Punching Through The Blog Barrier - Da Shark!

Capt Zissou Approves - Breaking the Blog Barrier 2011

First there was the speed of sound.

Then the speed of light.

Barriers that man has surmounted with guts, know how, and heroic effort.

Today we celebrate the Shark Blog Barrier being broken in Fiji as Mike, aka Da Shark, announces his 1000th blog post.

For the past several years Da Sharks blog has been an industry mainstay, offering up ideas, kudos, and pithy, salted commentary with an industry and conservation focus. 

Why are independent industry blogs important?

Because the shark diving industry, an offshoot of the dive industry, needed it. Prior to the advent of the shark blogs, the industry was a tribal and fractured affair with little direction and no real conservation focus.

In many cases it was an industry that reveled in glorifying stupid stunts with sharks as an industry norm.

All that changed when operations discovered that not only were they being observed on an international level but actions taken with sharks were being talked about, discussed, and even picked over with the best ideas, best practices, and best conservation efforts being recognized.

Additionally the broader industry discovered that shark conservation was a key element to success.

No longer was it just acceptable to make money with sharks and repeat, the concept of regional stewardship for sharks was nurtured by the shark blogs with some first rate leadership examples and and quickly adopted by many.

It is now a fast growing trend.

The impact of the shark blogs will remain one of the shark diving industries least told stories, but today we celebrate the 1000th blog posts by one of the industries leaders. Like what he has to say or not, agree with his positions or not, the Fiji shark blog has blown open the doors on the discussion of sharks and conservation/industry development to a global audience.

And the entire shark diving industry is a better place for it.

Kudos to 1000!

Fiji Sharks - Cause for Celebration!

Fiji is set to put in place a landmark fisheries policy to ban all shark finning in the country and address the alarming decline of sharks.

Department of Fisheries and Forests permanent secretary Commander Viliame Naupoto says the ban would be similar to laws that currently protect turtles.

The proposed new law would ban the trade of all shark fins and other products derived from any type of shark that is captured in Fiji waters.

The ban only affects trade and does not stop villagers from consuming shark meat.

However shark meat is not a regular diet for Fijians in villagers – although it is available in Fish and Chips shops in urban centres.

Sharks are also held sacred as the totem animals or Vu of the people of Cakaudrove and other islands.

Commander Naupoto says sharks play a critical role within the marine ecosystem by controlling the population of certain marine species.

He adds the emerging market in shark tourism has huge potential as an economic exchange earner and as employment for locals – and sharks are more valuable alive than dead.

Beqa Adventure Divers director and shark conservationist Mike Neumann highlighted that Beqa Adventure Divers generated about $3million in direct and indirect revenue that were all invested in Fiji.

Fiji will be the first Melanesian country to approve such a law.

What.We.Do.Media - You Need Them

Who are they? What do they do?

What.We.Do.Media is the brainchild behind a lot of the imagery, websites and PSA's that have been floating around the industry as of late. We hired their design team to create, build and launch the all new Shark Diver website.

Celebrating a decade in the commercial shark diving industry required a team who knew marketing, the dive world, conservation, and of course, sharks. Try finding that in an online web 2.0 template.

Fortunately for us the diverse team over at What.We.Do.Media knew exactly what we were looking for. In today's marketplace anyone can build a website. But to create a brand, and help launch it takes skill, dedication, and understanding.

Do we endorse the team over at What.We.Do Media?

Damn right we do and we're willing to share our success with you. You need What.We.Do.Media for all your your next web creation, branding and site launch.

So, you want to be in this industry for just a year, or the next twenty years?

Call them today, and start booking divers tomorrow.

Shark-Safe Beaches: testing aerial spotters and dismissing electro-magnetics

Starting 2011 out right with this report from RTSea Productions.

If you want concise industry thought and analysis this is your go to daily blog.

From RTSea:

When people enter the ocean - to swim, surf, dive, or just frolic about at the water's edge - they are entering a different wilderness. In doing so, they expose themselves to a measure of risk from interaction with other animals, from a sea jelly sting or an urchin spine all the way up to an interaction with a larger animal like a shark.

To protect people from unwanted shark interactions, several methods of prevention have been tried over the decades. In Australia, there is an extensive network of netted beaches. The steel mesh nets are designed with openings small enough to ward off large sharks but large enough to allow smaller fish to pass through. The nets have been used for many years and, in combination with lifeguards acting as shark spotters, the process has been fairly successful. But not infallible.

Sharks can get through the nets on occasion due to the nets being moved about from currents or storm action, so to maintain a big picture overview, spotter planes are being deployed in New South Wales (south eastern Australia) as part of a test program during peak months of swimming activity. And the NSW government in Australia has deployed a novel method to keep their spotter pilots' skill sharp. Decoy or replica sharks will be placed in the water to check the effectiveness of the surveillance program. Lifeguards will be made aware of the days and times for the placement of the replica sharks, but not the pilots. Results of the tests will be included in the final evaluation as to the aerial surveillance program future.

Far to the west, following a recent series of shark attacks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, a variety of safety measures are being considered. Nothing has been confirmed as yet because the government is weighing an appropriate response that also recognizes the probable causes for the attacks - reportedly everything from unregulated chumming to overfishing of the shark's usual preying to the dumping of dead sheep from a passing freighter.

One approach that apparently will not be used is something akin to electrified fencing. An organization, the Shark Academy, has proposed installing an electro-magnetic shield along the Egyptian coastline of Sharm El-Sheikh in the Red Sea, but the idea has been totally dismissed by the Governor of South Sinai, General Abdel Fadeel Sousha.

"He (the company's owner) showed us a video in a meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh on devices used to protect beaches from sharks and made verbal and purely theoretical proposals that didn't persuade me on a personal level," said General Sousha. "I asked him for a practical demonstration in front of a committee of experts so we could be sure the devices work effectively. This still hasn't happened."

A pretty far-fetched notion when you think about it. I have worked with divers who have used a protective device called a Shark Shield which emits a strong electro-magnetic pulse when needed and seems to be quite effective with medium-size sharks like lemon or blacktip sharks. But I've been told it also "rattles the teeth" of the diver when its discharged. So the idea of having something that strong running constantly across a beach seems rather unlikely.

Apparently, previous attempts at using electro-magnetic fields along beaches in Natal, South Africa and in Australia have been a dismal failure, not preventing the sharks from entering enclosed swimming areas but giving bathers a nice little shock instead.

Rather than rely on Rube Goldberg devices, common sense should prevail. Non-life threatening measures - such as nets and shark spotters - along with a better understanding and acceptance of the wild world we are venturing into is what's called for. While many of us hear the call to return to the sea, we must remember that we enter it as interlopers and strangers on someone else's turf.

Industry Trends ZIBS - Zero Impact Baiting System

When news and images of wire and chain wrapped Tiger sharks from S.A appeared in email boxes across the industry, a quiet storm erupted.

At hand was an issue over best baiting practices for commercial shark diving operations vs several long-standing friendships that jumped to the defense of images that would give even a hardened shark conservationist pause.

We posted our thoughts here asking for all parties to consider actual baiting changes in the region.

Regardless of how the images came to pass, either by baiting system design flaw, or protocol flaw, images and videos like these diminish regional operator’s moral authority. The authority we need to effect conservation change for sharks when speaking with other use groups such as fishing interests, poachers, and regional governments. What many were asking for was a new way of doing things, a new bait system that could be copied worldwide and one that had a zero percent animal impact.

In short, thinking outside of the washing machine drum.

South Africa’s Tiger Industry Primer

The S.A commercial Tiger diving industry has a long and storied history and this is by no means a complete record. Developed over a decade and a half ago for film crews and photographers by a Mark Addison a number of operators soon followed.

Grant Swinford -Aliwal Dive Charters

Graham Powell – Sea Fever

Roger Dengler – Private Operator

Brian Viviars – Umkomaas Lodge

Walter Bernadis - African Water Sports.

In 2003 Mark started developing a baiting system that was called a “baited drift drive”, this required grid work to determine which tiger sharks frequented/dominated a certain area which in turn directly related to which tiger sharks would visit the dive and at what point.

Mark’s staff shared this information and baiting technique in 2005 with other operators, who started “Tiger Diving” with this new technique. By 2007 all operators in the region were using Marks baiting technique.

Some of the early Tiger divers baited animals by tying tuna to the reef and then hiding out in underwater caves with one or two safety divers equipped with a broom stick to see what would happen.

From the "old broomstick days sitting in cave" when divers didn't understand the nature of the Tiger sharks, to today, the industry has certainly changed thanks to the early pioneers.

We interviewed Allen Walker this week to discuss his improved Tiger baiting system “ZIBS” and get the back-story behind this remarkable industry innovation. An innovation that came from near tragedy, and one that has a bright future worldwide.

Zero Impact Baiting System is the first of its kind in South Africa representing a unique and industry generated evolution to sustainable baiting practices.

Enter Allen Walker

As a S.A dive instructor and someone who does underwater photography “as a hobby”, Allen is passionate about the ocean. He’s been diving the Aliwal Shoal/Rocky Bay area in S.A for 11 years, with Tigers for the past 10 years as a dive client. He is also behind the S.A dive website Dive Culture . Allen is an independent diver and not a shark diving operator, he has been diving with Blue Wilderness for one and a half years. Prior to that he has dove with every shark dive operator at Aliwal Shoal/Rocky Bay.

Allen is the innovator of the world’s first “Zero Impact Baiting System” – ZIBS.

Tell us about the system

I have been on the numerous Tiger dives where the drift baiting system is used basically “washing machine drum (to hold bait and create scent trail) and cable (to attach to buoys on the surface)” and I have never seen a shark wrap happen, even over 50-60 dives on it, that was up and until recently. This in my opinion was caused by a change in protocol. So two things had to be done: the first was to ensure the cable could be released from the system quickly and that bait could no longer be tied to the stem, this was easy and it was implemented by Mark. The second was to design the ZIBS as I could see there was a potential for problems and there was room for improvement, I decided this was my challenge to take on.

So it was all about trying a different methodology, from PVC to cable, looking at when a Tiger grabs hold of the cable and why, where does it wrap and what could you do to change things around? I watched a lot of video footage and looked at photographs. We had to also think about potential damage to the shark’s jaws, the skin, teeth and eyes. The new system could have no sharp points and it had to be “soft” so it could not break teeth but high grade stainless to ensure longest possible life cycle. We were starting with the original foundation and building from there. It took us a month to design and build the whole system, from stem to bait ball; the actual problem was the bait ball itself.

What do you mean?

We had to find someone who could build and manufacture a fiberglass reinforced sphere about 8mm in thickness, the same stuff you use in a sturdy white whitewater kayak. The reactions I got from local fabricators were interesting once they discovered what we were up to. We had to explain to the fiberglass guy it was a round ball for a Tiger shark “bait ball” that could handle 1-2 tons of bite pressure. The reaction, as you can imagine, was "you’re mad," and as it turned out no one could build anything that was larger than a 300mm sphere, so we had to start from ground zero and find a sphere to mold.

Where did you find a sphere mold for the Bait Ball?

We found a solution at the gym with those Ab Balls, the kind that women work out on, and at 850mm the sphere was the perfect size. So we used the Ab Ball as the template for the new and improved Tiger baiting ball.

So, you got the ball, the manufacturer, Tiger season is just around the corner?

Then it got tough. Our original manufacturer failed in the attempt to build our first ball. After we provided him with the metal brackets, money and design specs, he just folded shop, and would not return our calls. He vanished with everything. Then we had to go back to steel manufacturer to replace all the brackets and bolts and find another fiberglass guy. By now the holiday season was fast approaching and shark season was weeks away, middle of November through April and May, so we were under the gun.

The new manufacturer was great and made it all in one day, with one mold. The interesting thing we discovered is that fiberglass and drill bits do not go together. To create the scent holes we went through seven high tensile drill bits as they either blunted extremely quickly or kept on getting stuck and broken in the 8mm fiberglass shell. It was brutal work.

How many scent holes did you drill in the end for a ball that size?

To get it right, we finally drilled 400 to 500 holes so we could get a good scent flow through the water column. The guys who built the sphere delivered it to us and said "you are absolutely crazy, you go through all this effort to build that perfect sphere only to drill holes into it, fill it full of bait and attract Tiger sharks – Happy Holidays!"

What were the logistical problems, and your primary technical concerns?

Testing in the water, we were very happy with the products look and design. Getting it out there was the challenge. We had to consider the space on the boat, the stem had to be foldable and workable, the stem also needed to be weighted, the stem "aha moment. “ We created an anti-wrapping stem that that folded into a v deterring the shark from further action. Unlike the cable, which could get wrapped as we have seen, the stem does not; each section is linked in a way to prevent wrapping of the animals.

Additionally each section on the stem is designed to quickly and effectively to be lengthened and shortened depending how you want your ZIBS to ride in the water. This system was also designed for one or two bait balls if you need it. Sometime the Tigers stay deep; they will only come up if they see something interesting. This system allows for a deeper bait ball at 10-18meters and another at 5 meters closer to the surface. Even the size of the scent holes had to be small enough that sharks teeth could not get hung up on them i.e no purchase points!

Did any regional shark diving operator attempt new bait systems?

As you know I am not an operator, but as far as I was aware yes, other operations had been working on new solutions as well. Rob Nettleton from Off Shore Africa Dive Charters - took a marker buoy and made a new bait system with that. Walter Bernadis from African Water Sports took “poly-cop” piping, basically pvc tubes, and made a bait system with that, the guys were all developing their own systems. We discussed these on occasion, I was however not happy with it, I just wanted to look outside the box; the ZIBS system, in my opinion was the way to go. I got all my input from Mark Addison at Blue Wilderness. I would call him up and ask about bite radius information, animal behaviors, and depth information.

So each operator has his own system right now?

There's only one ZIBS in use right now by Blue Wilderness, the other operators have to fabricate their own ZIBS and I have provided African Water Sports and Off Shore Africa with a new design stem from the ZIBS design and I will put them in touch with the contact who can build the “Bait Ball”, may even get it done for them, they are both great guys in their own rights.

As for the other operators, they would need to get everything manufactured, I am happy to help with the design.

This whole effort sounds expensive, who paid for it?

If you want something done you just got to step in and do it and that's where my focus as a diver, photographer, and part time conservationist was for this last six weeks, ultimately Hans and I sponsored the new ZIBS system.

What’s the future of shark diving in South Africa?

Personally, there is a whole lot of different techniques and diving operations in S.A, as much as we say sharks might be dangerous, we are really changing the mindset of divers and non divers worldwide, but most importantly future generations of South Africans. The mindset of your average S.A just does do sharks, being out there with them opens minds and changes perceptions. Even children at 6-7 years old who get introduced to sharks is a step in the right direction, he will soon be an diver and most of all he is going to tell all his friends how cool sharks really are! Immediately you have changed their whole thinking on sharks. Once they get to meet sharks they will want to conserve our S.A heritage, our sharks.

We have taken another step to making the S.A shark diving experience even better, from early the days of baits on reef with divers in caves with sticks to today, we have learned and grown and continue to evolve. Blue Wilderness is already working on further improvements of ZIBS and even alternate baiting methodology. Watch this space.

I want to offer some thanks to a few of the people who helped make the Zero Impact Baiting System a reality.

Mark Addison for sharing his knowledge, I would not have had a base to work from without his input. Gail Addison for ensuring I got the help I needed and her support of my project. Ralph from High Tech Packaging for all the steel fabrication, twice, and to Jaap from Link Africa Projects for all the brackets and clips and the nitty gritty to put this thing together. Eugene for helping go through seven drill bits and to drill 400 to 500 bait holes, Hans and Jacqy mates of mine who offered funding and support, and finally to my wife who watched me get totally absorbed with this project. Now that it is done, she has threatened to ban me from diving if I get too involved again, I might still test her resolve on that, I know she will always support me.

And to Wolfgang, yeah you did keep on reminding me. South African sharks ultimately benefit from this innovation and in the end we're here to be site stewards, animal stewards, and look at South African sharks through the lens of sustainability.

My final wishes:

• The Natal Sharks Board will remove all their archaic nets and drum lines from our oceans and stop legally killing our heritage!
• That all the other operators in the world will step up to the batting plate and be counted, I see a number of bad baiting techniques used by all of them and I also so a lot of them take a pitch or two.

End of interview.

"Actually stuffing diving suits full of meat and chucking them in the sea to provoke sharks"

Oliver Crimmen is on a mission to discredit the global commercial shark diving industry.

In a rather non scientific main stream news piece this week, more a hysterical diatribe, he makes assertions based on his first hand hearsay that operators in the Sharm el Shiekh region are filling wetsuits with meat to attract sharks.

"I've heard stories of people wanting to film fake shark attacks, and actually stuffing diving suits full of meat and chucking them in the sea to provoke one".

Stunts With Sharks

Stunt work with sharks is nothing new, but usually these stunts are well known and well publicised and our industry generally views those who conduct stunts with sharks with complete disdain. In a time of profound shark crises, stunt work with sharks does nothing to help the animals "professional" shark tourism operations make a living with.

Stuffing wetsuits with meat of any kind to provoke a shark attack is not only disrespectful to the animals, it is the hallmark of self centered, ignorant, and sloppy operations.

Perhaps Mr.Crimmen is confusing stunt work with sharks at other sites to recent attacks in the Sharm el Shiekh region, or perhaps Mr.Crimmen, who is a staff member at Natural History Museum in London, should stick to facts and not publicly slander our industry without substantive proof.

It is one thing to come to the most unfortunate series of shark attacks in recent recorded history with facts, like the discovery of dead sheep dumped in the region in the months prior to these attacks. It is quite another to pull unknown and unverified factoids about meat filled wetsuits and inject them into the already over sensationalized discussion of what caused these sharks to attack swimmers.

Let's try and bring the conversation down a few notches. The commercial shark diving industry is not to blame in Sharm el Shiekh, as yet known, and any major media conversation to the contrary, without all the facts, damages the efforts responsible shark tourism operations worldwide are currently engaged in.

Industry News - Commercial Shark Diving Study

Scientists and South Australian cage-diving operators are collaborating in a world-first project to ensure the State’s eco-tourism activities take good care of Australia’s protected white sharks.

The research, led by Flinders University and SARDI shark ecologist, Dr Charlie Huveneers, will provide important information to help the State Government manage the growing industry which relies on the survival of the threatened species. Its outcomes will also help inform similar cage diving operations around the world in places such as New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico.

Dr Huveneers’ team and cage operators are working together over the next year to tag ten white sharks which inhabit the area around Australia’s main cage-diving operations off the remote Neptune Islands, 75 kilometres from Port Lincoln. Two 3.5 metre white sharks have been tagged to date.

“Berleying activities at the Neptune Islands have recently been increasing. However, the impacts of such activities are still poorly understood, and there is a need to investigate how berleying might affect white shark behaviour and movements” Dr Huveneers said.

“Previous studies in South Africa indicated that white sharks became ‘habituated’ to berleying rather than ‘conditioned’. As a result, sharks might become less attracted to berley,” he said.

“The white shark cage-diving industry at the Neptune Islands attracts a large amount of tourism to South Australia and Port Lincoln. It is important to ensure that this industry is sustainable and that it does not negatively impact on the white shark population frequenting the Neptune Islands.

“Sharks also play an important role in the ecosystem with the removal of top predators having shown to cause cascading effects down the food web.”

“Our research will hopefully provide crucial data which will help the Department for Environment and Heritage and PIRSA Fisheries to assess if the current level of berleying undertaken by the white shark cage-diving industry around the Neptune Islands is impacting on shark behaviour.”

Dr Huveneers says the team is using fine-scale positioning technology accurate to within one metre to track the sharks. Sharks are tagged with an acoustic tag as they swim past the boat allowing researchers to record their positions in relation to the cage-diving boats for a period of up to 45 days.

Shark Blogging - Making Complete Sense

1800 blog posts and two years later Underwater Thrills has commented and opened the conversation on pretty much everything in the shark world, both good and bad.

One of the things we noticed, along with other early bloggers, was the need for our industry to show leadership.

Leadership in the form of conservation initiatives, film productions featuring sharks, and operations that treated the host country, the sharks and our divers with the same respect our industry was asking from politicians and those who would oppose commercial shark diving.

Today I was sent a blog post that made complete sense, from an industry member we have featured in the past reacting to major media and images online that served to reinforce the notion that our industry was populated by high octane thrill seekers with little care for the resource or the animals.

This post is a 180 degree change from earlier media and needs to be read far and wide. The writer makes complete sense and by challenging the "status quo" of the industry or even proposing ideas and plans for the future that others might disagree with is showing that quality that is most needed, leadership.

Our industry can only hope to be all that it can with open discussion. Painful though it may be sometimes it is necessary to look at where we once were, and visions for the future. 2010 was a sea change of opinion, web changes, operator lead shark initiatives, and positive media for sharks lead by operations who reacted to or who were lead by change.

Kudos for the post. We may not see eye to eye on 99% but when we do, it's nice to know someone will step out and get recognized.

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.

Guadalupe Island - Research Critter Cam

The multi-year CICIMAR research effort at Isla Guadalupe studying movement patterns of regional white shark populations employed some interesting technology in 2009:

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:

Happy Holidays from SharkDiver.com!

It's kind of a tradition here at Shark Diver posting this image.

It features a shark we named in 2004, "Shredder," with the image shot by Christy Fisher.

This image serves as a reminder of all the shark diving folks, research folks, and media folks we have come to call friends over the years.

Good people who have made the business of shark diving and shark conservation a very exciting place for us.

We are honored to know these unique and special people and look forward to the new decade of shark diving adventures, discovery, and conservation with you all.

Farewell 2009 and very Happy Holidays!

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.

David Diley - Smart Industry Call

In the world of commercial shark diving there are those who lead by example. There are also those who lead by producing solid industry thought and analysis (click image to read).

David Diley is one of those people.

A man who has looked at the global shark diving industry and who has distilled it's biggest issue down to a well thought Op Ed.

We would like to congratulate him on his ideas this month and fearless interpretation of our industries future and direction.

This blog along with a few others have been advocating for deep changes within our industry. One year later it would seem that we're having an effect.

As we close out 2009 and a decade that has seen shark diving grow from a few pioneers and into a global 300 million dollar tourism juggernaut it is time to streamline and manage this industry.

The scuba industry did it and most other high profile tourism industries have done the same.

Make no bones about it, commercial shark diving is not scuba diving and it never was, therefore it is up to our industry to guide and direct it's own future.

With 2010 right around the corner the fusion of a commercial shark diving guiding body along with shark conservation would be a powerful force to content with, and would go a long way to growing this industry into 2020 and beyond.

Solid vision for the future and thinkers like David Diley will get us there.

Thanks to Da Shark for the original post.

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."

Shark Conservation Coverage - Al Jazeera

Surprising and in depth front line coverage of the shark situation in Palau, recently declared a shark sanctuary. As we have said many times in the past shark tourism is a viable bridge solution to sustianable fisheries. When local and regional fishermen have the financial incentive to save sharks they are more than likely to push back against outside fisheries.

Maui Bans Shark Tourism - Surfer Attacked by Shark

Not weeks after Maui City Council members voted to ban non existent commercial shark diving to "protect swimmers and divers" in Maui - a surfer was bitten this morning by an estimated 6-8 foot sand shark.

He was surfing in the "Kalama Bowls" area of a local beach park shortly after 6:00 a.m. when he was bitten on the upper right thigh and the lower part of his right ankle, according to Maui County officials.

The unfortunate negative intersection of sharks and humans will continue to happen regardless of commercial shark diving operations in any given area.

Maui has never had commercial shark diving in it's waters.

Shark do not target humans as a general rule.

Maui's political decision to ban shark diving was just that, a political decision, and with this mornings unfortunate incident proved one thing for certain...sharks do not regard political decisions.

Commercial shark diving is under assault by a global anti-shark diving lobby that trades in on the fear of sharks. When bans are proposed "public safety" is touted as the net benefit to the community at large.

With this latest case in Maui, the anti-shark diving lobby has been exposed for what they are.

Simply put, purveyors of fear based nonsense.

Jost Images - White Shark Calendar

When it comes to monthly calendars there are those who lean towards the ordinary - puppies, horses, small woodland creatures.

Then there's underwater photographer Klaus Jost who brings you the world of the white shark in his new 2010 underwater calendar featuring these simply amazing critters.

Call us biased (and we are), but we're never tired of seeing white sharks shot brilliantly. One look at this calendar and you can begin to see why.

White Shark Projects - FTTSA Certified

Kudos are in order for the recent good news.Two industry members located in S.A have recently been awarded the S.A Fair Trade in Tourism. These are the only two operators who have been awarded this certification based on a long history of regional research efforts and operational leadership within the community.

A blog post about this award and certification was an interesting read both in terms of it's candor and reservations for the industry as a whole, and the negative industry perceptions we battle every day.

Quote:

I've been loathe to give publicity to the booming white shark cage diving industry in South Africa. While I also haven't gone out of my way to criticise it either, I just feel conflicted about the practice and so have avoided the subject entirely. However, Fair Trade in Tourism SA (FTTSA) has recently certified their second shark cage diving tour operator and I just had to look a bit deeper.

Helen Turnbull (of Serendipity Africa and FTTSA) was commissioned to do extensive research into the industry and its practitioners as FTTSA wrestled with this issue for the first cage diving applicant, and I cornered her at Indaba 2009 to ask a few questions. She's promised to forward some of the findings from her research, but she did share that she also had reservations about the industry overall when she began the project. After the research, she advises me that she has no reservations about either the first operator, Marine Dynamics Tours, or the second, White Shark Projects, receiving Fair Trade in Tourism certification.

Complete blog post