High as a Kite - Climate Change

Where would we be without U.K's award winning daily newspaper - The Sun?

The only news outlet on the planet daring enough, maverick enough, to expose the true face of global warming.

Staring journalistic excellence in the face and not blinking today's Sun exposed the horrors of Sarpa salpa, a small non native fish that will get you higher than a mouthful of Australian Cane Toads in June.

Yes, this native of South Africa has invaded the U.K and now residents are fearful of techno-clubbers with fish hanging out of their mouths, staggering about like Zombies in the dead of night. It could happen.

Fine journalistic excellence known no bounds, you have to go where the story is...thank god for folks over at The Sun for breaking this story. Makes you want to go out and purchase an electric car...but leave your sarcasm at the door.

Hawaii Shark Diving - Rep Gene Ward

Like a tuna's ability to attract sharks in waters seemingly devoid of them, a politician will also be attracted to "an issue" just as quickly. Rep Gene Ward of Hawaii has chosen his next big platform to be commercial shark diving and has opened his candidacy as the lead spokesman against the entire industry with an Op-Ed this week. His folksy approach to the industry is peppered with themes and sentiments taken from 1976.

Posing a series of innocent questions couched in a framework of "raw meat and fear" Mr.Ward has masterfully pushed the agenda forward and set the table for existing shark diving closures in Hawaii.

Rep Gene Ward is not the problem but a symptom of how our industry fails itself. Mr.Wards newly discovered public anti-shark diving persona was spawned at the sight of 300 angry residents, protesting a simply ludicrous commercial shark diving roll out in Hawaii Kai. The arrogance and outright stupidity of that single effort is the reason Mr.Ward has chosen to make the banning of all shark diving operations his "new cause".

As we have said before and to whoever will listen - commercial shark diving is under siege. As an industry in the western hemisphere there is not one well known commercial site that is currently not under new rules or under review by politicians and agencies.

This is the face of the anti-shark diving lobby - they are well spoken, well networked, and agenda driven. When will our industry get it's collective head out of it's ass and start working on solutions?

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

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus - Must See

Got an email from a guy who's deeply embedded in the fight to save sharks from finning last night, and what does he keep track of in his spare time?

Better than "Snakes on a Plane" more thrills than "Killer sharks in Venice":

Protesting a Fisheries Minister NSW

Effective protests begin with an effective target. This week was a good week for protesting for sharks:

A NSW Conservation Council protest against shark fin exports at the office of Peter Garrett culminated with a giant shark fin is erected outside the office of Environment Minister this week.

Conservationists are calling on the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to stop shark fin exports from New South Wales.

The minister is currently considering whether to renew the state's shark export license.

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales says shark numbers are declining from over-fishing due to increased demand from Asia, where shark fin soup is a delicacy.

It delivered a giant shark fin to Mr Garrett's Sydney office this morning in protest against exports. The Council's director Cate Faehrmann says there has been a large increase in the numbers of sharks targeted simply for their fins.

"We've seen a decline worldwide of about 90 percent in shark numbers since the beginning of the industrial age," she said.

"This is very unsustainable. We have sharks being targeted in New South Wales waters that are listed as internationally threatened."

Complete Story

Shark Diving Industry - Crossroads Convo

Felix Leander and Wolf Leander are two of the most passionate shark divers our industry have right now. There are few shark conservation efforts they do not push or support. They also free dive with tiger sharks.

Yesterday Felix asked the industry question - How do you segregate sharks from divers without cages?

Here's our response:

Felix,

You bring up a good point. I think there's a place for cageless encounters with tigers, it has precedent all over the world and it works - when hard and fast protocols are in place.

The problems I see are three fold:

1. What happens at one site cannot be taken ad hoc to another. Each site is specific and should be developed with set protocols as stand alone sites. You can take elements from other dives and apply them - but build your own site.

2. Host countries. You have to pay attention to their desires and perceptions of "cageless dives". At the end of the day these are their sharks not ours. Build a program that works with the host country and asks for input.

3. Cageless free diving protocols and mixed use sites. I am all for development of a set aside free diving site in the Bahamas if points 1 and 2 are worked with.

In fact that is the only way it can be done, otherwise it's just an "on the fly experiment" with sharks that gets copied by folks who do not have the talent you and your dad have in the water with these critters.

The passion you two have for tigers is undisputed. The images also. Unfortunately there are also images and videos of a few 20 year old girls in bikini's floating around out there hand feeding and riding tigers - for no apparent reason.

Those images negatively charge the debate, as we have seen recently in Hawaii, and cause the great majority of people who are not as pro shark to once again look at our sport with less than admiration.

Don't forget, as far as the general public, lawmakers and media is concerned we're a bunch of shark yahoos, and that's starting with cages. You add some bikini gal with a tiger and now the conversation ends and the anti-shark diving folks start screaming.

Oh, I know the argument all to well for these encounters, "I do this to prove they are misunderstood".

Yeah. That argument coupled with a very young woman in a string bikini just serves to cement you into the "shark crazies" category. We as an industry have to pay heed to the total perception of the industry.

For too long all we see and hear as industry members are the minority who love shark diving. Being an ambassador for sharks is a good thing.

Let's start being ambassadors for an entire industry. We start losing our ability to interact with sharks at sites shut down via the perception we put forth, we also lose the ability to speak for the animals as well.

Florida is a prime example. After the ban on shark diving we now have guys targeting pregnant hammerheads for world records. Imagine if there had been 8 years of commercial shark diving in Florida with the thousands of divers run through safe programs that we might have leveraged to stop this slaughter?

The silence of that recent kill is deafening. We as an industry failed the sharks in Florida back in 2000 by losing our ability to dive with these animals and speak on their behalf. Are we going to fail them again at Isla Guadalupe, Bahamas, and Hawaii as well?

Convo starts here

Rebel Shark Diving - Burgers Zoo

Still unsure of the identities and motives of intruders, zoo officials at Amsterdams Burgers Zoo discovered two men trying to go shark diving in their tropics tanks last week:

AMSTERDAM—Two men broke into Amsterdam's Arnhem Burgers Zoo on Wednesday night and attempted to dive into a pool with three sharks. The men, who had donned some diving equipment that was lying beside the pool, were just about to plunge in when they were intercepted by the director of the zoo, accompanied by two police officers.

“These two were acting completely insanely. They have endangered the animals. The sharks are sensitive to stress and could have died of a heart attack,” zoo director Alex van Hooff was reported as saying in news reports. Blacktip sharks can be dangerous to humans under certain circumstances. They get their name from the black tips on their pelvic and pectoral fins. The sharks can attain a maximum length of nine feet.

The two were arrested, taken into custody and charged with breaking and entering. Dutch media reported that the men were under the influence of drugs.“They broke into the zoo to dive and not to steal. I am really pissed off about this,” Telegraaf quoted Van Hooff as saying.

Editors Note: Died of a heart attack?

Shark Diving Industry - Another Voice

In regards to our industry post today.

Thankfully there's some reasoned support from the guys over at BAD, in Fiji. All controversy aside someone has to stand up and start talking. If the conversation starts with "Patric is an SOB, but he has a point" then so be it. Industry leadership starts with someone taking a stand for what is ultimately right.

You say you love sharks? Start showing the leadership:

I've got to hand it to Patric, he's a brave man!

He just wrote a post that will put him in no end of trouble with many of his peers and probably, with a good part of the principal Shark media as well.

Contrary to us here, he's completely immersed in the Shark Diving Industry and I'm sure that he must have spent quite a few anxious moments pondering what effect this would have on the businesses he operates, Shark Diver and Shark Divers.

I first noticed his Blog when the Groh accident exploded in the media and although my call on the matter was somewhat different, he earned my respect and my admiration for always trying to look beyond the mere daily occurrences, for putting things into perspective and for saying it as it is, without regard for anything and anybody but the plain truth as he sees it.

Once again, he does not disappoint.

Regular readers of this Blog have noticed that we often reference each other and mostly agree about our call on the Industry.

Yes much of what we say may be controversial and we also don't shy away from pointing the finger at what we perceive to be developments, and people that are detrimental to the Industry as a whole and to us as a consequence.

The way I see it, it's part of a robust dialogue in an Industry that will hopefully self-regulate in the same way the Diving Industry has already managed to do. The alternative to that would be having the Authorities slap on a set of regulations - and unfortunately, there are already plenty of examples of how that would look like: the closure of sites and the demise of the operators.

Especially in the USA!

With that in mind, I welcome the upcoming controversy. Patric is of course spot on and 99.99% of the operators know that. But of course there's history, there are likes and dislikes, there's ego and all of that is not conducive to having a dispassionate and constructive dialogue. Yet I know that everybody will silently go over their books and ponder what is being said. Little as that may seem, it's the first step towards reforming the Industry that urgently needs to regroup and re-think the direction in which many have embarked.

This is now the watershed.

On one side, we can progress towards protocols aimed at operating sustainably, profitably and for many many years to come, for the enjoyment of our customers and for the benefit of the animals we love. The other path will lead to our perdition.

It's really that simple.

Please read Patric's post.

Sonja Fordham Wants Your Signature

Sonja Fordham is Ocean Conservancy's Shark Conservation Program Director. We have talked about her in the past and the simply fantastic NGO she represents.

These guys do shark conservation and have our full support.

So, when Sonja puts out a call for a few electronic signatures we're more than happy to help because we know at the end of the day it will. Please join Sonja and her team in making a difference:

I'm Sonja Fordham, Ocean Conservancy's Shark Conservation Program Director, and I'm talking about "finning" the practice of slicing off a shark’s valuable fins for soup and tossing the body back to sea.

If you're like me, the thought of it makes you outraged and eager to end it. Me, I've dedicated almost two decades to conserving sharks. You, I just need you to urge your senators to pass the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 right now.

The bill, which already passed in the House of Representatives last March, is needed to end the practice of shark finning in US waters and to step up shark conservation efforts in other countries. The US passed a national finning ban in 2000, but the practice continues and is still legal in many other nations. The demand for the fins, which can sell for up to hundreds of dollars per pound, remains high for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy.

The Shark Conservation Act of 2009 closes loopholes in the US finning ban and can revitalize shark conservation efforts on a global scale. It must be passed without further delay.Please join me, and the thousands of other Ocean Conservancy supporters, by sending a powerful message to your senators.

A growing number of shark populations are in peril from overfishing and unsustainable finning — we must do better. Prohibiting the removal of shark fins at sea takes the guesswork out of determining if sharks were finned and greatly improves the ability of experts to accurately record the shark species taken. This bill can end the waste of these vulnerable animals and will contribute to our knowledge of shark population health and conservation needs.

When the passionate support of people like you combines with our policy expertise, we can end harmful fishing practices and turn the tide for sharks. We can end the wasteful practice of shark finning. Working together, we can save our sharks.

Thank you for all that you do to fight for a healthy and diverse ocean,

Sonja Fordham
Shark Conservation Program Director
Ocean Conservancy

Kicking the Shark Diving Industry 2.0

You do not get close to 18,000 blog readers a month without having some sort of pull...or not.

Our mysterious You Tube "shark diving industry hater" at one point discreetly removed his video entitled Shark Divers from the line up.

Note: That was two hours ago our hater has come back with the same video, the same schtick, and the same damaging images.But not before some industry folks weighed in on the topic, opening a can of worms on the matter, in some ways necessary.

Do we at this blog really care? Yes and no. As industry advocates this video is a self serving media bomb and everyone knows it. For the two operations featured and made to look like fools, singling them out for local lawmaker wrath both in the Bahamas and a near cage breach at Isla Guadalupe seems like the ultimate insult. They know who shot this and the final disposition of this videos longevity on the net is ultimately up to them.

Suffice to say our commercial company is happy not to have "friends" like this!

To the producer of "Shark Divers", may we suggest you burn that reel, lest you never gain access to another dive boat, pier or bathtub in our industry - ever again.

Bucky Dennis - Son of a Bitch

Ah, makes you madder than a bag of Diamond backs in a bucket of Habenaro sauce on a hot day in July.

The killing of a pregnant world record Hammerhead was greeted in Florida this week by a triumphant media, a disinterested public, and a shocked research and shark diving community.

Oh, that's right, Florida banned sustainable shark diving in the state back in 2001 - in lieu of this, miscreants like Mr.Dennis kill breeding aged populations for the thrill. It is well known in the region this is the time of year for super large Hammerheads who come to pup.

These animals are the factories for future generations and as such should be protected, not killed and traded for a piece of paper with a date and a weigh-in number on it.

Here's the media, the image says it all.

Kudo's to Mote Marine Lab for telling "Bucky" to keep his kill, they wanted nothing to do with him or his new record shark. Perhaps "Bucky" will amount for something in his life, as the spokesman for catch and release. One can only hope - for the rotting pile of pups he now has in the back of his pickup truck, hope for the next generation of Hammerheads in the region is something long gone.

Pondering Tracking Data - Beqa Fiji

Being "interested" in the latest tagging and tracking data for sharks is not for everyone. For commercial shark diving operators, this is must read stuff.

What separates those who come to our industry for the thrills and dollars of the business and those who remain committed to their own sites, and long term animal welfare is curiosity.

When reading Tiger shark tracking data from Hawaii for example, do operators in Bahamas and elsewhere think how this data fits into their own animals behaviours...and do they want to do anything about it?

Once again, showing Da industry leadership, the folks over at the BAD Blog allow us to crawl around inside their heads to look at this question. Intellectual curiosity is not lost with these folks and clearly this operation is a nice hybrid of commercial shark diving and research.

With millions of sharks being killed each and every year we will, in the next 10-20, find ourselves with the concept of Shark Parks. Last ditch areas of shark habitat where shark operators fight for their animals. Without the data or research to support us, the argument of "well, we make money here" is a non starter.

Complete Post

Kicking the Shark Diving Industry

Interesting. A chop shop comes up with two iterations of a new shark show concept called either "Shark Divers" or "Shark Business". They are both posted on You Tube to see who's interested and what, if any, ensuing media hits these two concept shows get.

Sounds familiar? It should we invented the idea.

The problem with this is that what you are watching is damaging our industry and whoever is behind this cares nothing for the many hard working operators worldwide who are trying, on a daily basis, to show our industry in a positive light. These operators care about sharks, they support research, and work tirelessly for local and regional shark causes.We spoke with Mike Lever (featured in "Shark Divers") owner of Nautilus Explorer today who has no idea how these videos came to pass - quote:

"There's no way we would do this kind of televised crap, we agree that divers should remain in cages, those are not our divers outside the cages at Isla Guadalupe"

That's it. While Hawaii decides the fate of two operations in their waters, Mexico continues to debate having shark operations in their waters, and the Bahamas has the fate of Tiger Beach in committee - one misguided media chop shop decided, alone and all by themselves, it was in the best interests of our 100 million dollar commercial shark diving industry to show the entire planet its worst face.

What a difference a "few clips" can make to the perception of a global industry.

Tunisian White Sharks?

Try even finding Tunisia on a map. Yet, according to recently a released video here is an unmistakable 12-13 foot male white shark. Thanks to Helmut Nickel for the video discovery:

REQUIN A CHEBA
Uploaded by blogtounsi

What The!? - Isabella Rossellini

Hide the dog and take the children out of school, the world as we know it is about to end in 3 seconds. You can thank actress Isabella Rossellini and her 6 foot long paper product whale penis:



Editors Note: The crazy blogger at Chum Slick broke this one, not us!

Conservation Long Game - Seals

For the seal conservation folks out there this was a good year indeed. After almost 30 long years of protests, marches, letter writing campaigns and in depth work with lawmakers and NGO's the European Parliament voted this week to ban most seal products from the European market. This ban will eliminate a primary source of revenue for the world's seal hunters re Canada. The legislative resolution was adopted with 550 votes in favor, 49 against and 41 abstentions.

An exemption is allowed for indigenous communities. The legislators exempted those seal products resulting from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit and other indigenous communities, which may still be imported and marketed into European Union countries.

Otherwise, the import of seal products is permitted only where it is of an occasional nature and consists exclusively of goods for the personal use of the travelers or products that result from by-products of hunting conducted for the purpose of sustainable management of marine resources on a nonprofit basis, the measure provides.

The Catch?

The European Parliament's ban on commercial trade in seal products will become law if it is adopted by the European Council of Ministers, which represents the member states.

Stay tuned, after 30 years of protests the final resolution still may be a ways off, but the end is near and that for conservationists is a real win.

Save Our Seas - Thomas P. Peschak

Once in a great while someone in our industry comes to the table with compelling, reasonable, and frankly conservation changing media (see video). This week our hats come off to photographer Thomas P. Peschak who along with the Save Our Seas Foundation have taken on the issue of South African Shark nets.

We have been talking about this issue for many months after the first, second and then third Tiger shark kills at Aliwal shoal. This is conservation action at work, spending time, money and resources to bring home an issue and help save sharks on a regional level. This is also industry leadership.

Kudos to everyone involved. SOS has hit a home run with this effort. Please support them.

Thomas P. Peschak is an award winning photojournalist and marine biologist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the chief photographer for the Save our Seas Foundation and travels extensively to document shark conservation and research around the world.

Download Tom Peschak's Africa Geographic article as a PDF here.

Maldives Whale Sharks, Conservation

A terrific piece of pro shark, pro tourism, pro shark research media landed on our laptop this morning.

The subject is the Maldives and whale shark tagging and tourism efforts in the region - covered by the BBC.

This is how you do positive shark media:

We're cruising up and down a known shark aggregation zone, a stretch of the Indian Ocean outside the island necklace of South Ari atoll, one of 26 coral formations that make up the Maldives archipelago.

On board are conservation biologists Richard Rees and Adam Harman from the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme and the tagging expert accompanying them, Brent Stewart, of Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in San Diego, US.

Brent has tagged everything from seals to sea birds to learn more about their lives, and he's also tagged a group of whale sharks off Kenya.

Complete Story

Cape Eleuthera Institute, Shark Free Marinas

Last year we launched an "open source" shark conservation measure called the Shark Free Marinas Initiative .

"Open source" is something you'll typically find with software development. It's a way of taking a concept and allowing a community to tweak and slightly change the concept to make it better. Thus far a few members of our community have done so and Kudos to those who have seen the potential and wanted to help.

"Open source" is an experiment in shark initiatives and one we're happy to say is slowly taking on shape and form in the Bahamas where another industry member has signed on and pushed this effort forward on the island of Eleuthera, with the Cape Eleuthera Institute.

Last week Edd Brooks featured the SFMI in the Save our Seas Blog retelling another story of senseless shark slaughter in the Bahamas for "trophy sharks":

"So a little while ago the son of one of our visiting scientists was wandering the docks of the local marina and spotted a large bull shark.Unfortunately the shark was dead, killed in the early hours of the morning by a group of guys who were having a party in which the side entertainment was killing this young female shark."

Kudos for joining the SFMI - the new website will go live next week featuring the Cape Eleuthera Institute.

Research - Florida Sharks Cure Depression

Do we need to stop dumping pharmaceuticals into our water systems?

Recent data coming out of Mote Marine Laboratory has found concentrations of anti-depressants and birth control drugs in local shark populations.

No, just licking the side of one of these critters will not remove your deep seated anger and depression...just yet. The data suggests larger forces at work here as millions of gallons of man made drugs are flushed each year in the U.S and are now appearing in fish populations.

Perhaps this is the reason China still consumes sharks fin. Since 1999 local hospitals in China have been recording emotionally stable patients, surprising cases of hair regrowth, and massive concentrations of Vitamin C in people who eat shark fin three times a week.

O.K - we made that last bit up.

What gets flushed into our water systems ends up somewhere. Kudos to the team at Mote Marine for the discovery. One more reason to not flush your meds.

Carnival of the Blue 24 - Smart

Where do you find the best of the Blue Blogs? This months Carnival of the Blue is being hosted at the Monterey Bay Aquarium blog Sea Notes.

Featuring an oddly brilliant assortment of thinkers, idea makers, and blue bloggers, this months Carnival of the Blue is a must read for anyone who calls the ocean home, both literally and virtually.

Let the Blue Blogging commence!

Editors Note: A somewhat amusing look at the disasters of Science vs Food Sources, a blog post by Shark Diver made this months cut.

4,919,978 - That's Media

Back in 2007 an experiment in new media on You Tube was launched. Could we get to one million views of a natural predation event at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico?

The answer to that question was quickly discovered. Yes.

Today this video remains in the top 10. Kudos to the marketing wizards Adam and Zander at L.A based 689Design who wrapped this piece of video eye candy up into the ongoing You Tube power house that is remains to this day. 4,919,978 is an exciting number, we'll be cracking the champagne at 5 million next month.

Captains Log - Missing a Few

Captains Log

"Had a spot of weather last night. This morning over coffee my first mate pointed out the deck situation. Seems we're missing about 200 containers. Still, it's ah, good coffee."

"Megamouth" in a Red Bean Sauce

One of the most tragic media bytes of all time was the Hindenburg crash in Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1937. The reporter on site all but dissolved live, on nationwide radio, crying out "Oh, the humanity!"

You kind of get that same feeling when an extremely rare and valuable Megamouth shark was recently caught...and then carved up and eaten by fishermen from a town in the Philippines. The environmental conservation group WWF reported this unusual "Gastronomic Hindenburg Event" this month.

So rare are Megamouth shark sightings that each find is given a number -- this one, caught by fishermen from the coastal town of Donsol (also known for whale shark tourism), was only the 41st ever seen or captured in the world.

Elson Aca, a Donsol WWF representative, said this rarest of sharks was butchered and its meat sauteed in coconut milk as a local delicacy, against the organization's advice. Turns out these sharks are just plain tasty.

Since we do not have video of the tragic shark feeding event please review the following video from 1937. "Oh, the humanity indeed!"

Australia - Shark Tagging System

A few months ago we posted several stories about the antiquated shark killing system from the 1960's still in use on some beaches in Australia today.

The images of a dead sub adult white shark to us was appalling.

Better news today as a new tagging and early warning system goes into place allowing both researchers and ocean users a real time assessment of predatory threats without killing the animals:

A monitoring system which tracks White Pointer sharks off the coast of Perth could soon be used to warn swimmers if sharks are nearby. A network of acoustic receivers was deployed off metropolitan beaches last year to monitor 100 tagged sharks.

The Department of Fisheries says the aim of the program is to learn more about the behaviour and movement of sharks. Research scientist Rory McAuley says the system could also become a public safety tool.

"We'll be able to provide alerts to public safety agencies and officers when a tagged shark does turn up close to a populated beach," he said.

Complete Story

Tiger Sharks - "Wandering About Like Moses"

A four year study on the movement patterns of Tiger sharks in Hawaii has once again surprised the CW folks - opening a new and better understanding of these remarkable critters.

Shark researcher Carl Meyer, a biologist with the Hawai'i Institute for Marine Biology says these animals are not the territorial hunters once thought. Rather, these animals are pelagic wanderers often traveling great distances to find and ambush prey items. Kinda like those 40 lost years Moses spent wandering around the deserts. Except Moses never brought down a sickly Humpback whale calf. We digress.

Great study and better news coming out of Hawaii where local shark diving operators need data like this to bolster claims about chumming and animal behavior. Now if the folks over there can put this data together.

Sharks - Those Crazy DARPA Kids

DARPA is the military's design and development wing and they are designing "guided sharks" according to the BBC:

Pentagon scientists are planning to turn sharks into "stealth spies" capable of tracking vessels undetected, a British magazine has reported.

They want to remotely control the sharks by implanting electrodes in their brains, The New Scientist says.

It says the aim is "to exploit sharks' natural ability to glide through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails".

The unusual project was unveiled last week in Hawaii, it says.

'Steering' sharks

The research is being funded by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), according to the magazine.

Remote-controlled sharks do have advantages that robotic underwater surveillance vehicles just cannot match: they are silent, and they power themselves The New Scientist

It aims to build on latest developments in brain implant technology which has already seen scientists controlling the movements of fish, rats and monkeys.

"Neural implants consists of a series of electrodes that are embedded into the animal's brain, which can then be used to stimulate various functional areas," the magazine says.

It says such devices are already being used by scientists at Boston University to "steer" a spiny dogfish in a fish tank.

The next step for the Pentagon scientists will be the release of blue sharks with similar devices into the ocean off the coast of Florida.

As radio signals will not penetrate the sea, communications with the animals will be made by sonar.

The US navy has acoustic signalling towers capable of sending sonar signals to a shark up to 300km (187 miles) away, the magazine says.

It says the scientists will be particularly interested in the animals' health during the tests.

"As wild predators, it is very easy to exhaust them, and this will place strict limits on how long the researchers can control their movements in any one session without harming them.

"Despite this limitation, though, remote-controlled sharks do have advantages that robotic underwater surveillance vehicles just cannot match: they are silent, and they power themselves," the magazine says.

The project was discussed at the 2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Hawaii - Chumming=Sharks=Attacks

As expected on a vote of 11-2, the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board approved a resolution calling for a statewide ban on shark-feeding tour operations. This is the "opening salvo" of a long term battle for the right to dive commercially with sharks in Hawaii. Currently there are two existing operations who are under siege.

This battle will be won or lost in the mainstream media. Unfortunately the operators on island have been slow to realize this and have done little to change the current anti-shark diving media platform of:

Chumming=Sharks=Attacks

Where operators should focus is on the economic benefits of commercial shark diving on a statewide, regional, and local level. Following the shark diving tourism dollars as they flow through the worst economic downturn in 30 years is a media point that few politicians want to argue against. The pro-shark diving media platform of:

Shark Diving=Tourism=Economy

As with all media campaigns timing is everything and as the weeks drag into months and neighborhood groups band together gathering political and media steam - the likelihood of changing the media's focus becomes more and more distant.

The commercial shark diving industry saw this same anti-shark diving roll out in Florida from 1999-2001. Let's get to work.

Beqa - Talking Shark Conservation

Becoming a fan of the ongoing shark conservation and industry blogging going on over at Beqa Adventure Divers is as easy as clicking a link. Remaining a fan is as easy as reading this weeks post about shark finning.

Coherent Op-Eds are hard to find in our industry, fortunately for the rest of us there's the BAD Blog who took a smart conversation going on over at Southern Fried Science and jumped all over it:

If this is true, many of us got to seriously re-think our approach to Shark Conservation.

It says that many fisheries, Shark fishing included, are completely supply limited.
In a nutshell, it would mean that the demand for Shark fins greatly outweighs the supply and that consequently, even if we managed to convince a lot of people not to consume Shark fins, it would have little to no effect on the market and thus, on the supply side represented by the size of the Shark fishing industry.

Couple that with the fact that price elasticity for Shark Fins is probably very close to zero (meaning that prices will rise as stocks get depleted, always balancing, or even outpacing the rising cost of having to find increasingly rare Sharks in an increasingly empty Ocean) and that fishermen are perfect examples for the Tragedy of the Commons, and we are faced with a problem of truly epic proportions.

Complete Post

Sea Shepherd - Hemorrhaging on the Law

As the months grind on for Sea Shepherd and titular head Paul Watson, you have to ask the question "do they even have a plan anymore?".

As we have documented over the past year SSCS direct action policy is floundering both in Canada and Australia where the SSCS have come up against something they frequently demand International adherence to - the rule of law.

It would seem when SSCS quote the rule of law it justifies almost any action from ramming vessels to fabricating media output. When the rule of law is against them, those "others" are quickly and skillfully transformed into pirates, evil doers, and eco monsters by the SSCS media machine. Often to little effect as the rule of law grinds on and over the SSCS.

Your ongoing donations are fueling this wholesale direct action disaster.

In Canada, direct action vessel Farley Mowat was seized and auctioned off to howls of protest by SSCS who devoted their time to rewriting and blogging about the "facts" of the encounter and Canadian rule of law. The vessel was caught breaking the law and in due process lost SSCS donors close to one million dollars when this vessel was sold off last month. Fact is the SSCS anti-sealing plan failed in a spectacular gamble that might have worked better if SSCS had just handed a cool million to the sealers and told them to go home.

To add to the ongoing gamble, Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands and 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden failed to appear in Canadian court on April 27th. They will be tried in absentia and most likely found guilty, banned from Canada forever as fugitives.

Direct Action Policy

The rule of law is not pretty, particularly when applied to wildlife. Treaties and governments often produce rules and regulations that do great damage to wildlife. These are also the constraints that all eco group with credibility operate under. There is a playing field, there are rules. If you want to get anything done in the eco world you have to build alliances, consensus, and work within the confines, or just outside the confines of the rule of law. This works and groups help wildlife everyday, changing rules, saving wildlife.

SSCS failed 1970's direct action techniques are costing donors millions, and as with the case in Japan have now opened near shore whaling operations - handing down a death sentence to whales off the coasts of Japan. This is the true face of direct action when applied without skill, and without a coherent plan with an eye to the rule of law.

Let's rethink the plan. Hemorrhaging eco dollars and media into high profile wildlife issues gains little and helps no one.

Hawaii Shark Diving - An Angry Mob

With the news coming out of Hawaii for existing commercial shark diving operations sounding grim, the old adage "a good offence" is "good advice".

Still buzzing from a failed commercial roll out last month, islanders and the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board will decide tonight on a resolution measure that will ask for the closure of all shark diving activities in Hawaii.

The same pitchforks and flaming torches anti-shark diving "resolutions" that forever closed commercial operations in Florida back in 2001. This is the most serious challenge to commercial shark diving seen in many years and operators need to move fast now to head off possible closures at the hands of those few who see commercial shark diving as negative. Chumming data from credible sources worldwide exists to counter many of the arguments, but this challenge will not be met in public meetings, the media will decide the fate of operations on these islands.

Food for thought - and a clarion cry for serious and lasting action:

The Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board will consider a resolution to support a
statewide ban on commercial shark tours during its meeting tonight.

The meeting begins at 7 at Hahaione Elementary School.

The resolution is in response to community opposition to a proposed shark
tour operation outside Maunalua Bay, and to questions raised about the
legality of existing shark tours on Oahu's North Shore.

State and federal laws currently prohibit feeding sharks within 200 miles of
shore.

More than 300 people attended a community meeting on the issue at Kamiloiki
Elementary on April 16. Opponents of shark tours said that sharks learn to
identify the sound of vessels that have chummed the water, that chumming
causes sharks to associate feeding with humans, and that sharks have been
observed to follow shark tour boats back toward shore.

The Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board resolution calls for "city and state
legislation to effectively ban commercial shark tours in Maunalua Bay and
throughout the state."

To close existing loopholes, the resolution also calls for legislation to:
"(1) prohibit use of public facilities such as parks, piers, ramps, and
harbors by shark tour operations; (2) prohibit advertising of commercial
shark tours in any print and electronic media; and, (3) prohibit commercial
use of shark cages or other devices designed to place humans in close
proximity to sharks or within shark habitats."

The public is invited to attend the meeting and offer testimony.

Complete Story

Juanmi Alemany - "In Search of the Great White"

Not long ago the crews of Shark Diver introduced underwater photographer Juanmi Alemany to the white sharks of Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.

For a commercial shark diving company like ours fully supporting efforts that show sharks in a positive light has been a big part of our operation. Juanmi's shark images will serve to enlighten and educate thousands of viewers in the coming months. Kudos.

Juanmi's white shark expo opens in Spain from May through June. If you happen to be in town please feel free to join him, here's the invite:

Hi Shark Diver,

I am pleased to be able to invite you to the opening of the exhibition "In Search of the Great White." After much work the next day will be presented May 15 at 20.30 hours in Conference Room of the Convent in Granadilla de Abona. Please forward this email to all the people you think they would like to attend. A big hug, I hope to see you there.

Yours,
Juanmi Alemany

C / Garajonay 2
38600 Granadilla
S / C de Tenerife / Spain
Phone: 649.50.39.62
www.mundosmarinos.com

Hawaii Shark Diving - Media

Blow back from a failed and spectacularly poor commercial shark diving roll out continues to haunt existing operations on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

As we have long said within our industry - actions taken as an operator affect not only your operation but those around you. The media, the public, and lawmakers see "one group" when the subject of commercial shark diving comes up and rarely see individuals or businesses.

This week as expected reporters in Hawaii closed in on the legal side of existing operations and an apparent loop hole that exists in the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act which states it is unlawful to use food or any other substance in federal waters off Hawaii to attract sharks unless they are being caught or killed for human use.

Bizarrely, if existing operations killed sharks on their tours what they would be doing would be deemed legal according to this federal law. As long as this law exists lawmakers have the right to exercise it. With several Hawaiian lawmakers up for reelection this is a bad time for loop holes in Hawaii.

Solution?

Operators in Hawaii will need to work in concert to fend off this upcoming storm. Easier said than done as with most sites worldwide operator mistrust and long standing competition has not created the atmosphere for such an alliance. Regardless, an active and positive media campaign rolled out now will help fend off future attacks by anti shark diving advocates, malcontents, the uninformed, and the media whose anti shark diving bias runs deep.

"Setting the table" now will help the existing operations in the long term work through the loophole and the battles that are sure to come. Ignoring this issue and hoping it will go away is the last thing these operators should be doing.

Not Quite a "Pandemic" - Mexico

"Pandemic" - a word not used in the major media since WW1 when a swine flu raged around the planet drowning it's victims in less than 72 hours.

The World Health Organization stopped short today of calling Mexico's recent outbreak as a "Pandemic" even though this strain kills and kills fast. While Mexico City is in shutdown mode with children's parties cancelled and bars closed, you may want to consider hand washing protocols for the next few months.

Kansas has four known cases already.

The last great pandemic in 1918 killed an estimated 30 million people.

Cephelapod Use #22 - Brain Booster

Depending who you speak with - and we speak with absolutely everyone, rising squid populations are responsible for fisheries collapses worldwide.

The theory goes something like this:

Sharks (who eat squids) are being killed off leaving an open predatory niche in the worlds oceans. Unfortunately squids reproduce at the rate of millions and without sharks to control populations, swarms of these critters are taking over delicate feeding chains decimating fish stocks...or so this theory goes.

We submit to this theory, mainly because the folks behind it are smarter then we are. So it is with little surprise that researchers at the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Research Institute in Taipei have found the brain boosting compound PL-DHA (phospholipid docosahexaenoic acid) in squid skins.

Huzzah!

If you want to eradicate anything commercially from the ocean, you need to first come up a with a financial reason to do so, thank you researcher guys in Taipei. Now we can all be a bit smarter while doing the job sharks used to do before we killed them all off...back in our dumber days that is.

Once in a Lifetime Trips - Shark Diver

A stunning new adventure travel book available at at all major book sellers across the USA has a chapter devoted to - shark diving.

Fly-fish in the virgin waters of the Chilean fjords, arriving by helicopter; navigate Alaska on a boat as luxurious as a four-star hotel but small enough to sail where the big cruise ships can’t; embark on a private-jet tour to the great opera houses in Europe with behind-the-scenes passes: experience the classic links of the British Open. Once in a Lifetime Trips is a trove of ideas for travels that are unique, decadent, and off the beaten path.

Shark Diver, your favorite neighbourhood shark diving company, was featured to talk about our shark diving operations at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico. The chapter is all about big encounters at remote locations with Great Whites, we're pretty happy with it.

As we're fond of saying around here "If you're going to discover adventure travel, make sure your next adventure stays with you for the rest of your life".

EU Shark Conservation Politics

"Ach Aye Laddie, yer shark plan works fer me!"

That's the good news coming from Scotland this week - recently signaling government approval to tougher shark fishing restrictions on a comprehensive shark management plan coming out of the EU. The Shark Action Plan has been hailed by many as a good first step to curbing rampant and unrestricted shark fisheries across the entire region:

Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead today welcomed the decision to adopt the European Union's Shark Action Plan. Speaking from the Fisheries Council in Luxembourg today, where he signalled Scotland's support for tougher restrictions, Mr Lochhead said:

"I welcome and support the decision to prioritise this Shark Action Plan which is a well-balanced approach.

"Our scientists tell us that some shark populations are critically endangered, and we need to respond to that advice.

"In Scotland we are working closely with the industry and NGOs to ensure that sharks are given adequate protection and that our waters remain healthy and our fish stocks sustainable.

"We are one of Europe's most important fishing nations and we have a huge interest in maintaining the sustainability of our seas, their stocks and the wider marine ecosystem."

Sen John Kerry - Sharks

Let's face it, he would have made a terrible president, but as an advocate for sharks we like him a lot.

This week Sen John Kerry introduced a bill - The Shark Conservation Act, to the senate following the houses o.k that will hopefully slow down shark takes in US waters:

Bill Number: H.R. 81/S. 850
Bill Status: Passed House
Bill Sponsor(s): Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
Legislature Status: In Session

To protect sharks from the cruel practice of shark finning (cutting off sharks' fins and throwing the sharks back in the water, often while still alive). Congress banned this practice in 2000, but enforcement is complex and there is room for cheating. This legislation closes a loophole that currently permits a vessel to transport fins obtained illegally as long as the sharks were not finned aboard that vessel.

Editors Note: The Humane Society USA has been following this issue closely.

Hanging with the Vandenberg

Local Florida dive boat captain Scotty Grey has been closely following the twists and turns of the Vandenberg Project soon to be the second largest reef project in Florida's history and an amazing dive site. Scotty has worked with us on a few film projects over the past two years in the Bahamas:

Hi Shark Diver,

Today I got to take a private tour of the Vandenberg. She is sitting at the Truman waterfront in Key West. Thanks so much to Joe Weatherby of Reefmakers, your twelve years of hard work and dedication has really paid off. Joe took Captain Slate of Atlantis Dive Center, Mike Hanna of Tusa Dive Gear and myself for a private tour from bow to stern. All I can say is the old girl sure is impressive. There are so many rooms and hallways; it’s going to be a diver’s paradise. We took lots of pictures so be sure and check them out on the Blue Iguana webpage photo gallery.

The biggest diving event of the year is happening in Key West near the end of May. A chance of a lifetime to see this magnificent vessel slipping into the sky blue waters of Key West to become a major attraction for millions of divers to explore. This multimillion dollar event is a onetime offer for the bragging rights to say “I was there” and be among some of the first to get to dive the old girl. This will be in every dive magazine in the industry for years to come, don’t read about it, live it, and be a part of history.

Blue Iguana Charters is offering you a chance to be a part of this with ring side seats. We will be as close as possible so bring your cameras and let’s watch history together from atop of the lido deck of the MV Kate .

We are going to spend ten days diving some of the best shipwrecks the world has to offer right here in the Florida Keys. We will dive all the major wrecks from Key Largo to Key West with the Spiegel Grove and Vandenberg being the anchor ship at each end. The price for this trip is $3,500 per person. This price includes all your meals, lodging and diving onboard the liveaboard vessel MV Kate. We will have nitrox available for an additional fee on this wonderful journey. We only have a few spots left so if you are interested please contact us as soon as possible.

If you would like more information about this trip just drop me a email at info@blueiguanacharters.com or you can give me a call at 561-385-2385.

Thanks,
Capt Scotty

Sea Shepherd - Japans Coastal Whale Slaughter

When direct eco action fails - it usually fails spectacularly. Case in point the ongoing "Whale War" with Sea Shepherd and Japans whaling fleet in Antarctica.

For the past two seasons SSCS has been "wagging the conservation dog" with a series of staged media events, massaged and frankly erroneous news reports, and continued vessel rammings that have caused Japan to, for the first time in decades, kill whales within its territorial waters.

Unintended consequence to a failed direct action eco policy that has handed down a death sentence to the whales off the coasts of Japan.

To the architect of this disaster, Mr.Paul Watson and his television show Whale Wars, the 2008-9 anti whaling effort remains an expensive and media costly Pyrrhic Victory. On blogs and news sites across the world SSCS is claiming to have actually saved whales this season while at the same time failing to discuss this new and unfolding whale killing disaster in front of them. Perhaps it is best to focus on what eco wins you can get. For us at this blog and the many posts we have devoted to SSCS direct action policy failures - it is not so simple.

Paul Watson media quote, 4.16.2009 Telegraph U.K:

'People say I manipulate the media,' says Watson, who speaks calmly with an undertone of anger and lofty scorn for anyone who doubts or opposes him. 'Well, duh. We live in a media culture so why on earth wouldn't I?

Will SSCS join Japans fleet and renewed killing effort off it's territorial waters this season to save whales yet again?

With one vessel at "reluctant auction" in Canada at a loss of $800,000 to SSCS and donors and with the Steve Irwin banned from Japans waters - the chances of SSCS being there to save whales being needlessly slaughtered off Japans coastlines is as likely as Paul Watsons assassination claims of 2008.

It is high time to rethink direct action. The world has changed, conservation policies need to change with it or fade into the sunset.

Wayward Hammers - Australia

About the only place on the planet where simply enjoying a morning shower nets you a tub filled with sharks, Australia is one sharky place.

Not surprisingly the news coming from the land Down Under this week is all about Lake Macquarie and an ongoing series of shark sightings that has locals and the media doing what they do best...screaming about it.

This weeks encounters feature a wayward Hammerhead or two that found themselves Easter weekend checking out shore lines filled with families BBQ'ing and waiting for their turn to get into the water:

Glenn Wilson, of Floraville, photographed a three-metre hammerhead from the fly-bridge of a cruiser near Summerland Point on Good Friday.

"We saw it 200 metres from the boat, we cruised in and it came straight up to the boat," Mr Wilson said. "It was looking for a feed. I'd say it was pretty hungry.

"If I had my game-fishing gear, I would have caught it." It was the first time he had seen a shark in the lake, despite cruising almost every weekend. "I've been a bit sceptical about sharks in the lake, but they're out there," he said.

Complete Story

5 Meter Whites in NZ - Hotspot

Just when the politics of the new white shark dive site in New Zealand seemed like it was going to terminate one of the best new dive sites on the planet, co-owner Peter Scott has found a way to make it happen. He's also reporting 5 meter white sharks on site this week

Without a doubt the hottest white shark diving ticket right now for film and television and shark research lies not in Mexico but in New Zealand:

Hiya Shark Diver,

Things are going well but not doing tourist as yet due to still working through all the legal side of things.
Numbers have been good with 18 regulars. Department of Conservation tagged 9 with satellite tags. We've had a few 5 metre ones around the cage, coming really close, keen to show the dentistry but appearing inquisitive rather than aggressive. Changed our burley from mackeral to Albacore tuna with great results. May come and visit when the unrest in Mexico settles. Still monitoring but the temperatures have now dropped to 12 degrees C. Will keep you updated.

Also if you go into www.odt.co.nz, Saturday 19th April you will see a photo that we took 2 weeks ago that went in the newspaper with an article.

Cheers,
Peter Scott

Larval Critters - The Ocean's "Itchy" Feeling

If you do not pay attention to Stumble Upon then you're only using a small fraction of your brain power. Seriously, since we started Stumbling a year ago we now know more than most about absolutely everything.

Take that Mesa punks.

We also know a great ocean based website when we see one and this week found a unique site that features oceanic critters we most like to eat when they are too small to eat.

Case in point this critter here - known as the Slipper Lobster (ate more than a few of these in Australia) it's larval stage looks like cut crystal and the website it is found on hosts a veritable treasure trove of deep sea critters only surfers and the occasional long distance swimmer ever encounter.

Think of this site as plankton porn for the whale shark set. Kudos to the folks over at Image Quest Marine.