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
Ya gotta love Florida.If you're looking for beach related items you'll find them for sale at almost every corner shop in the entire state.
Beach towels? Yup, they got that.
Sunglasses? Yup, they got that too.
Seashells? By the bucket load.
Dead Tiger shark pups? WTF?
Apparently there's a company called Atlantic Coral Enterprise that takes dead Tiger pups from the Philippines and mounts them. Complete with a set of novelty googly eyes they sell these shark horrors for the princely sum of $49.99.
Of course we're not impressed at all.
In our world Tiger pups don't look like deflated tubes of dried leather. In our world Tiger pups look like this. Take your pick, which world do you want to live in?
Video by Fraizer Nivens, Tiger Beach, Bahamas 2011.
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 sharkcrew@gmail.com.
What is not in dispute is the fact that a circle hook, very similar to the one seen here, was embedded deeply in the throat of a white shark.
The team went on to try and remove this hook by pushing bolt cutters through the gills of the animal and only succeeded in getting a fraction back leaving the animal with a hook still embedded in it's throat.
The resulting media storm over this event sent shock waves through both the research community and the commercial shark world. Only a few of the commercial shark diving operators on the West coast of the USA got in front of this issue, we were one of them. Others who are far more commercially invested in the Farallones said and did little in the public forum for reasons that remain their own.
Our long standing commercial and conservation efforts with sharks have been predicated by one mandate "do no harm to sharks." We support all research and commercial endeavors until they break that simple tenant.
The badly mauled shark at the Farallones was tagged with a real time GPS monitor and we were told the animal was "in great health." Unfortunately since December 8. 2009, all our efforts to get this real time data monitored by an independent source seemed to have hit a wall.
To date we have sent six emails to NOAA's and GFNMS regional managers and have been told the following:
The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary will work with an independent, qualified reviewer with expertise in white shark behavior, husbandry, and/or health to assess the status of the sharks tagged last Fall around the Farallon Islands.
b) The independent reviewer will assess the status of the sharks by reviewing footage of the tagging operations and comparing the tracking data from Dr. Domeier's tags with the tracking data from TOPP's research project at the Farallones over a year's timeframe. The GFNMS has already contacted Dr. Domeier for his data to begin the assessment.
c) The GFNMS will notify you as soon as that person has been identified and the work has begun.
d) The GFNMS will notify you of the results and post the results of the assessment on the Gulf of Farallones website (farallones.noaa.gov)
It has been five months since this tagging disaster and we have not heard anything from NOAA or the GFNMS staff in regards to this pressing matter and it is time that we did.
Editors Note: Fiji's Da Shark has weighed in on this issue (again) and we have to agree with his take, makes for great additional reading.
The last report we ever expected to see coming from the Maldives and the South Ari Atoll, home of an excellent regional whale shark research program, might involve commercial operations in the area threatening violence at knife point.
From the Dhivehi Observer this week tales of "ugliness on the high seas" as commercial operations come into conflict with regional researchers over whale shark gold.
This is not a new tale, shark diving operations that are in conflict with each other are the stuff of legends within the commercial shark diving industry. Up until today these conflicts usually stayed quiet and never appeared on the front page:
"MV Orion and MV Southern Cross crews have allegedly threatened to ram rival boats and stand accused of throwing heavy dive weights at tourists and dhoni crews from nearby Diva Resort. Most shockingly, in January, the crew of MV Southern Cross boarded a dhoni belonging to the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, foreign researchers who monitor the sharks. The MV Southern Cross crew threatened at KNIFE POINT to kill the researchers unless they quit the area."
For the record we fully support the efforts of the Maldives Whale Shark Program and have done so for a few years.Small minded industry ugliness is not a new phenomenon. Calling it out for public consumption is.
The owner operators of both the MV Orion and MV Southern Cross must be made to understand that user groups have rights to animals as much as they do. A smart minded operation would seek ways to incorporate research into the fabric of its dive and marketing efforts, a win-win solution to user group conflicts under the banner of conservation shark diving.
Hopefully these well known dive operators will realize their errors before it is too late and commercial whale shark diving in Maldives becomes tainted by irreparable scandal.
Smart direct action protests begin with indigenous populations. The issue of sharks fin soup has been a tricky one with the perception of Westerns trying to influence a primarily Asian cultural issue.
Asians, for good reason, are resistant to heavy handed direct action eco push by outsiders. A fact many within the Western shark conservation community have discovered first hand over the years.
So, how do you change destructive indigenous cultural practices?
The IUCN has an idea, protesting and messaging with local populations:
"Lured by high profits, fishermen kill sharks only for their fins. They cut off shark's fins and dump the sharks into the sea and let them bleed to death," said Wang Yu-min, director of the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan. "Each year, some 4,000 to 7,000 sharks are killed for their fins. The International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that 111 species of shark are being threatened, of which 20 species are seriously threatened and 25 species face extinction," she said.
If there was some kind of award for shoddy, hyper inflated, negative shark coverage, NBC's The Today Show would get it.
Over the past several years they have been the media leaders in 1970's style "horror shark" media hits.
If there was an award for honestly in shark media, new Blue Blogger Dorsal Fin would get it.
This week DF earned an extra tall shark statue for calling out The Today Shows ongoing and dare we say it, "moronically half fabricated shark based clap trap."
Actually, we liked that so much we'll say it again, "moronically half fabricated shark based clap trap."
The media's responsibility for balanced shark reporting is paramount and the only way they will be made to come to their senses is if we all take the time to point out when they stray completely off the media reservation.
In The Today's Show case that is several times a year, with few if any media hits highlightingresearch, science, and the ongoingdecimation of worldwide shark populations.
Balance. In the world we live in it is needed now more than ever.
In case you did not know who Vic Hislop was, he's featured this month in Edit International magazine which poses the question "Are Sharks Targeting Humans?"
Vic Hislop Quote:
"When people put down shark cages for their thrill-seeking clients some of the burley (blood and cut up fish bait and meat) travels up to 40 kilometers away, say Hislop. These people would like you to think they are conservationists because they don’t kill sharks – but they are using thousands of edible fish as shark bait.He adds, Sharks pick up the scent, become aroused and are ready to eat by the time they reach the cage containing a human. If the cages were not strongly made, or fell off to the bottom, those stupid people would be goners in seconds. Meanwhile the sharks are not killed after the event. They are simply being trained to hunt humans.”
Editors Note: It is media quotes like these we are reminded of the commercial shark divers prayer - "Lord protect us from the small minded and the dim."
What started as an email this week about a breeding aged Mako shark "caught with a gaff" off the coast of Florida may well have documented a fisheries crime.
It’s not usually our style to let others speak for us but in this case I think a YouTube user said it the best:
"I have been big game fishing for 25 years and this is the most amateur kill i have ever seen. No wonder they have never seen anything like this before. They gaffed a green mako feeding on roadkill and were lucky they weren’t pulled in or worse, get there boat torn up after pulling him aboard. Drunken morons with no skills that are lucky that Mako didn’t tear them a new ass. What a disgrace, the fish deserved better. – YouTube user Zencaster"
While that is an interesting (and colorful opinion) I’d like to point out that the real issue here is that several fisheries laws may have been broken. First, watch the video…carefully.
IMPORTANT LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS Video time 1:10 (Reporters Voice): the crew wounds the shark with a gaff…
Here is the case to be made against the fisherman’s actions which appear to have been at least initialized by an illegal fishing method, free-gaffing or using a pole with a hook to capture the animal in such a way that it led to the animals harvest.
Case 1: How they might have broken the law in State Waters
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission manages their State waters (shore to 3 miles out) while being coordinated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) through an Interstate Fishery Management Plan. While the plan has undergone a series of recent revisions the current regulations clearly define that a shark may not be speared.
Current regulations define the term SPEARING as:
The catching or taking of a fish by bow hunting, gigging, spearfishing, or by any device used to capture a fish by piercing the body (gaff hooks .ed). Spearing does not include the catching or taking of a fish by a hook with hook and line gear, or by snagging (snatch hooking).
They further go on to clearly state:
Regulation #68B-44.003: Bag Limit Applicable to State Waters, Gear Restriction. (2) The harvest or attempted harvest of any shark in or from state waters by spearing is prohibited.
Thus in State controlled waters the fishermen might have broken the law by ‘free-gaffing’ the shark, ie they did not use a permitted method of capture, therefore they broke the law. Check out the regulations for yourself here: MyFWC.com or download the PDF version here: Current shark regulations (Note, even though there are currently amendments being discussed to these laws they only serve to strengthen the current regulations and do not in any case permit free gaffing sharks)
However: The video clearly starts with the disclaimer that they were 18 miles offshore, is this a loophole?
Case 2: How they might have broken the law in Federal waters
Federal waters are controlled by NOAA who run the Fisheries Office of Sustainable Fisheries: Atlantic Highly Migratory Species and have published the Guide for Complying with the Atlantic Tunas, Swordfish, Sharks, and Billfish Regulations (DOWNLOAD HERE)
Within this guide is given the strict instructions (click here for the most up to date digital version):
No person may fish for, catch, possess, or retain any Atlantic HMS (Highly Migratory Species .ed) with gears other than the primary gears specifically authorized in this part. Consistent with paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2) of this section, secondary gears may be used at boat side to aid and assist in subduing, or bringing on board a vessel, Atlantic HMS that have first been caught or captured using primary gears. For purposes of this part, secondary gears include, but are not limited to, dart harpoons, gaffs, flying gaffs, tail ropes, etc. Secondary gears may not be used to capture, or attempt to capture, free-swimming or undersized HMS. Except as specified in this paragraph (b), a vessel using or having onboard in the Atlantic Ocean any unauthorized gear may not possess an Atlantic HMS on board.
Let’s make sure you caught that:
Secondary gears (gaffs) may not be used to capture, or attempt to capture, free-swimming or undersized HMS
By capturing a free swimming shark without the use of primary gear they may have broken the law in both State and Federal waters leaving no real argument that could be made for where they were or what permits they were operating under.
Action
It is clear that these fishermen, knowingly or not, might have broken the law. As the NOAA documents clearly state: Since fishery rules frequently change, it is your responsibility as a fisherman to become familiar with the latest regulatory updates and to comply with the current official regulations.
Since the fishermen were so kind as to video and broadcast their video it should be an open and shut case for someone who knows fisheries laws.
SFMI will be writing to the following people and urge you to do the same:
NOAA’s Highly Migratory Species Management Division at: Phone: (301) 713-2347 Fax: (301) 713-1917 Email: Craig Cockrell (Craig.Cockrell@noaa.gov) or Peter Cooper (Peter.Cooper@noaa.gov)
JustNews.com (the agency that made the news report) Phone: 954-364-2500 Email: Click Here
From SFMI
I’d hazard that I’m not the first to pick up on these fine points of the law but if the video does indeed tell the full tale then these laws need to be enforced. If however the fishermen can provide video evidence of them using PRIMARY tackle (ie hook and line) to initialize the capture then they would be within their rights to have landed the shark. If this turns out to be the case then I will instead turn this report into a cautionary tale of how the media should be more responsible in reporting on shark harvests, particularly when dealing with species considered by some to be globally threatened. If you’d like to comment you can reach me at staff@sharkfreemarinas.com
Cheers, Luke Tipple Director of Shark-Free Marinas
Here's the website link and here's the product description, selling the dried spines of Thresher Sharks as an anti-cancer treatment for your doggie.
"The Anti-Cancer Supplement from the Sea!"
The company, Canine Caviar should know better and now with your help they can. Please send a polite email today asking owner Jeff Baker to stop selling dried sharks spine to consumers.
Anti-cancer treatments from sharks cartilage was debunked, and double debunked back in 1994 for humans, it looks like they have re purposed this medical fantasy for pets.
With the prescribed chew dosage of "one a day" and an estimated 72 million dogs in the USA you begin to see how this market driven demand might harm sharks.
Please send that email today.
Canine Caviar Pet Foods 3100 Airway Ave Suite 107 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 support@caninecaviar.com Tel: 714.223.1800 Fax: 714.223.1801 Toll Free: 800.392.7898
Like a tuna's ability to attract sharks in waters seemingly devoid of them, a politician will also be attracted to "an issue" just as quickly. Rep Gene Ward of Hawaii has chosen his next big platform to be commercial shark diving and has opened his candidacy as the lead spokesman against the entire industry with an Op-Ed this week. His folksy approach to the industry is peppered with themes and sentiments taken from 1976.
Posing a series of innocent questions couched in a framework of "raw meat and fear" Mr.Ward has masterfully pushed the agenda forward and set the table for existing shark diving closures in Hawaii.
Rep Gene Ward is not the problem but a symptom of how our industry fails itself. Mr.Wards newly discovered public anti-shark diving persona was spawned at the sight of 300 angry residents, protesting a simply ludicrous commercial shark diving roll out in Hawaii Kai. The arrogance and outright stupidity of that single effort is the reason Mr.Ward has chosen to make the banning of all shark diving operations his "new cause".
As we have said before and to whoever will listen - commercial shark diving is under siege. As an industry in the western hemisphere there is not one well known commercial site that is currently not under new rules or under review by politicians and agencies.
This is the face of the anti-shark diving lobby - they are well spoken, well networked, and agenda driven. When will our industry get it's collective head out of it's ass and start working on solutions?
