The Ultimate Free Diving Adventure 2010

In October/November 2010, Fred Buyle and William Winram invite you to embark on an expedition of a lifetime.

Join them on a 10 day live-aboard expedition and freediving course that will start in San Diego California and finish up in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

Fred and William are teaming up with World Champion freediver Pierre Frolla and Marine Biologist and TV personality Luke Tipple to bring you this unique expedition based breath-hold diving adventure.

The one-way format of this trip gives us the time to intimately explore remote areas of the Baja coast as well as offshore destinations interacting with some of the oceans top species from whales to sharks this expedition will do it all.

2010 Expedition Team Leaders

Fred Buyle
World renowned underwater photographer and 4 time world record holder, Fred Buyle has been freediving since his childhood. He is a committed educator and environmentalist, assisting scientists in their research through his exceptional breath-hold diving skills.

William Winram
Considered one of the best overall competitive breath-hold divers in the world, William is also an avid conservationist. He has been using his breath-hold skills in shark-tagging expeditions along with fellow waterman Fred Buyle, to assist marine scientists in their efforts to protect these widely endangered animals.

Luke Tipple
A marine biologist passionate about the ocean and its conservation he has been involved with the Ocean since the age of 5. Luke has worked and dove with over 12 species of sharks and is considered an expert when working with Apex predators. He is also the Director of the Shark Free Marina Initiative.

Shark Diver New Zealand Announces New Great White Shark Location – “Open For Conservation”

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SharkDiverNZ.com -- Press Release Distribution 2/15/2010
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Shark Diver New Zealand is currently on hold while parent company Shark Diver makes necessary changes to websites and working partnerships in the region. Please stand by.

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.

Deep Blues - R.I. Shark Documentary

To all who had forgotten about the venerable Snappa Charters and Captain Charlie, here is a reminder that he's still "Running with the Blues" on the east coast and still thrilling divers almost 12 years later with a recent documentary about his operation. Snappa Charters remains one of the USA's oldest shark diving operations.

Kudos to Scott Tucker for the documentary, as always the Dorsal Fin Blog looked into the media side with a finer comb and brought up some salient points:

Chip Scarlett and Sharks - Visually Stunning

We are big fans of pro shark PSA's, especially ones that deliver strong and cohesive personal narratives.

Underwater photographer Chip Scarlett knows this art form well and has delivered one of the most engaging shark PSA's we have seen in a while. All that is needed now is a gentle push into the Internet and about 100,000 more viewers.

Kudos:

NY Times Featuring Industry Member

If there's one thing we like to see it's well balanced and pro industry reporting in the major media.

Too often the industry receives a black eye when operators fail to heed basic media commandments.

As in "Thou shalt not do extreme shark diving media, ever".

It is once again gratifying to see Beqa Adventure Divers in 2010 leading the charge with a well balanced article by Greg Winters.

All the commercial elements are open for review in this article, featuring the pros and cons of the commercial shark diving industry. Coming on the heels of last weeks anti-shark diving media orgy in South Africa - this is fair and balanced reporting.

It could not have come at a better time.

Kudos.

Dive Site "Oceania" - Unveiled 1.1. 2010

The most anticipated white shark discovery in the past decade will be unveiled to the public on January.1.2010

Code named "Oceania" this unique and remote dive site, featuring very large white sharks, resides in the southern hemisphere during a 3-6 month shark diving season.

Stay tuned and expect a very Happy New Year.

Video courtesy of Richard Theiss RTSea Productions.

Miami Green Oceans Forum 2009

Looking back on 2009, one of the highlights for Shark Diver and Shark Divers in a year that was filled with conservation excitement was attending the Green Oceans Forum as a guest speaker in Miami.

Attended by a who's who in ocean conservation from Sylvia Earl to National Geographic and Monterey Bay, I met and dined with some of the brightest minds in ocean conservation over three days. Our presentation was about sharks, reefs, and monetized eco solutions that are "out of the box."

By "out of the box" I mean ready to go today. Real and lasting solutions that radically change regional shark conservation efforts and are born from 20 years experience in global eco tourism.

The Green Ocean Forum also included several outstanding media PSA's that caught the entire conference attention with simple yet powerful and compelling statistics:

"At the Americas Business Council, we believe that bringing brilliant minds and change-makers together plays a vital role in disseminating messages to audiences worldwide. Yet, we do not stop there. Our Forums serve as the first step in bringing about change. At ABC, we believe that solutions created during forums must be implemented in the short- and long-term; and every year we innovate our strategies in order to make sure that our Forums translate into sustainable solutions and results."

Southern White Sharks - Video

Over at the Dive Around website John Natoli and Andy Green put together a great trip report about white shark diving in Neptune Islands, Australia.

The dive site "that started it all," still going strong decades later:

Whale Sharks - The Holbox Papers

In depth industry papers on shark tourism are a must read. Isla Holbox in Mexico has rapidly become a test bed for sustainable tourism with sharks. A new paper is now out.

Tourism Abstract

The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is the world's largest fish and forms predictable seasonal aggregations at several locations worldwide, which has led to an explosion in whale shark tourism since the early 1990’s. Since 2002, Holbox has established itself as a gateway to the largest known predictable aggregations of whale sharks in the world. It has also experienced the largest growth in terms of visitation and number of licensed tour operators creating an industry worth approximately US$2.72 million in 2008. This rapid growth, along with the whale shark’s listing on the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species has led to concerns of the industry’s sustainability in the long-term.

This study was initiated to understand the sustainability of Holbox’s whale shark tourism industry from a social and economic perspective. Tour participants were surveyed regarding their overall satisfaction with their experience, as well as their knowledge of, and compliance with, the interaction regulations. Eighty-five percent of participants were day tourists from mass tourism destinations like Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Approximately thirty percent of the economic gain from the activity is derived off the Island, while on-Island income goes dominantly to two large vertically-integrated operators who are able to bring in visitors directly from the mainland.

Overall, participants experienced high levels of satisfaction but found crowding to be a problem with thirty-three percent dissatisfied with the number of boats. Furthermore, the language barrier between the guides and the tourists resulted in a misunderstanding of the interaction regulations in place to protect the whale sharks and tourists and resulted in a high level of contact with the sharks. The outputs of this study will help inform the future sustainability of the industry, as this relies not only on a returning, healthy population of whale sharks, but also on a satisfied customer base.

Link to report.

Guadalupe Island -Trip Report 2009

Editors Note: There are two kinds of people in this world, the dreamers and the rest. Kudos to Jen for being part of "the adventure clan."

Here's her story:

When I was 5, my aunt took me to see my first drive-in movie…Jaws. Now I know what you are thinking…that is way too scary of a movie to be taking a kid so young to, but that movie started it all for me. I have LOVED sharks ever since!!!

I wanted a shark cage just like Hooper’s and even a crappy boat like the Orca would do for my travels…but alas, I never got that shark cage that was on my Christmas list. So in creating my Bucket List, this is the first item - See a great white alive (preferably in the wild).

Flash forward to 2003…this is when I discover Patric and his wonderful company that takes people out to meet the magnificent white shark face to face in this magical place called Isla Guadalupe. I emailed Patric and asked him a few questions about the trip and he called me back and told me everything I needed to know and then some, in his made-for-radio voice. So I decided this was it, when I had the money and was ready to go, I was going with this guy!

Well in life things happen and priorities change and shark diving was put on the way back burner but was still going to happen someday.

So it is Monday, August 11, 2008 and I sit down at work to read my emails and one in particular catches my eye:

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations you were drawn as our Grand Prize Winner for the Luke Tipple promotion. You have won the Dive with Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island. I will send you out a pack in the next two weeks with all the information to book your trip, and connect you with SharkDiver.com so you can answer all your questions. (check out the SharkDiver.com website to get the general idea.) You do not need to be Scuba Certified for this trip.

I read the email over and over again in my head and then asked a co-worker to come read it and tell me what she thinks and she says, “it looks like you just won yourself a shark diving trip!” So I get on the phone to call my best friend, Nicole and I read the email to her and start crying, my lifelong dream is finally going to come true and it would be in September 2009!

I can’t say enough about Patric and the Horizon crew. Everyone was so nice and helpful from Aaron helping us with our weight belts to Mike being right there with a cold drink of water when we got out of the cages to Patric himself being kind enough to “Count” the sharks for us and Mark making sure that I never saw one piece of cilantro or raw onion on my plate! The whole crew was fantastic, the boat was clean and in order and the food was great. Martin, our dive master was very informative and extremely patient which came in handy when he was teaching me to clear my mask and regulator. I love the ocean and spend my summers snorkeling the southern California coast and this was my first time diving. It only took about 15 minutes to get the hang of breathing with the regulator and be comfortable in the cage and once the sharks arrived I forgot all about that regulator.

In the movies they always show sharks, whites in particular, with black, lifeless eyes, which does not help in them being feared but I can tell you that their eyes are far from lifeless. When a 15 foot great white swims 1 foot in front of your face you can see that it has a beautiful blue iris and as this shark swims past you can actually see it focusing on each diver.

They are very curious and cautious animals and whey they cruise past the cages you can’t help but look at them more as graceful than menacing. I was a shark lover long before this trip but seeing them in the wild has made me want to do more to help protect them and now I need to win the lottery so I can go on EVERY Sharkdiver.com trip EVERY season!

Yours in sharks,
Jen McCormick

Vic Hislop - Quote of the week 2009

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."

Shark Feeding – The Debate Continues

Another blog post making the rounds on the Internet discusses "shark feeding" - once again.

While the conversation about chumming and habituating sharks is a perennial favourite, clearly more study needs to be done with operators enabling research at sites where sharks, people, and chumming occur.

Shane Pinder Blog

This is a continuation of the topic of shark feeding dives started in an earlier post.

Scuba Diving Forum posted a comment to that post that included a link to a very interesting article on the Shark Foundation site about a study on the impact on white shark cage diving.

The study concluded that chumming for white sharks does not condition or habituate them because the sharks don’t receive any food in the chumming process.

I wonder though if the research on white shark cage diving applies to the type of shark feeding done in the Bahamas and other parts of the Caribbean.

The conclusion that white shark cage diving does not result in the conditioning of white sharks to associate humans with food seems to hinge on the fact that white sharks are not fed during cage dives. The water is chummed with blood to attract them and the food on bait line is pulled away from them so that they never actually get a reward.

This is not what happens on shark dives in The Bahamas. The sharks do receive a reward (food). The article does refer to conditioning of three shark species in captivity -

“Conditioning has been demonstrated in a captive situation in the lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris (Clark 1959, Wright & Jackson 1964), nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum (Aronson et al. 1967) and the bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas (Wright & Jackson 1964). ”

These species are all present in Bahamian waters.

The article also discusses the demonstrated learning ability of Tiger sharks (also present in Bahamian waters) - “The learning ability of sharks is also demonstrated under natural conditions. For two weeks a year in June off the shallows of Hawaii, tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) congregate to feed on young albatross that take land on the waters surface whilst learning to fly (Martin 2003). Although the sharks initially have very little success in preying on the chicks, within 3-5 days they learn the technique needed to successfully capture the young birds and, on missing a prey item, to swim a short distance upwind to where the panicked bird will land (Martin 2003).”

The question is still whether or not the type of shark dives which involve sharks obtaining a reward (food) condition sharks to associate humans with food.

If these dives do create conditioning, does it follow that sharks are then more likely to attack humans in areas where they have been conditioned to associate humans with food?

From personal experience, I know that there are dives sites close to shark feeding sites where you can expect to see sharks even though no feeding is going on. In my experience, while the sharks at these sites have not been aggressive, they certainly hang around during the entire dive. They don’t appear to be bothered by such close contact to humans.

On dive sites that are not close to shark feeding sites, it is unusual to see any sharks. If you do happen to see a shark, it is usually only a glimpse of it as it cruising by in the distance. It doesn’t hang around.

Have a look at the article posted by Scuba Diving Forum about the study done by the Shark Foundation. What are your thoughts?

• Does this study help to confirm that shark dives in which sharks get food do not condition sharks to associate food with humans?

• Do you think that shark dives that result in sharks being fed condition sharks to associate food with humans?

• If sharks are conditioned by these types of dives to associate food with humans, does that make it more likely that shark attacks will occur?

Whale Sharks - Instant Tourism

Off the coast of Louisiana large aggregations of whale sharks occur each year. At least one enterprising boat captain has decided to research "whale shark tourism" in tandem with shark researcher Eric Hoffmayer of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Lab:

The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS – A commercial fishing boat captain who spotted dozens of the world's biggest fish off Louisiana's coast turned his boat into a research vessel for a week this month, taking scientists and photographers to look for whale sharks. Seven whale sharks were identified, and three of the spotted fish were tagged; researchers were able to swim with some of them. They took video and still photographs, and skin samples for DNA work. The tags are designed to pop off and send information about the sharks' movements to a satellite after eight or nine months – earlier if the sharks dive so deep that water pressure might squash the tags.

RED LIST
Whale sharks are on the World Conservation Union's "red list" of threatened species. No one knows how many whale sharks exist, but researchers said the total may be as high as 500,000 – a small figure for fish.

Capt. Russell Underwood offered to host the whale shark expedition after spotting a group of at least 44 of the fish last year. Those found this month were about 55 miles off the coast.

Task Force Created To Ban Shark Feeding Tours

HONOLULU -- New efforts are under way to ban commercial shark feeding tours on the Islands.Hawaii Kai lawmaker Gene Ward on Wednesday announced the formation of a shark task force to eliminate commercial operations except those with educational and scientific purposes.

The group wants to enforce a state law that makes it illegal to feed sharks within three miles of shore.

The formation of the task force comes about two months after Hawaii Kai community members strongly opposed a shark tour in their area, which ultimately caused a planned operation in Maunalua Bay to be called off.

Shark Diving Gear - Must Have?

This industry blog get's a lot of emails each week. Here's one of the stranger ones:

Dear Sirs,

Aqua Nautas helmets are special helmets that any participant can use during any underwater activity.

With Aqua Nautas helmets, the participants will not need any regulators, scuba tanks, weights or any other diving gears, nor need to regulate their breaths. They can breathe normally just as breathing on the surface. Any ages of 12+ can use these helmets. Participants do not even have to take off their prescription glasses!

As we all know, Shark cage diving is an excellent and fun activity; but unfortunately it is limited mostly to scuba divers or people that know how to regulate their breath or snorkeling. This makes it difficult and fearsome for many other tourists/participants to enjoy this great activity. This is where our helmets can help increase your sales. Our helmets will give the opportunity to those feared or non experienced participants to do and enjoy this great activity easily.

In addition, by using our helmets, the participants faces and smiles will be completely visible in the pictures, thus this will also increase Photo/Video clip CD sales of your company. Aqua Nautas helmets can operate either with Scuba tanks or low pressure air compressors.

We believe that Aqua Nautas can be a great addition to your current excellent activity, and will increase your sales. I am attaching a picture for your reference

Please visit us for more information at www.aqua-nautas.com

Should you wish to receive further information and pricing, please do not hesitate to reply to this very e mail, and we will gladly get back to you with a quotation.

Many thank in advance and looking forward to your kind reply.

Bardia Shahbakhshi

Guy Harvey - The Future, One Tag at a Time

Here is the quote of the month from Guy Harvey returning from a recent hybrid shark diving and research trip to Tiger Beach, Bahamas aboard the Gulf Stream Eagle:

''We should tag every one of these animals to see where they go,'' Harvey said. ``The ultimate would be to have the species protected or -- if not -- this area of the Bahama Bank could be [designated] no shark fishing. This is the beginning of what will hopefully be a 20-year study where we involve the Bahamian government, researchers from various institutions [and] dive operators.''

A concise reading of the future of commercial shark diving and of shark conservation. Some operators have come to understand and accept this future, some have even embraced it with local conservation and science initiatives that return much needed tracking data for conservation.

Tiger Beach, Bahamas is at a crossroads. It is impressive that industry leaders are now coming forth to set the conservation agenda, leveraging partnerships with research and tourism to seek a better future for one of the worlds most remarkable shark sites. Kudos.

Full Story

Study: Shark-cage dive tours safe on Oahu North Shore

Great news coming out of The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and a two year study that refutes many of the "wild hair allegations" swirling around the anti-shark diving debate on Oahu:

HONOLULU — A scientific study has concluded shark-cage dive tours on Oahu's North Shore pose little risk for recreational ocean users in nearshore waters.

The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology conducted the two-year study.It found sharks tagged during tours overwhelmingly stay far out to sea and don't follow tour boats back to shore.

The study also found the tours are frequented by Galapagos and sandbar sharks, which are rarely involved in attacks on humans. Marine scientist Carl Meyer said at an informational briefing at the state Capitol that when it comes to offshore caged shark-diving tours, there is no evidence of any risk to nearshore recreational users.

The tours have been operating since 2001.

The New PT Barnum - Sharks

Where there's a market and demand - people will find sharks:

CHICO — For Holland native Philip Peters, a decision to spend several times a day hugging a shark was the safer career choice.

A self-described daredevil, Peters used to travel with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, performing death-defying stunts. He spent years being thrown out of canons, on the flying trapeze and "wheel of death," and wrestling with lions and tigers.

"I saw too many hospital rooms in that time and I was looking for something safer, so I started sharks and it is safer, believe me," Peters said with a laugh.

Interested in moving the sharks he planned on interacting with, Peters began researching traveling tanks. After much research, Peters developed a complex filtration system enabling him to transport a 7,000-gallon saltwater tank.

That tank is currently at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds this week for Peters' 20-minute show, the only current traveling shark show in the country. For two-to-four shows each day, Peters amazes a delighted crowd by diving into the tank and swimming with four sharks.

Complete Story

Shark

Rebel Shark Diving - Burgers Zoo

Still unsure of the identities and motives of intruders, zoo officials at Amsterdams Burgers Zoo discovered two men trying to go shark diving in their tropics tanks last week:

AMSTERDAM—Two men broke into Amsterdam's Arnhem Burgers Zoo on Wednesday night and attempted to dive into a pool with three sharks. The men, who had donned some diving equipment that was lying beside the pool, were just about to plunge in when they were intercepted by the director of the zoo, accompanied by two police officers.

“These two were acting completely insanely. They have endangered the animals. The sharks are sensitive to stress and could have died of a heart attack,” zoo director Alex van Hooff was reported as saying in news reports. Blacktip sharks can be dangerous to humans under certain circumstances. They get their name from the black tips on their pelvic and pectoral fins. The sharks can attain a maximum length of nine feet.

The two were arrested, taken into custody and charged with breaking and entering. Dutch media reported that the men were under the influence of drugs.“They broke into the zoo to dive and not to steal. I am really pissed off about this,” Telegraaf quoted Van Hooff as saying.

Editors Note: Died of a heart attack?