Mark Healy and Roberta Mancino - Nifty Stuff

Once in a while along comes some truly great underwater footage - this is one of those times.

What's not to like about Roberta Mancino and Mark Healy, two consummate underwater folks, doing their thing in the Bahamas?

As we said a few months back about Mark Healy:

"Mark should get his own television show, soon, because he's that good on camera."

Kudos to this duo for working with sharks without the "moronic messaging" that all too often goes along with those who interact with sharks. A world where sharks cannot be sharks, they need to be redefined and reintroduced to the public as mobile plush toys that just need a hug...all in the name of conservation.

Interacting with sharks in the pursuit of a stunning image without the messaging is in its own way far more impactful than the overt in-your-face new shark realities foisted on a public that all too often finds them hard to absorb.

Watch this video and be sure to voice your opinion for more.

Clearly this team is on to something here and it's a formula we could all use more of.

Shark Week 2010 - Yes I Actually Liked This

Shark Week - You know it is refreshing, after two years of ranting, to actually like a show on Shark Week and this is one of this years stand outs. Is it possible to do mainstream shark productions without the hype?

Yes, yes it is.

This is smart shark television, well done Discovery, well done Stuarts Cove, well done sharks.

By the way anyone who says that commercial shark diving is not good for sharks should watch this piece, this is pro shark, pro industry messaging of the highest order.

Stuart Cove - Pro Shark Media 101

Hard not to be impressed with commercial shark operator Stuart Cove, Bahamas. As a template for "How to do Shark Media 101" today's ABC News GMA piece was a cornucopia of pro shark images, data, and industry quotes.

As a commercial shark diving operator you can do pro shark, pro industry media. As Stuarts Cove has aptly demonstrated you need to pick your partners well.

Running with the three tenets of shark media, host country, sharks, and divers this weekend Stuart Cove rolled out a great piece that carefully balanced all three and delivered an industry home run:

The divers feed the sharks small amounts of food to better observe them, but they're careful not to disrupt the ecosystem. A scientist from a Vancouver university who studies these Caribbean reef sharks estimates the food from the divers has about as much impact on the sharks' diets as eating one grape a day would have on a human's diet.

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