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:

Shark Trust Wines - Stocking up at $3.00?

Around this time of year we stock up on Shark Trust Wines. With the holiday season just around the corner, gifts, parties, and good old fashioned nights at home with a roaring fire call for wine...and lot's of it!

Melanie Marks, CEO of Shark Trust Wines emailed us this week with her seasonal offer to all our shark folks out there and yes, we know you like to drink.

For a limited time Shark Trust Wines is offering an outstanding deal for their 2007 Great White Chardonnay from Western cape, South Africa.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, they are offering it at $3 a bottle.

Yes, that is correct - 70% OFF. Order for holiday gifts, your company holiday party, or just stock up your wine cellar. With this offer, you must buy by the case (12 bottles) and be willing to pick up the wine at the warehouse in Petaluma.

Get a group of friends to order together and make one trip to the warehouse. Please contact Melanie directly to order and make arrangements for pick up.

619-994-5933 or marks@sharktrustwines.com

Happy Holidays!

Melaine Marks - Shark Trust Wines

Australia's "Shark Stone Age"

After months of public pressure authorities in Australia have decided to leave shark nets in place citing safety concerns yet again.

Shark nets and drum lines kill sharks indiscriminately along the Gold Coast and there are viable and alternate solutions:

Shark nets along the Gold Coast will not be removed, despite yet another young whale being caught in a net off Burleigh Heads on Tuesday - the fifth so far this migration season.

It took just an hour to free the seven-metre juvenile, which shark control program manager Tony Ham said was probably one of last year's calves.

"This animal was calm and quiet, even though it was windy and conditions were difficult, so that helped the release," he said.

"Happily the mother was there to keep an eye on the young whale, and that usually gives them an opportunity to calm down... so that's usually a good thing for us."Mr Ham said despite the number of young whales being tangled up this season, the shark nets will not be removed.

In fact the damaged net off Burleigh will be replaced before the end of the day.

Mr Ham denied the shark nets are being maintained simply because of political pressure and said their value in stopping shark attacks is well documented.

"The program has been in place since 1962 and in that time we've had one fatal attack on a protected beach, at North Stradbroke island in 2006," he said."There were a number of attacks prior to the program going in - some of those were pretty horrific and fatal.

"We believe the program does work."It does catch sharks and it does catch dangerous sharks (so) to remove the nets even for the whale migration season is not an option."Mr Ham said the argument that not many people swam in the surf during the migration season was simply wrong.

"We have people bathing on Gold Coast beaches year round," he said.

"People come to Queensland for the very reason that we have safe swimming beaches.
"He said it was "unacceptable" to remove the safety equipment, particularly with school holidays coming up.

Complete Story

Swimming with the Whale sharks - Donsol

Cherie McCosker recently blogged about her eco tour experience with Whale sharks in Donsol, Philippines.

Her article is right on target but misses the larger point of the purpose of shark tourism in many regions worldwide:

"My German companion came back on the boat exclaiming, "You should have seen it, you could see the Whale shark get angry. All of a sudden it thrashed about and dove down to the depths of the sea".

As was blogged about a few months ago these animals were once hunted in that region. With the advent of high dollar Whale shark tourism the hunting stopped. Unfortunately local fishermen still kill sharks for squalene (kudos Diveshopp Blog) but these are deep water species that will probably never be monetized by shark tourism. In region after region worldwide when local populations see a financial incentive to keep sharks they do and the catalyst for that sea change is usually shark tourism.

Ms. McCoskers article talks about people touching and molesting Whale sharks under the guise of shark tourism and she has a solid point. But in the larger picture of animals no longer killed in the region one could argue that while imperfect, shark tourism does stop the killing of sharks.

We'll take that as a win.