actively transforming marinas in their region to become Shark-Free.

To those few early adopters, Kudos, your leadership, your dedication to sharks allowed the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative to grow into what it is today.

The hard work is still to come and this month the SFMI has announced it's 201 Florida Focus with the help of Guy Harvey and the Guy Harvey Oceans Foundation to invite Florida marinas to become Shark-Free and Shark-Friendly.

Another shark campaign?

Yes, the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative is smart, targeted, and has the benefits of saving sharks now.

Join the shark conservation army and ask your local marina to become Shark-Free this month.

Shark Tournament Change - One Clinic at a Time

We have been supporters of changes coming to shark tournaments in the USA for a while. After close to a decade of failed zero sum policy by many within the conservation community seeking to have all shark tournaments "shut down," the realization that we must inhabit a middle ground for successful conservation is dawning on many.

The middle ground is a two pronged approach by members of the tournament fishing community and forward thinking conservation members to embrace circle hooks, and catch, tag and release tournament models.

It's a conservation strategy that works with the fishing community instead of marginalizing them, embracing a multi million dollar sportfishing community by allowing leadership to make important and long ranging conservation decisions based on science and best fishing practices.

This week that conservation strategy is spreading to Ocean City and only good things can come of it.

The big news this year is that the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation has signed on as a major sponsor of the OC Shark Tournament Release Division. Through his foundation's involvement, Harvey hopes to provide an increased level of shark conservation while demonstrating to the fishing industry that release tournaments with large cash payouts can be both successful as well as a wise alternative to traditional events that result in dead fish to being brought back to the scales.

OCEAN CITY -- For a long time, most tournament directors relied solely on the weight of dead fish at the dock to determine the winners of their event. But today, as more fishermen recognize the need for catch-and-release fishing, many tournament directors are responding by increasing the emphasis on release categories in their events. But properly running a release tournament, or even just a release division, is no easy task.

For a release division in which no physical evidence of the fish will be brought in, there must be rules and procedures to ensure the validity of each catch. Winners need to be properly verified just as losers need to be assured that they lost fairly.

Equally important is the need for anglers who engage in catch-and-release fishing, tournament or not, to do so with due regard to the survivability of their catch.

There's not much point in releasing a fish that's going to die anyway. This is particularly true in tournaments that result in a sudden increase in the amount of fishermen targeting species of fish that might already be pressured from other sources.

Since tournament anglers will likely be fishing at the top of their game, the average catch-and-release rates per angler go up during tournaments and, therefore, the need for proper release techniques is important.

With all this in mind, on Saturday, May 21, myself and the other the directors of the 31st Annual Ocean City Shark Tournament will be conducting a shark release clinic on the docks at the Ocean City Fishing Center from 4-7 p.m.

Complete story.

When the "Architects" leave the shark conservation movement

The last two years have been banner years for shark conservation.

What used to be a few small and impassioned voices out in the wilderness has turned into a veritable tsunami of groups, Facebook petitions, and thousands of individuals calling for shark protections worldwide.

That's the good news.

On the heels of this movement have come the "sharkitarians" those whose personal agendas and misguided passion have created a subculture of angry infighting, ugly assertions, and a new sideways conservation paradigm of "anything for the sharks".

This has included, but not limited to, stealing shark conservation ideas, concepts, websites, names, slander, tribal groupings, and personal attack efforts unrelated to sharks or conservation in anyway.

We have been at the center of this unhappy storm of discontent, and seen it happening over the past two years to many others. It has become so pervasive, so absolutely non-productive and toxic, that many of shark conservations "true architects" have been leaving for the exits as fast as they can.

These are the real innovators, the website designers, the conservation concept developers, and the outside-the-box thinkers.

Left behind is a growing eco-chamber of circular thought. Where ideas and media quotes like, "if we kill all the earths sharks we'll run out of oxygen to breathe" go unchallenged. To be repeated without any critical thought or real conversation about the impact of this particularly moronic statement on policy makers.

Folks, this is a crises, you may not see it now, but it is happening and the exits are reeling with the onslaught of departing bodies.

It has happened again this week and the loss was acute and a blow to the shark conservation movement, let's all take a moment to mourn the loss of Mark Thorpe.

Are we going to continue with this loss of the best and brightest?

Hopefully not, because there's 73 million important reasons we can think of to change the way we're doing business with each other right now.

From Da Shark in Fiji on Mark Thorpe.