Marshall Islands "They Be Burning Shark Boats!"

50 sharks. That's all it took for a Hong Kong fishing company to receive the following from the Marshall Islands who recently declared all of their waters a Shark Sanctuary:

1. One burned boat (TBA)

2. $120,000 fine

3. Permanent banning from the Marshall Islands

A long line fishing boat has been fined 120,000 US dollars and banned from fishing in Marshall Islands water for violating the country’s ban on shark finning.

The Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph says the shark fins and skins confiscated from the vessel that fished under the aegis of the Marshall Islands Fishing Venture will be publicly burned in the near future.

Marshall Islands Fishing Venture is part of the Hong Kong-based Luen Thai Enterprises, which operates long line fishing operations in Majuro and other parts of Micronesia to export sashimi to markets in Japan and the United States.

Shark fins and skins from an estimated 50 sharks were discovered on board the long liner during a regional fisheries surveillance enforcement program in February.

Mr Joseph says they will not relicense the vessel to fish in Marshall Islands waters.

He says the message they want to get out to anyone operating in Marshall Islands waters is that they are serious (about the shark ban), and it is the law.

Meanwhile, Marshall Islands Fishing Venture manager Derrick Wang says it regrets the actions taken by the captain of this particular vessel, and appropriate actions have been taken to ensure future incidents with this vessel and other vessels under of it will not happen.

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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.

Extreme Shark Diving-Bad Idea or Industry Trend?

Editors Note:The following Internet post opens the table for discussion about Extreme Shark Diving. To us the industry is divided into two camps on this.

1. Those that see extreme close encounters with macro predators as a way of proving sharks are simply misunderstood and not "wanton killers".

2. Those that understand that sharks are first and foremost "predators" and that extreme commercial grade encounters with these animals might be a recipe for disaster.

We generally fall into camp two. The main point here is differentiating between solo extreme encounters or extreme encounters done by filmmakers and professional photographers vs extreme commercial shark diving applications, where divers of various levels and experience are completely exposed to macro predators-i.e "riding" great whites.

It's a distinction that has been glossed over recently. It's also a point that needs to be addressed industry wide. For those operations in camp one the death of a diver by a shark sets the perception of sharks back to the stone age. At what cost are these extreme shark encounters to the very animals we are all trying to dispel the "wanton killers" mythos?

Our main point is this-few up and coming shark diving outfits are content to sit by and not attempt their own brand of extreme encounters using previous and existing businesses as models. Have we reached the pinnacle of these encounters? Is there an industry wide protocol for these encounters?

Here's the post:

The frontier of marine sports has just stretched with extreme diving. Extreme diving is the break from the “monotonous” scuba diving experience to push yourself to new limits and experiences that can bring you new-found rush. While many people consider scuba diving an extreme sport in its own right, advanced divers may end up being bored from their usual diving routine. Extreme diving adds a double serving of risk to challenge the depths of the sea.

Extreme divers could be your normal scuba diving session with an added twist. It may start with diving in deeper water, diving at night, passing through ship wrecks or exploring an underwater cave. These experiences are much more interesting than the usual scuba dive in sunlight depth, watch your helping of corals, then returning to the safety of the diving boat.

One popular definition of extreme diving is attacking the deeper parts of the sea. Extreme divers dare to reach more than 2000 meters using highly specialised suits. For divers who have reached this depth, the lack of light gives an aural void that many describe as literally out of this world. It seems that the deeper you go, the higher the thrill one can experience.

Another form of extreme diving is cave diving. Taking this field of scuba diving will need a series of intensive training. For starters, cave divers use a different suit than normal scuba divers. The other dimension of these equipments is using them to your advantage to build your own cave diving experience. Cave divers find the thrill in exploring where underwater holes end up.

Diving with great white sharks could be at the far edge of extreme diving. There are cage diving site in Mexico and South Africa. While that is dangerous enough, there are shark divers who dare to ride their fins in open water. For these divers, they are trying to point out that great whites are not such killers.

Extreme diving is an exercise of the diver’s imagination to try out something new. It may be a fresh thing that you might immediately try or you may need to sit-down for lecture and training. Either way, extreme diving is about your experience and what you add into it. So if scuba diving is not extreme enough for you, then you can consult different online communities or your local diving club to learn about extreme diving.

"Frozen Shark" Falls From Private Jet

SILICON VALLEY, California (CNM) -- A massive frozen shark dropped out of a clear blue sky Tuesday and demolished a house on Granson Street south of the Yahoo! campus today.

The shark fell from a private jet chartered by CEO Jerry Yang of Yahoo!, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Silicon Valley County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Homeland Security.

"The airplane, a 747 converted transport craft, was en route from China and the campus of Alibaba.com a web portal that sells sharks fin and many illegal sharks products," a joint statement said.

Police said the area has been sealed off pending an investigation.

Representatives from Yahoo! Inc quickly pointed out that the shark was a "cultural practices issue" for Mr Yang and company and he did not want to discuss with authorities how the 17 foot frozen shark had come to be on board the private jet chartered by Yahoo! or if the shark was indeed a threatened/protected species or not.

Emergency personnel were on the scene quickly, no one was hurt in the bizarre accident, authorities said.

The following Underwater Onion was brought to you by Shark Diver. Seriously-Yahoo! Inc continues to invest in and support Alibaba.com a 2 billion dollar web portal that has become the New York Stock Exchange of dried sharks fins and shark products.

Would Yahoo! Invest In?

Has the Internet search giant Yahoo! publicly invested in any of the following wild animal products?

1. Dried bear gall bladders?

2. Dried Black Rhino horn?

3. Dried Tiger penis?

4. Dried Sharks Fin?

If you answered yes to #4 you would be correct.

Now here's the kicker, how much would you imagine this California based Fortune 500 company has invested in the wholesale slaughter of millions of sharks for profit?

1. $10,000,000?

2. $50,000,000?

3. $75,000,000?

4. 1.2 Billion?

Again if you picked #4 you would be correct. Since 2003 Yahoo! has invested close to $1.2 billion dollars in Chinese web portal Alibaba.com home to the New York Stock Exchange of shark fins and shark products on the Internet. Direct sales through this site represent millions of sharks slaughtered live, just for their fins, while the rest of the animal is dumped back into the ocean.

To produce one ton of dried shark fin, an estimated 1200 animals are killed and then dumped.

Thus far Yahoo! has chosen to frame the issue and ongoing slaughter as a "cultural practices one". It would seem that Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma choose only to recognize, invest in, and defend the more profitable "cultural practices" of Asia and beyond.

5 Questions With An Eco-Disaster Educator

We had a chance to chat with Duncan Carson owner and brains behind the on-line website Stop Shark Finning. Estimates vary between 70 and 100 million sharks a year are being hacked apart for just their fins. Often the animals are processed while still alive and then kicked back into the ocean. His website stands on the front line of this critical environmental issue from both an educational standpoint and as a warning to the over harvest of today's oceans.

1.What was it that caused you to get up one day and say "I am getting active"?

It was after I had read an article on The Guardian website by George Monbiot titled "Sharks deserve the conservation status we give to the Giant Panda". The article really stuck in my mind. The idea that sharks were being slaughtered in such a cruel and wasteful way just to make shark fin soup repulsed me so much that I decided I had to do something. I think the day after I read the article I started a MySpace page and a few days after that I got up a basic version of the website.


2.Why sharks? It seems almost any marine animal you encounter needs some kind of help these days.

I was motivated by Monbiot's article to try and make people realise what is happening with sharks. I realise that there are many animals in danger, but
I think that even if you focus on one animal, any positive effects that your work has will have benefits for other animals that live in the same ecosystem. Protecting sharks, a top predator, will have a knock-on effect on other life forms. The other important thing to mention is that sharks get a bad press. They are the underdogs of the oceans, but they are a vital part of a healthy marine ecosystem, and people need to realise that the extinction of sharks in the wild will have a devastating impact on the oceans.

3.Who are the main culprits in this ongoing eco slaughter?

It's a long chain problem that weaves its way throughout society. The fishermen who kill the sharks so inhumanely and wastefully, the people who eat shark fin soup without stopping to think what the effects of their behaviour are, the restaurants who sell it, the mafia who make a fortune from it, the politicians who turn their heads the other way, the media who have done next to nothing to highlight the problem and who just perpetuate the myth about the shark being a man-killer, companies like Alibaba.com who are brokers for the shark fin mafia, Yahoo who have a massive investment in Alibaba.I must say though that almost everyone who I have told about shark finning is revolted by it and several people have stopped going to restaurants that sell shark fin soup. One of the main problems is just ignorance. Not enough people know about shark finning, but once they find out about it they are very keen to put a stop to it. The reaction from the public in general has been very good.

4.What is a solid solution to this issue, beyond telling a culture they are bad for eating soup?

The only solution is to completely ban the finning of sharks on board shipping vessels, and to effectively and strictly enforce the ban with massive fines and even jail sentences for offenders. There has to be an international agreement to enforce this ban in international waters.Specific countries have legislated but unfortunately it is not enough. Many sharks are migratory, so we need an
international solution. However, education is also extremely important.

5.Do you make a difference, and how could others get involved?

I know I have made a difference in a small way - there are more people aware of the issue now than if I hadn't done anything. But I have been disappointed by the lack of response from multi-nationals such as Alibaba and Yahoo! - I know they have made an occasional response to one or 2 other campaigners but I have become more cynical about such corporations since starting this site. They care nothing about the future and only care to make a fast buck: the only "future" they care about is the next financial year. Their comments to the media are full of distractions, half-truths and lies. Their actions benefit a very small minority and worsen the quality of life
for the vast majority.

Tell other people about shark finning - the media are paying no attention so it has to be a grassroots thing - so just tell people about it, your friends, your family. Email people with a link to www.stopsharkfinning.net, write to Alibaba and Yahoo! and your political representatives, complain to restaurants that sell shark fin soup (and don't eat there), add us on myspace, start your own shark page or site, get a t-shirt (all proceeds go to Sea Shepherd), and support organisations that contribute to shark well-being, such as shark diving companies, because the more money that countries can make out of conserving sharks, the less they will tolerate their slaughter.

I would like to add that I don't know how much of a difference I will make, but I do know that if someday my daughter asks me why people didn't try to stop sharks becoming extinct that I will be able to look her in the eye and say "I tried". For that alone it is worth it. If everyone tries to do something about an issue they care about, surely we can make the world a better place?

Whale Sharks-Being Loved To Death?

Gotta hand it to the Australians. While they have quite a few of the best sharks sites on the planet to either cage dive or rodeo sharks in for divers, they still have not quite figured out what to do with their whale sharks.

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean-a quick run over to the good old Shark-Wiki tells us:

"This species, despite its enormous size (40 feet), does not pose any significant danger to humans. It is a frequently cited example when educating the public about the popular misconceptions of all sharks as "man-eaters". They are actually quite gentle and can be playful with divers. There are unconfirmed reports of sharks lying still, upside down on the surface to allow divers to scrape parasites and other organisms from their bellies. Divers and snorkellers can swim with this giant fish without any risk apart from unintentionally being hit by the shark's large tail fin."

So why is it that Australia enacted a series of rules and regulations that almost prohibit diving with these magnificent critters?

"This (code) includes a limit on the number of people in the water at any one time with the sharks, minimum distances that boats and snorkellers must keep from the sharks, and definitely no touching of the sharks".

The ONLY thing that will save the whale shark and sharks in general for the future-is divers seeing these animals in person. Too many sharks worldwide are being hunted for just their fins and the whale shark is on the top of that list. Divers who encounter these animals are 80% more likely to want to voice concern to local governments over issues relating to sharks.

Food, or soup for thought.

Jack Ass on Bondi Beach

You HAD to know this was coming. With the movie rights, book deals, and morning talk show invites, shark attack victims make out pretty well on the media these days.

Obviously if you're one of the .002% of the global population who has a nasty run in with a shark (think getting hit with lightning) the upside is not so bad. So, along comes this beer hound with a story that seemed just TOO good to be true. Faking a shark attack because you fall through a window at a party is about as low as it gets.

Karma says this guy should stay out of the ocean for the next three years:

Fake Shark Attack
Thursday, December 24, 2007

A man who said he had been attacked by a shark has been accused of making it up after his arm went through a glass window and he is now facing jail.

Scott Wright told reporters he thought he was a "goner" after being bitten on the arm by a shark last Friday at Bondi Beach, Australia.

It is now claimed that he was injured several days before. He is also facing jail over robbery charges, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.