The shark diving industry blog covering sharks, shark cage diving, shark conservation and things we find "amusing" since 2008 www.sharkdiver.com, www.sharkdivers.com, www.divingwithsharks.com
This was sent in by one of our blog fans who discovered researchers in New Zealand about to dissect and blog about a Pygmy Right Whale.
O.K, so it's not like the media gets things wrong all too often, but this is just too creepy. As you know we have been following recent events in Oregon where several caged seals were "shot to death" apparently in response to record low Salmon stocks.PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal fisheries officials now say the six sea lions found dead in traps on the Columbia River apparently were not shot to death.
Spokesman Brian Gorman of the National Marine Fisheries Service said Wednesday that preliminary results of a necropsy found no evidence of recent gunshot wounds but found numerous shallow puncture wounds in one animal consistent with sea lion bite marks.
Gorman says X-rays found metal fragments in soft tissue near the neck of two animals.
He says a metal slug was found in the blubber of one animal, but neither the fragments nor the slug appear to be fatal and may have been from old wounds.
The agency is still trying to determine how the animals died near the Bonneville Dam.
The Big Question-Just how do 6 caged seals end up dead in one single night?
Richard Theiss and Mexican shark researcher Mauricio Hoyos recently presented the new white shark documentary Island of The Great White Shark to rave reviews in Boston last week.
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Something interesting from Fiji this week. The local papers there always have great shark stories.The shark was brownish-yellow and had black spots. The man who caught it is Horace Morell of Vatia, Labasa. Mr Morell, who now resides on Naqara, said he had seen other sharks but not one of this colour and shape.
"I was surprised because I have never seen a shark with spots and yellow. I smacked it but my wife said to let it go. I threw it back into the sea. Instead of swimming away, it circled the boat and came back so I caught it again and put it in a cage.
"I haven't decided what to do with it yet but I think I will keep it for a while. I used fish bait to catch it. It has a small mouth and gills. It looks like a Leopard shark because of its black spots but I am not sure."
Mr Horace said he wanted to get in touch with shark feeders of Beqa who might be interested.
He said he was able to put his hand in the shark's mouth. His wife Mele said it was also the first time for her to see that kind of shark.
She said they might give it to someone willing to look after it. In the meantime, they have not weighed their options on whether to sell it for research.
Beqa Adventures Divers Limited operations manager Andrew Cummings said the description of the shark could mean it was either a Leopard or Zebra shark. He said it was a particularly uncommon find in Fiji waters but said the shark was harmless.
If there's one thing we love about the oceans and covering this subject it's stories like this one.
Recently state regulators in Alabama drafted new laws banning "bloodbaiting" 300 yards from beaches and swimmers in an effort to protect them from sharks?Aiming to protect beachgoers, state regulators say they expect by the middle of this month to enact a ban on chumming for sharks and other within 300 feet of the beach.
The law, which was drafted by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural resources with input from Orange Beach officials, generally prohibits anyone from targeting sharks by chumming or bloodbaiting, whether it's with fish parts or synthetic attractant.
With state budgets slashed how are they going to enforce this new regulation?
This morning one of our blog fans sent in a link to another sharky website. We're not going to mention it by name-but it was nice to see they have all but completely copied our format.
Jeremiah Sullivan-the genius behind Neptunic Shark Suits recently returned home from several new "adventures with sharks" which we're sure you'll be seeing and hearing about in the weeks to come.
If you were not at the Northwest Dive Travel Expo last weekend you missed one of the most exciting dive operations to hit the West Coast in the past 5 years.
This ugly eco news was almost inevitable. With salmon stocks up and down the California and Oregon coast disappearing at an alarming rate, the natural predator gets the bad rap.PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — For years, the sea lions lounging at the Bonneville Dam have had easy pickings from salmon waiting to go up fish ladders to upriver spawning grounds.
Over the weekend, the federally protected sea creatures were themselves easy prey for a gunman who shot and killed six of the sea lions as they lay in traps meant to humanely catch them.
State and federal authorities were investigating the shootings, which came less than two weeks after an appeals court issued a temporary injunction against authorities killing the salmon-gobbling mammals. Agents have been trapping them instead, but trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Fishermen and American Indian tribes have pushed to protect the salmon and remove the sea lions, by lethal force if necessary.
The carcasses of the four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found Sunday around noon below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington.
The six animals appear to have been shot by somebody on the Washington side during the night, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
When this came across our desk this morning all we had to say was Holy Cra%@!
After the shocking and sad news from Solana Beach last week more news came in of another fatal attack-this time on a American surfer in Mexico.
You probably need to go online today and see this one if you dive, like to dive, know someone who dives or care about diving in general.
This image and story have been making the rounds on the Internet like a Nigerian Bank Email. Unfortunately both image and story are completely fake.
Almost certainly.
Back in 2004 researchers with NOAA shot this ungainly looking critter around 3000 feet deep.
The Times recently covered shark attacks worldwide with a completely hysterical and not surprising bias. The following quotes were taken from that article.
And you thought we would never get around to blogging about the Giant Squid again.One of the squid's two eyes, with a lens as big as an orange, was found intact as the scientists examined the creature while it was slowly defrosted at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It has been preserved there since being caught in the Ross Sea off Antarctica's northern coast last year.
"This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular," said Auckland University of Technology squid specialist Kat Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature.
For the past 8 days Shark Diver's Luke Tipple has been the dive safety operations manager for a simply massive film crew, shooting Tigers and Dolphins in the Bahamas.
We get quite a few emails from blog readers each week. Some with images like this one, others with offers for cheap V!@gara delivered to your door.
This tragedy while unfortunate is the result of life off the California coast.
You may be asking about the image to the right here. As one would expect there's at least one person on this planet who maps out all "recorded" shark attacks on the planet.
One of the better looks at this entirely sad event on Solana Beach this morning comes from the Daily Green Blog.What is believed to be a great white shark attacked and killed a 66-year-old swimmer off Solana Beach, San Diego Friday, leading to a beach closure, mourning among friends and relatives, and rampant media attention.
Such fatal attacks have been relatively rare.
A single swimmer in the South Pacific was the only person to die from a shark attack in 2007, but total shark attacks rose nearly 13% over 2006, according to statistics released in February by Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
The number of fatal shark attacks hit a 20-year low. In 1987, there were no fatalities. (There were four deaths each in 2005 and 2006, and seven in 2004.)
“It’s quite spectacular that for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide spending hundreds of millions of hours in the water in activities that are often very provocative to sharks, such as surfing, there is only one incident resulting in a fatality,” the lead author, George Burgess, said at the time. “The danger of a shark attack stays in the forefront of our psyches because of it being drilled into our brain for the last 30 years by the popular media, movies, books and television, but in reality the chances of dying from one are infinitesimal.”
The number of shark attacks overall increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, a nearly 13% increase, continuing a gradual upswing during the past four years.
“One would expect there to be more shark attacks each year than the previous year simply because there are more people entering the water,” Burgess said. “For baby boomers and earlier generations, going to the beach was basically an exercise in working on your suntan where a swim often meant a quick dunking. Today people are engaged in surfing, diving, boogie boarding and other aquatic activities that put them much closer to sharks.”
Often, about half of the world’s attacks occur in United States mainland and Hawaiian waters, but the proportion was greater in 2007, Burgess said. Last year’s total of 50 attacks returned to 2000 and 2001 levels of 53 and 50, respectively, after dropping from 30 to 40 for each year between 2003 and 2006, he said.
There also was an upswing in attacks along the Florida coast, jumping from 23 in 2006 to 32 in 2007. There has been a gradual increase in human-shark skirmishes in the Sunshine State since they dropped from 37 in 2000 to an 11-year-low of 12 in 2004, he said.
Within Florida, Volusia County continued its dubious distinction as the world’s shark bite capital with 17 incidents, its highest yearly total since 2002, Burgess said. Attractive waves off New Smyrna Beach on the central Atlantic coast are popular with surfers, he said.
Additional U.S. attacks were recorded in Hawaii – seven — marking a five-year-high, along with South Carolina, five; California, three; North Carolina, two; and Texas, one.
Elsewhere, there were 12 attacks in Australia, up from seven in 2006 and 10 in 2005, but down slightly from the 13 attacks recorded in 2004. There were two attacks each last year in South Africa and New Caledonia, with single incidents reported in Fiji, Ecuador, Mexico and New Zealand.
Most of those attacked (56%) were surfers and windsurfers, followed by swimmers and waders (38%) and divers and snorkelers (6%). The one 2007 fatality was a snorkeler from France visiting the Loyalty Islands archipelago in French New Caledonia.
“We advise not getting yourself isolated because there is safety in numbers,” Burgess said. “Sharks, like all predators, tend to go after solitary individuals, the weak and the infirm, and are less likely to attack people or fish in groups.”
To get an idea of the public's response to this tragedy we pulled some comments from the L.A Times site who seem to have the best coverage and are thus far staying away from the Fox News style hype which is permeating the other 365 articles and news reports out there at this time.
At 8.00am this morning we started getting calls from the media for comment. Expect an unfortunate result for the sharks coming from this as the media spins this entirely sad event up.SOLANA BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A shark on Friday attacked and killed a swimmer who was training in the ocean off San Diego County with a group of triathletes, authorities said.
A man between 55 and 60 years old was swimming at Tide Beach around 7 a.m. when he was attacked, according to a statement on the Solana Beach city Web site.
The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to a lifeguard station for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement said.
Swimmers were ordered out of the water for a 17-mile stretch around the attack site and county authorities sent up helicopters to scan the waters for the shark.
"The shark is still in the area. We're sure of that," Mayor Joe Kellejian said.
It was unknown what kind of shark was involved.
Solana Beach is 14 miles northwest of San Diego.
Shark attacks are extremely rare. There were 71 confirmed unprovoked cases worldwide last year, up from 63 in 2006, according to the University of Florida. Only one 2007 attack, in the South Pacific, was fatal.
The last fatal shark attack in California, according to data from the state Department of Fish and Game, took place in 2004, when a man skin diving for abalone was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Mendocino County.
Sometimes there's good news for sharks. This would be one of those days.The new rule, put forward last week, aims to prevent fishermen from slicing fins off vulnerable species and discarding the rest at sea.
"Finning", as the practice is known, is illegal in the US and elsewhere, but the ban is difficult to enforce. Right now, fishermen may land piles of fins separate from shark bodies, so long as the fins weigh less than 5% of the total catch.
Shark meat fetches much lower prices than do fins, which are the main ingredient in the prized Asian soup. The discrepancy encourages cheating as it is hard to identify the species of a shark based solely on its fins.
A quick word about the Shark Shield. Recently a nasty lawsuit and media storm over the Shark Shields ability to deter sharks and effectiveness has surfaced.
What is it with Floridians anyway?LOWER MATECUMBE KEY -- All the Miami fisherman wanted to do was measure the lemon shark he had caught and then release it back into the open sea.
Instead, James Fuqua caused a traffic mess on the Overseas Highway when about 50 people parked their cars haphazardly on the road and waded into shallow waters to take pictures, touch the shark or simply get a closer look.
To make matters worse, the gawkers trampled hundreds of native plants -- sea oats, sea-oxeye daisies and sea grapes -- that had been planted in a volunteer beach restoration project over the weekend.
All this for a lemon shark? |  |
| Thanks for taking this poll | ||
| Which is your most ideal ocean vacation destination? | ||
| shark cage at Guadalupe Island | 384 |  (13.76%) |
| buffet line on a cruise ship in Alaska | 465 |  (16.66%) |
| lounge chair on the beach in the Bahamas | 525 |  (18.81%) |
| kayaking along the fjords of Chile | 174 |  (6.23%) |
| on the couch at home watching the Discovery Channel | 1212 | (43.43%) |
Total Replies : 2791 | ||
Voice of America recently tackled the open debate about shark diving and it's effects.
There are precious few "originals" in our dive industry these days.
What you are looking at may just save millions of sharks in the coming years. Researchers have discovered some metals actually cause sharks to be "repulsed" in salt water (if you live in a canal region with loads of Bull sharks, sorry)
Without a doubt the most watched shark diving video on You Tube right now was shot at Isla Guadalupe and we were in the middle of it in 2007 with white shark researcher-Mauricio Hoyos.
15 April 2008
White shark viewing and diving continues
You will, by now, have heard the tragic news of the accident in Gansbaai on Sunday, 13 April. Our shark diving and viewing boat was capsized by a freak wave during an otherwise ideal sea-going day. Thanks to the prompt and efficient reaction of local emergency services and our crew, the incident was contained. Sadly, three lives were lost, and our deepest sympathy goes to their next of kin.
Be assured that all safety measures were in place. As always, White Shark Projects operates to the strictest standards as laid out by the shark cage diving and viewing industry and the South African Government's Marine and Coastal Management. Indeed, these are the basic requirements of an operator’s exemption and/or permit.
We would also like to assure you that our diving and viewing continues as usual. Existing and future bookings are not affected by the accident and visitors are assured, as always, of a wonderful experience.
Yours sincerely
Charmaine Beukes
Sales and Marketing
Email: charmaine@whitesharkprojects.co.za
Mobile : +27 (0) 83 728 4833
Reservations: +27 (21) 405 4537
If there was any doubt after reading this latest news that the Great White shark is only the second most impressive oceanic predator...we're not sure how much convincing you need.Attacks by killer whales may be helping to drive the sudden and mysterious decline of seals around the northern coasts of Scotland, new research suggests.
British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.
So far, the declines are unexplained, but a new theory is that killer whales, or orcas, the bulky, black-and-white predators which are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, have increased their taking of seals to such an extent that it may be causing populations to shrink.
The harbour seal is one of Britain's two native seal species, the other being the bigger grey seal. But while grey seal populations remain buoyant, harbour seal numbers are tumbling, especially in the Northern Isles, where nearly half of them live. Surveys in Orkney and Shetland in 2001 found 12,635 animals, but when the counts were repeated in 2006, they showed that numbers had plunged to 7,277.
We got this comment from Lauren regarding our first post:"Actually, the boat had just finished doing a shark dive, and were getting ready to go back to shore. There were plenty of sharks in the water, according to our daughter who was a volunteer on the boat."
Three tourists who died in a shark-diving boat accident were identified on Monday by Western Cape police.Two men from the United States and one from Norway died when their shark-diving boat capsized near Kleinbaai on Sunday,
Of course the crew here of Shark Diver knows more about this than we will let on:The "Shark Week" episodes will be filmed in the Bahamas. A few weeks earlier, the team was in Alaska to examine myths associated with the far north. The last new episode, which aired Feb. 20, was the show's 100th. A new batch of original episodes will begin airing in July, and the crew is preparing those shows now.
S.Africa Boat Capsizes, 3 KilledCAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Two Americans and one Norwegian tourist on a South African shark cage diving adventure drowned Sunday when their boat was hit by a freak wave, tourism and rescue officials said.
The 10 passengers and nine crew members onboard were flung into the water when the boat capsized under the wave. Nearby boats rescued 16 people who were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, officials said.
The two Americans and one Norwegian were pronounced dead at the scene, said the head of the Great White Shark Protection Foundation, Mariette Hopley.
The accident happened in Gansbaai, which calls itself the Great White capital of the world because its waters are teeming with sharks. The small town, about two hours from Cape Town, attracts thousands of tourists each year who are lowered into the water in metal cages to view the sharks.
Hopley said the boat had just anchored around 10 a.m. and was preparing to lower the first cage into the water when the freak wave hit. She said there were no sharks in the immediate vicinity at the time.
She said it was the first accident since the advent of shark cage diving in Gansbaai in 1991.
A few weeks ago intrepid underwater explorer Karl Stanley took his submarine down the Cayman Trench with some Nat Geo guys for another deep water shark adventure.
A new bill is sitting in Congress that might require the bodies of all sharks taken in US Waters to also have fins with them and vice versa.Shark Diver is in full agreement with the actions taken on this bill but it needs your support.
Here's how you can help today:
US citizens wishing to express support for this important bill should also contact their Representatives in Congress click www.house.gov and type in your zip code.
Many conservationists believe the bill could be improved by adding a requirement that sharks be landed with their fins attached. Those who agree with this should mention their support for a fins-attached requirement in their letters to Congress.
Thanks all, Sonja
Sonja Fordham
Policy Director, Shark Alliance and
Shark Conservation Program Director, Ocean Conservancy
c/o Pew Environmental Group
Level 21, Bastion Tower
5 Place du Champ de Mars
1050 Brussels, Belgium
T: +32 (0) 2 550 37 44/45
M: +32 495 10 14 68
Well, it has come to pass. The once magnificent salmon runs from San Francisco to Oregon are now officially gone. With a one year "temporary ban" in place...and who are we kidding here, fishermen and a 500 million dollar industry have been wiped out overnight.Those words can describe the utter loss of commercial and sport ocean Chinook seasons in 2008 in most of Oregon and California. But through all of the gloom, Oregon emerged from the historic closure with a small victory: a 9,000-fish coho quota for sport fishermen.
The historic closures due to low returns to much of the West Coast rivers, primarily the Sacramento, was marked only by a lot of angst, a few simple votes, a quiet audience and much regret as the Pacific Fishery Management Council met in Seattle to decide the fate of not just sport and commercial fishermen, but also several coastal ports and towns for years to come.
Sea Watch is doing their part to preserve the Sea of Cortez. Leading by example and working with Conapesca to introduce legislation banning fishing with compressors and hookah in the continental and ocean waters of Mexico. This can only be good news for a body of water almost stripped of wildlife over the past 15 years.
