Whale Sharks - The Holbox Papers

In depth industry papers on shark tourism are a must read. Isla Holbox in Mexico has rapidly become a test bed for sustainable tourism with sharks. A new paper is now out.

Tourism Abstract

The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is the world's largest fish and forms predictable seasonal aggregations at several locations worldwide, which has led to an explosion in whale shark tourism since the early 1990’s. Since 2002, Holbox has established itself as a gateway to the largest known predictable aggregations of whale sharks in the world. It has also experienced the largest growth in terms of visitation and number of licensed tour operators creating an industry worth approximately US$2.72 million in 2008. This rapid growth, along with the whale shark’s listing on the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species has led to concerns of the industry’s sustainability in the long-term.

This study was initiated to understand the sustainability of Holbox’s whale shark tourism industry from a social and economic perspective. Tour participants were surveyed regarding their overall satisfaction with their experience, as well as their knowledge of, and compliance with, the interaction regulations. Eighty-five percent of participants were day tourists from mass tourism destinations like Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Approximately thirty percent of the economic gain from the activity is derived off the Island, while on-Island income goes dominantly to two large vertically-integrated operators who are able to bring in visitors directly from the mainland.

Overall, participants experienced high levels of satisfaction but found crowding to be a problem with thirty-three percent dissatisfied with the number of boats. Furthermore, the language barrier between the guides and the tourists resulted in a misunderstanding of the interaction regulations in place to protect the whale sharks and tourists and resulted in a high level of contact with the sharks. The outputs of this study will help inform the future sustainability of the industry, as this relies not only on a returning, healthy population of whale sharks, but also on a satisfied customer base.

Link to report.

“Almost 90 % of sharks have been wiped out“

Science fact or fiction?

This morning over at the Conservation Bytes blog the discussion about Greenwashing and Blackwashing and an in depth look at both.

What happens when conservation groups make wild claims about the state of the world s natural resources?

“Almost 90 % of sharks have been wiped out. I immediately distanced myself from them. This is a blatant lie and terrible over-exaggeration. Ninety per cent of sharks HAVE NOT been wiped out. Some localised depletions have occurred, and not one single sharks species has been recorded going extinct since records began. While I agree the world has a serious shark problem, saying outrageous things like this will only serve to weaken your cause. My advice to any green group is to get your facts straight and avoid the sensationlist game – you won’t win it, and you probably won’t be successful in doing anything beneficial for the species you purport to save."

Sea Shepherd - Whale Defense Meat Grinder?

We're not sure if anyone stopped for a minute during the "1 Million dollar big check moment" with Sea Shepherd last month to really think about the acquisition of their high speed Earthrace vessel.

Renamed the Ady Gil and painted a nice black, the self styled eco warriors from Sea Shepherd have been touting this ship as their new weapon against Japanese whaling.

All we noticed were the two giant propellers at the back of the vessel that to us looked like big trouble for whales.

With a top speed of 45 knots the renamed Ady Gil credits at least one very serious collision with "submerged debris" during her life at sea.

"Shortly after leaving Palau on day 34, Earthrace struck submerged debris which sheared two blades off the port propeller and bent the drive shaft. This necessitated a return to Palau in order to assess the damage and remove the prop."

The propellers are German-designed, carbon propellers that are 36 inches in diameter.

To date Sea Shepherd have not provided "propeller shrouding" for these whirling Ginsu Knives of the Antarctic and intend on putting this vessel in between Japans harpoon vessels and the whales. Propeller shrouding would protect whales from these extreme blades while still allowing this vessel to "close intercept" with the animals and Japanese whalers.

Did Sea Shepherd or anyone in the eco media stop to think about this?

Clearly, in the rush to congratulate yet another futile season of reality television, no one did.

100 Million Sharks - The Question

Editors Note: Unfortunately this blog post was the result of an online scam by a group of questionable filmmakers pushing a new film called "The Shark Con." Blog reader "Ethan" also contacted other Blue Bloggers with this film clip. He is not an actual blog reader but part of the effort to get free promotion for the film.

The premise of the film is to feature a few marginal and discredited anti shark people in a documentary to enrage the shark conservation movement so people will buy your film. In essence "manufacturing dissent" to sell a film.

This blog does not buy into callous attempts to promote and sell manufactured shark conservation films. We're in the business of real and lasting conservation change. If you want manufactured eco dissent there's always Whale Wars on Animal Planet, and if we say so, they do a much better job.

Original Post

Thanks to blog reader Ethan for sending this in. The conservation question of 100 million sharks killed each year is a lingering one. The number 100 million appeared at least five years ago and is taken for granted as the defacto number of dead shark each and every year.

This number is the backbone to the entire shark conservation movement - 100 million.

But what if science does not back up the numbers?

What if only 25 million sharks are killed each year?

Some have questioned the actual number, others are now making videos:

Free Gaffing Makos - Mumbling Excuses - Shepherd Smith

Shepherd Smith. Looking like a warmed over corpse and wearing too much pancake makeup proceeds to "interview" one of the crew members who allegedly free gaffed a Mako shark this summer in Florida.

Allegedly? Almost certainly? You decide.

Listen carefully to the tale this guy spins up about how they caught the shark, released the shark, "got a hook in it," and then dragged it home. If this was a court of law this guy would be behind bars for "inconsistent story telling."

Unfortunately, he is happily doing FOX News interviews with good old Shepard, who seems more than happy to promote the untimely and most certainly unsportsmanlike catch of a breeding aged Mako shark.

We hear tell Shepherd also hunts ducks with Patriot Missile batteries on loan from the Defense Department.

That's one small step for sharks...

Senate Committee Passes Bill to End Shark Finning in U.S.

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 - Oceana commends the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee today for passing the Shark Conservation Act of 2009.

"Shark management in the U.S. has suffered for long enough," said Beth Lowell, federal policy director at Oceana. "It's time to enact this shark finning bill into law."

The Act would require all sharks caught in U.S. waters to be landed whole with their fins still attached. This would put an end to shark finning, the wasteful process of cutting off the fins and discarding the carcass at sea.

Landing sharks with their fins still attached allows for better enforcement and data collection for stock assessments and quota monitoring. The Act would also close a loophole that allows the transfer of fins at sea as a way to get around current law. Additionally, the bill would allow the United States to take action against countries whose shark finning restrictions are not as strenuous.

"Finning is threatening shark populations worldwide," said Elizabeth Griffin, marine scientist at Oceana. "The U.S. should be a leader in helping to solve the problem of shark finning."

The Act was introduced by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) in April. Similar legislation (H.R. 81), introduced by Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), passed the House of Representatives in March.

ABOUT SHARKS:

Sharks have been swimming the world's oceans since before the age of the dinosaur, but today some species face extinction. Each year, commercial fishing kills more than 100 million sharks worldwide - including tens of millions for just their fins. Sharks are especially vulnerable to pressure from human activities because of their slow growth and low reproductive potential.

Sharks can be found in almost every ocean and play a vital role in maintaining the health of the oceans. Many shark populations have declined to levels where they are unable to perform their roles as top predators in the ecosystem, causing drastic and possibly irreversible damage to the oceans. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, more than half of the highly migratory shark species are now considered overexploited or depleted.

For more information about Oceana's campaign to safeguard sharks, please visit www.oceana.org/sharks.

Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world's oceans. Our teams of marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates win specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life. Global in scope and dedicated to conservation, Oceana has campaigners based in North America, Europe and South America. For more information, please visit www.Oceana.org.

Guadalupe Island PSA - RTSea Productions

The commercial shark diving industry knows that exposing the public to sharks leads to conservation. It is a fact, and to those that would dispute this fact, to those few who only see sharks through the myopic lens of fear, we present to following PSA by RTSea Productions.

Now seen on Google Oceans:

Maldives Whale Shark Research Q and A

Frontline research with Whale Sharks is critical and none more so than at remote sites like the Maldives.

Enter the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program.

We featured these guys and their terrific outreach website earlier this year as a template for other research sites interested in well networked and well defined public access sites.

This week we stumbled across a Q and A with team members about their work and the need for shark research in the Maldives.

A very good read.

Shark Skin Tech and Fluid Dynamics

It is well known that sharks, after millions of years of evolution, have developed a remarkable skin that all but allows them to "slip" though the oceans.

For the folks who study fluid dynamics natures millions year old testing lab is a case for reverse engineering.

Armed with $200,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation, the NASA Alabama Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and the Lindbergh Foundation, researcher Amy Lang continues research on what designers of aircraft and underwater vehicles could learn by imitating nature's design of shark skins.

Lang is collaborating with Dr. Phil Motta, professor of integrative biology from the University of South Florida, and Dr. Robert Hueter, director of shark research for Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla.

Complete Story

Farallones - ABC News Investigates Tagging Disaster

ABC News I Team investigated the ethics of invasive tagging techniques and the controversy surrounding an extreme white shark tagging mishap at the Farallones. The event was documented by a reality television crew who also fund the research and provide the logistical support for the capture of white sharks.

As far as we know this is the first time in white shark research history that reality television film crews also act as quasi research team members and research funding sources.

We covered our thoughts on this matter in a previous post.

ABC I Team blog coverage post/read comments.

Pacific Islands Regional Plan of Action (PI-RPOA)

The announcement of the Pacific Islands Regional Plan of Action on Sharks sounds like a good idea, but as they say "the devil is in the details."

While this plan of action "tips a hat" towards shark fining as a regional issue along management of shark stocks, it fails to look at sustainable shark tourism options that generate per shark, thousands of dollars to local and regional economies.

Shark tourism is a viable bridge solution to successful shark conservation and management.

Where local inhabitants adopt "safe and sane" shark tourism, sharks, reefs and surrounding areas flourish:

The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) today launched the Pacific Islands Regional Plan of Action (PI-RPOA) on Sharks.

At least 80 species of sharks and rays occur within the Pacific Islands region. Around half of these species are considered to be highly migratory, therefore fishing impacts upon them must be internationally managed. Due to their low productivity and long life span, these species are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation. Sharks and rays are also of cultural significance to many Pacific Island communities.

Evaluating Online "Teasers"

Earlier this year this blog and a few others within the industry commented as a seemingly anti-industry "professional hit piece" aired on You Tube.

Called "Shark Divers" the piece had all the elements of ugly shark media at a time where two of the industries top shark encounters sites Isla Guadalupe and Hawaii are under siege by government agencies and a pervasive anti-shark diving lobby. This was not what the industry needed or asked for.

This week over at the Paxton Brothers blog an in depth second look at this piece. As it turns out what aired this spring was an "online teaser." The full film now called "Shark Business" is 50 minutes of pretty good story telling. The risks vs rewards are a fine balancing act this piece manages to convey - all wrapped up in a tense assortment of clips and scripting that unfortunately are what sell to networks.

You can read the Paxton's take on it here.

You can watch "Shark Business" here.

Farallones Tagging Mishap - RTSea Productions

However you want to characterise last weeks tagging incident at the Farallone Islands many within the shark community have unanswered questions.

RTSea Productions added their voice and overall assessment yesterday:

Controversy is now dogging the white shark tagging efforts of Dr. Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute. The SPOT (smart positioning or temperature) tagging began in Isla Guadalupe under the eyes of a film crew for a National Geographic Channel program to air on the 19th. It involves a technique whereby the shark is hooked and reeled on board, aerated with a water hose, while the crew literally drills and bolts a satellite transmitting tag to the shark's dorsal fin.

This is a rather elaborate tagging technique that has generated much concern within the shark conservation community (click here for prior posting about the Isla Guadalupe taggings, and here are two from other sites: click here and here).

Now, Dr. Domeier has moved northward to the Farallon Islands and, with the approval of Maria Brown, superintendent for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, has been tagging sharks there but with less than optimal success. Apparently, one shark swallowed the hook deep into its throat causing the bait's float to become lodged in the shark's jaws, thereby blocking access for the aerating water hose and requiring the cutting of the hook by working straight through the shark's gills. All in all a disaster in humane animal treatment as far as I'm concerned.

While there are concerns about the stresses this type of tagging places on the shark, there is also the question as to the need for more data acquired in the Northern California area. Dr. Barbara Block of Stanford, Dr. Pete Klimley of UC Davis, and others have amassed a considerable body of data that tracks the migratory patterns of these animals. They and their colleagues just recently issued a detailed report that can be viewed in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, published online on 11/04/09 in the Biological Sciences section ("Philopatry and migration of Pacific white sharks").

I always felt that this particular tagging technique was a more elaborate mousetrap than necessary. Now its efficacy has become controversial, the California data may ultimately be redundant, and the National Marine Sanctuary must defend a decision to allow catching a protected species in a manner that would most likely not be allowed for, say, a protected marine mammal.

Too many questions, too much controversy. . .

Read article in Bay area bohemian.com.

SSACN Searches for Shark Officer

The Scottish Shark Tagging Programme is delighted to announce they have been awarded a funding package worth £52,000 to help support their data gathering on species of sharks, skates and rays found in Scottish waters, many of which are at risk.

The funding has been offered by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Argyll and the Islands LEADER Programme and will be used to employ a Shark Project Officer who will work with SSACN to further develop the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP – www.tagsharks.com) whose objectives are to :

• Record data on shark, skate and ray species
• Increase public awareness
• Highlight the need for species protection
• Encourage use of “codes of best practice”
• Showcase conservation methods and efforts

Project Director Ian Burrett "SSACN has long campaigned for programmes aimed at regenerating the stocks of Scotland’s sharks; unfortunately the government and fisheries managers say they are unable to act as they say they lack the necessary scientific data and have no programme in place to gather it."

“Thanks to our funding partners and the many anglers who support our efforts, we shall be gathering that data for them.”

Tagging is the only non-destructive means of gathering the necessary data. It will be undertaken by volunteer sea anglers – fishing from the shore, kayaks or boats – who will catch, tag and release various shark, skate and ray species, either as part of their normal fishing trips or during major tagging events coordinated by the Shark Project Officer and SSACN.

The duties of the Shark Project Officer will also include arranging training workshops for anglers and raising awareness of Scottish sharks, skates and rays by liaising with fishermen, and visiting schools in Argyll.

Jane Dodd, SNH Marine Project Officer for Argyll and Stirling said: “We are hoping to recruit a dynamic project officer to lead this exciting project. Someone with project management skills and at least an interest in sea angling and a willingness to do some boat based field work. Quite an unusual range of skills to be found in a single person but we have our fingers crossed that he or she is out there!

Spanish Fisheries Confederation - Sharks

The Spanish Fisheries Confederation (CEPESCA) will ask the European Commission (EC) to put forth international conservation and management measures for a variety of species of shark, among them, the thresher and the hammerhead.

It is hoped that the measures are proposed in the next annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which will be held in Recife, Brazil, from 6 to 15 November.

Last September, Spain prohibited the capture of thresher sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks – in an effort to protect both vulnerable species.

According to the norm, Spanish fishing ships are not be able to catch, transfer, land or commercialise these sharks in any of the fishing-grounds they target.

“In written documents sent as much to the Spanish Administration as to EC Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, CEPESCA insists on the need for the European Commission to chair the ICCAT session on the necessary initiatives for the protection of the most vulnerable species of sharks and in the setting of the most adequate management measures for the establishment of responsible and sustainable fishing,” the Confederation indicated in a statement.

Complete Story.

Tagging Disaster at Farallons - Foul Hooked Media

For the past few days we have been receiving an ongoing series of emails and phone calls from a variety of sources concerning an invasive SPOT tagging effort at the Farallon islands.

There was an apparent "tagging accident" this week covered in graphic detail by Bohemian Magazine.

SPOT tagging is a white hot issue within both the commercial shark diving community and shark research community. The SPOT tagging technique employs crews to catch white sharks with large hooks and to drill tracking tags into their dorsal fins.

A person identified as "Chris Fischer, owner Mothership Ocean, Expedition Leader," has been refuting and then negating the seriousness of the alleged tagging accident by responding to question asked of him by posters at this blog:

"On the anchor at the Islands now. Happy to report in that the first shark has pinged in 4 times and seems to be doing well. The second shark has also pinged in. Both are still in the area."

"We hooked two sharks this week. We were concerned about the first shark because the hook was a little deep. It was in the back of it's mouth, not gut hooked. We were able to cut the hook in half so it could roll out backwards, and left a part of it in the shark."

The Making Of Media Disasters

This is a classic example of a media disaster in the making for the tagging team at the Farallons and one that could be addressed by getting ahead of the negative and extremely graphic media that is surfacing around this incident.

Two issues need to be addressed immediately.

1. The full extent of the tagging mishap. Images, video, and a full accounting of this event as it transpired with nothing held back.

2. The role film and television productions had in this event if any.

The event was witnessed, photographed, and video taped by multiple sources so it cannot be hidden or downplayed. At stake is the reputation of a well known shark researcher and National Geographic television show about this teams tagging work set to air Nov 16, 9pm Est/Pacific.

The tagged shark is said to be "doing well" by this team. With the abject lack of transparency about the mishap to date we're now asking for "proof of life" to be added to the media list with the inclusion of a recent tracking map of all animals tagged including the first one.

This data should be independently verified by resident shark researchers from TOPP.

In a moment of media foresight this week we pointed to the unprofessional image of this group "high fiving and smiling" around a grounded shark at Isla Guadalupe and suggested "in the end these images will dog your continuing efforts for years to come."

Shark researchers have as much responsibility for media handling as any group that interacts with charismatic mega fauna and in the case of the team at the Farallons doubly so. We're not the only ones to point this out see also Mark Harding has a point.

Media transparency surrounding this event is critical for the sake of continued research with white sharks and for the public perception of invasive techniques for animal science.

Philopatry and migration of Pacific white sharks

Fascinating reading coming from The Proceedings of The Royal Society this week (click on image) with tracking/DNA data from a multi year effort at the Farallons, Point Reyes and Ano Nuevo off the coast of California.

Paper Highlights

"Hawaii is likely to be an important foraging area for white sharks. Extensive use of waters surrounding the Hawaiian island archipelago in winter and spring was evident from 13 satellite tag records (22% of tags with offshore tracks) and five acoustic tags (10% of 2006 and 2007 deployments) detected opportunistically by receivers stationed near the islands of Oahu and Hawaii (together comprising six males, six females and six unsexed individuals) (figure 1). The most precise geopositions and acoustic records from Hawaii included Argos endpoint transmissions (n = 8) with location errors of 150 m s.d. (Teo et al. 2004) and acoustic tags detected at fixed locations (n = 5). These occurred in slope and near shore waters along the entire 3000 km archipelago from the big island of Hawaii extending through the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to Laysan Island and Midway Atoll (electronic supplementary material, figure S2). While this distribution includes areas with colonies of endangered monk seals (Baker et al. 2007), detailed dive records from four recovered satellite tags (three females and one unsexed; three separate years) indicated that the dominant behaviour, when not transiting (Weng et al. 2007), was a precise diel vertical migration, between the surface and 600 m, consistent with foraging within the deep scattering layer community (Shepard et al. 2006) (electronic supplementary material, figure S3)."

Read study here.

Sharksafe.org Adds Multilingual Support

Certification Program Uses Chinese and French Versions
to Raise Awareness of Shark Conservation.


Oakland, Califonia - November 2009 -- The Center for
Oceanic Awareness, Research, and Education, known more
commonly by its acronym "COARE", announced today the
availability of multilingual resources for its Shark
Safe certification program.

The website, www.sharksafe.org, which allows both
consumers and businesses to learn more about the Shark
Safe certification program, is now available in several
languages, including Chinese and French.

Using an easily recognizable logo to distinguish
participating establishments, the Shark Safe program
offers certification to qualifying restaurants and
select businesses that demonstrate a measured commitment
to shark conservation. Now available in several
languages, the website is expected to reach and
influence an even greater audience.

"The need for shark conservation is a global issue, so
our efforts need to transcend international borders,
cultural differences, and language barriers," said
Christopher Chin, COARE's Executive Director.

"We're particularly proud of and excited about the
Chinese version of our website," said Chin. "The vast
majority of sharks that are killed are taken for their
fins, which end up in shark fin soup - a delicacy
entrenched in Chinese culture and tradition."

"With an estimated 1.3 billion native speakers, Chinese
is, by far, the most widely spoken language on the
planet, and we are thrilled to be able to extend our
message to such a key audience," said Pete Wang, one of
COARE's volunteer translators.

"We have observed that a number of well-intentioned
shark conservation efforts have failed to persuade their
intended audience, and sometimes even alienated those
they meant to engage, because they failed to account for
language and cultural differences," said Richard Nelson,
one of COARE's directors. "Our program takes both
language and culture into consideration, and works with
communities to decrease the demand for products that are
harmful to sharks and the ocean."


The mission of the Shark Safe certification program is
to protect oceanic ecosystems by encouraging practices
that do not negatively impact shark populations.
"Sharks are one of our oceans’ top predators, keeping
the entire ecosystem in check, but shark populations
have declined dramatically over the last few decades as
a result of human greed and lack of understanding,"
said Chin. "If people knew more about these animals,
they would want to protect them."

As a conservation based website, www.sharksafe.org also
offers information about the plight of sharks and about
the need for their conservation. As further development
of the website continues, it will serve as a portal for
consumers to locate certified Shark Safe establishments
quickly and easily.

COARE began development of its Shark Safe program in
early-2007, seeking to protect sharks by raising
awareness of threats to shark populations and by
reducing the demand for shark products. In July of
2007, Jim Toomey, the artist behind the popular
syndicated cartoon Sherman's Lagoon, joined the effort
and helped form the Shark Safe logo in use today.
"Sharks have resided in a dark corner of our mythology
for thousands of years, which is partly the reason why
saving this vital animal from extinction will require a
special effort," said Toomey.

About COARE

The Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research, and
Education, Inc. (COARE) is a tax-exempt nonprofit
organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its
purpose is to study our oceans and increase public
awareness of the earth's marine environment through
educational programs and outreach. COARE seeks to
enlighten people, young and old, to the plight of the
oceans, to change the way they think and act, and to
encourage them to create positive and lasting change.
For more information about COARE, visit
http://www.coare.org.

COARE, Shark Safe, and the Shark Safe logo are
trademarks of The Center for Oceanic Awareness,
Research, and Education, Inc. All other company names
or marks mentioned herein are those of their respective
owners.

Media Contact
Jennifer Bowyer, media@coare.org, +1-510-495-7875

White Sharks San Francisco Bay?

Recent white shark tagging data has delivered a bombshell, white sharks visit San Francisco Bay.

From 2000-8 a team of researchers from U.C Davis and Stanford have been tagging white sharks in and around the Farallons and Point Reyes Seashore.

The very in depth story was covered today in the Mercury News and for white shark folks is a must read.

The other bombshell, not mentioned in this article was additional data showing Farallons white sharks off the coasts of Oahu's North Shore.

Confirmation of one of the commercial shark diving industries greatest white shark encounters back in 2007.

"Oceans" That's French for "Beautiful"

What began five years ago as an undersea voyage to document the blue earth will be on screens January 27th - and those that live on the earth part will never be the same again.

Oceans a film by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud will be the defining underwater film of the decade.

The interactive website is a must see, and for those of you lucky enough to see the film release in January just remember we told you so.

Kudos to magnificent blue films.

Blue Bloggers Welcome Sean Paxton

"Juggling sharks, chainsaws and bowling balls is a personal metaphor adopted for my life and all the opportunity and challenge that makes it worthwhile. In reality, sharks do consume large portions of my time and energy, but it's the connected totality of the world's wild parts that fuels a passion for their long-term sustainability. Dull moments be damned. Here's a stout cocktail of adventure and wildlife; of risk and reward, and an exploration of how it all ties together in some of the strangest ways imaginable. If so much of this wasn't from personal experience, I probably wouldn't believe me, either."

Thus introduced, welcome to the newest addition of the Blue Blogosphere - Sean Paxton

Who are the Blue Bloggers?

As I have come to know them they are thinkers, innovators, trend setters, and conservation gurus. They are those who see things in all shades and beyond the horizon, they are the ones who shape current conservation issues, and sometimes move mountains.

For those who have not yet met the Blue Bloggers, you'll see their work in the shaping of ideas and conservation thought, in new websites, new media direction, and changes in old behavior.

The conservation world needs independent and controversial thoughts, smart ideas and conservation direction.

This is Sean Paxton.

If you were hoping for a dull assortment of "daily blarf", this blog is not for you. If you were hoping for something that challenges, enrages, and inspires, you came to the right place.

Sit back. Set your amps to 11 and please ensure your seat back tables are in the upright position...welcome to SeanPaxton.com

Shark Survivability 0% To 80%

A very large percentage of "shark fishermen" are in fact "accidental fishermen" - like these fine examples from New Jersey.

After watching this video shark conservation folks can do two things:

1. Get angry and rail at all shark fishermen.

2. Produce the tools for shark survivability.

A series of well placed informational videos highlighting catch and release techniques with real sharks would "educate fishermen" how to save sharks. The fishermen in this video unknowing killed this animal. They just lacked any clear idea how to deal with a shark, from gaffing, to hook removal.

With an industry leader like, Guy Harvey, and the backing of the IGFA, these videos would do more for sport caught shark survivability then most efforts currently being promoted.

Education is the golden key to sport caught sharks.

As shark conservation folks why don't we lead this issue instead of reacting to it? Any takers?

Duncan Brake, Jillian Morris - Shark Free Marinas

The Shark Free Marinas Initiative concept was created by the tragic death of a 15 foot Tiger shark in the Bahamas. We have posted about the power of "One Shark" to become the ambassador for an entire species. To make that happen ordinary people need to be engaged to effect conservation change.

The Shark Free Marinas Initiative sought ways to stop the ongoing slaughter of breeding aged sharks worldwide without becoming entangled in the often byzantine bureaucracy of local governments.

The initiative also looked at ways of empowering locals to take charge of their own regions, to become involved and to become conservation minded.

Lastly, the initiative looked at ways that local business could become green and promote that as a business selling point.

Nowhere are the three main goals of the Shark Free Marinas Initiative more aptly displayed but in the Bahamas and Fiji. This week Duncan Brake and Jillian Morris from Oceanic Allstars, both regional ambassadors of the SFMI in the Bahamas, produced an outstanding PSA for both the SFMI and for Bimini Sands Resort - the very first Bahamian Marina to adopt the SFMI.

Weaving the SFMI concept together brilliantly as a sales and conservation PSA, Oceanic Allstars have shown themselves to be savvy marketers of solid conservation PSA's.

After discussions with Luke Tipple, the Director of the SFMI, it was decided to invite Oceanic Allstars as our official PSA source for our entire marina directory. Now all marinas seeking PSA's for their marketing and sales have a direct and proven source to produce those PSA's.

Kudos again to both Duncan and Jillian for their tireless work as a regional ambassadors.

The Shark Free Marinas Initiative is a "people powered conservation concept." Along with Stuart Gow and Da Shark in Fiji the SFMI has grown exponentially.

Guadalupe Island -Trip Report 2009

Editors Note: There are two kinds of people in this world, the dreamers and the rest. Kudos to Jen for being part of "the adventure clan."

Here's her story:

When I was 5, my aunt took me to see my first drive-in movie…Jaws. Now I know what you are thinking…that is way too scary of a movie to be taking a kid so young to, but that movie started it all for me. I have LOVED sharks ever since!!!

I wanted a shark cage just like Hooper’s and even a crappy boat like the Orca would do for my travels…but alas, I never got that shark cage that was on my Christmas list. So in creating my Bucket List, this is the first item - See a great white alive (preferably in the wild).

Flash forward to 2003…this is when I discover Patric and his wonderful company that takes people out to meet the magnificent white shark face to face in this magical place called Isla Guadalupe. I emailed Patric and asked him a few questions about the trip and he called me back and told me everything I needed to know and then some, in his made-for-radio voice. So I decided this was it, when I had the money and was ready to go, I was going with this guy!

Well in life things happen and priorities change and shark diving was put on the way back burner but was still going to happen someday.

So it is Monday, August 11, 2008 and I sit down at work to read my emails and one in particular catches my eye:

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations you were drawn as our Grand Prize Winner for the Luke Tipple promotion. You have won the Dive with Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island. I will send you out a pack in the next two weeks with all the information to book your trip, and connect you with SharkDiver.com so you can answer all your questions. (check out the SharkDiver.com website to get the general idea.) You do not need to be Scuba Certified for this trip.

I read the email over and over again in my head and then asked a co-worker to come read it and tell me what she thinks and she says, “it looks like you just won yourself a shark diving trip!” So I get on the phone to call my best friend, Nicole and I read the email to her and start crying, my lifelong dream is finally going to come true and it would be in September 2009!

I can’t say enough about Patric and the Horizon crew. Everyone was so nice and helpful from Aaron helping us with our weight belts to Mike being right there with a cold drink of water when we got out of the cages to Patric himself being kind enough to “Count” the sharks for us and Mark making sure that I never saw one piece of cilantro or raw onion on my plate! The whole crew was fantastic, the boat was clean and in order and the food was great. Martin, our dive master was very informative and extremely patient which came in handy when he was teaching me to clear my mask and regulator. I love the ocean and spend my summers snorkeling the southern California coast and this was my first time diving. It only took about 15 minutes to get the hang of breathing with the regulator and be comfortable in the cage and once the sharks arrived I forgot all about that regulator.

In the movies they always show sharks, whites in particular, with black, lifeless eyes, which does not help in them being feared but I can tell you that their eyes are far from lifeless. When a 15 foot great white swims 1 foot in front of your face you can see that it has a beautiful blue iris and as this shark swims past you can actually see it focusing on each diver.

They are very curious and cautious animals and whey they cruise past the cages you can’t help but look at them more as graceful than menacing. I was a shark lover long before this trip but seeing them in the wild has made me want to do more to help protect them and now I need to win the lottery so I can go on EVERY Sharkdiver.com trip EVERY season!

Yours in sharks,
Jen McCormick

Following Expedition Blogs - Mining Gems

If there's an expedition blue blog out there we're probably following it.

The facinating world of our oceans is at your desktop each and every day. You never know what will catch your interest.

This caught our interest.

From the blog Oceans Watch Expedition, this post is called Aid Meets Tradition:

Chris comments: here in Moussau the community is still very traditional. I was interested to see how the fishermen use coral stones to weight their hooks to get down to 30 m where the bigger fish are.

They tie a piece of coconut palm leaf around the stone then put the hook through the leaf. When the stone hits the bottom a sharp tug pulls the hook out of the leaf leaving an un-weighted hook on the bottom. The bait they use is a piece of condom!

The condoms are supplied to the communities free by a family planning NGO. All the fishermen we met used condoms as bait and are very grateful to the NGO for endless free lures!

Worlds Largest Oil Spill - On Fire

We have been covering what is now the world's largest oil spill. Ten weeks into the disaster a "blazing middle finger" erupted in the Timor Sea this week as the actual drilling platform caught on fire. No crews were on board at the time and no one from PTTEP the company responsible for the platform knows how it started.

The ongoing disaster is being curiously under reported by main stream media. Estimates of 400 barrels of oil being spilled each day are coming from the oil company and not independent agencies who estimate many more barrels are gushing from this once productive well head many kilometers under the sea bed.

Oil Disaster Week Ten Numbers

70 - Number of days the Montera Oil Platform spill has been sending oil into the Timor Sea.

74,000 - Number of kilometers the spill now covers (the size of Liberia).

11, 760,000 - Estimated number of gallons of crude oil spilled off the coast of Australia.

NBC's Today Show D- on Sharks

If there was some kind of award for shoddy, hyper inflated, negative shark coverage, NBC's The Today Show would get it.

Over the past several years they have been the media leaders in 1970's style "horror shark" media hits.

If there was an award for honestly in shark media, new Blue Blogger Dorsal Fin would get it.

This week DF earned an extra tall shark statue for calling out The Today Shows ongoing and dare we say it, "moronically half fabricated shark based clap trap."

Actually, we liked that so much we'll say it again, "moronically half fabricated shark based clap trap."

The media's responsibility for balanced shark reporting is paramount and the only way they will be made to come to their senses is if we all take the time to point out when they stray completely off the media reservation.

In The Today's Show case that is several times a year, with few if any media hits highlighting research, science, and the ongoing decimation of worldwide shark populations.

Balance. In the world we live in it is needed now more than ever.

Kudos to Dorsal Fin for providing some.

Fishing for Great White Sharks - Farallons

Perhaps the biggest shark controversy in the western hemisphere is about to play out this week at the Farallon Islands - and no one it seems, is happy about it.

Just 27 miles off the coast of San Francisco these small, protected islands, are home to some of the largest white sharks in the region.

They are also home to notoriously horrific weather, murky cold waters, and a few die hard shark researchers.

This week the same team who caught and tagged white sharks at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico in 2008 will be at it again, this time at the Farallons.

White shark fishing was banned in California over 15 years ago and it is only with special permits that this team is allowed to catch these animals. Therein lies the controversy. Fishing for white sharks.

The team is lead by Dr. Michael Domeier from The Marine Conservation Science Institute in San Diego. We have been supportive of this team for the past few years. Mainly because they have an established track record for working with white sharks that few others have.

The hooking of any white shark is a traumatic event, but the data that comes back from specialized tags that are drilled into dorsal fins gives researchers a window into the world of the white shark that few other tagging methods deliver. Sat tags are notoriously finicky with a high failure rate. These tags allow researchers minute by minute updates and last for years.

With enough of these invasive tags in place we should, in just a few years time, have absolute and definable small scale and large scale movement patterns of a large sampling of the western pacific white shark population.

We would rather see a professional team do this kind of very specialized tagging work. NOAA, the agency for permit approval, has chosen well. Still many are abjectly opposed to these tags and the manner in which they are applied.

The bigger question is not so much the work that is being done, rather the film crews who will be accompanying the effort. It's a double edged sword when you look at any invasive animal technique and film and television productions.

Short media samples of the Guadalupe production are causing a backlash from the community.

While images like the one featured in this post cannot be helped, the perception that this work is in anyway "fun" are what harm the effort. Media control is, as we have always said, 90% of perception.

Gentlemen, a word of media advice from those who know.

Lose the "Cool Dude Shaka images" standing next to captured white sharks. In the end these images will dog your continuing efforts for years to come.

Let's hope Nat Geo's handling of your tagging program is as serious as the subject matter.

Guy Harvey's Island Grill - Helping Out

Scotty Gray from Florida's Blue Iguana Charters had a problem only we could solve this month.

His buddy at Guy Harvey's Island Grill in Key West needed "something unusual" for this years Island Grill Halloween Fantasy Fest.

That "something unusual" was a Mark V shark cage, the kind that Shark Diver and Shark Divers keeps in storage all over Florida for film and television crews and for our use in the Bahamas and Cuba.

When we asked Scotty what they were planning for the cage he got a little vague, "well, you know, part of the big party this weekend I guess."

The big party featured Guy Harvey himself and an series of well known dive folks, locals, and we're told a few conservation folks as well. After all this is Guy Harvey's place.

The images from last nights party came back, and this one is the only one fit for print, taken very early in the evening. When folks in Key West celebrate Halloween, they celebrate Halloween.

Nothing gets held back and apparently our Mark V shark cage, designed for hard encounters with white sharks, tigers, and giant squids...was a hit with the ladies.

Glad we could help out. After all if you have shark cages, use them.

Mossel Bay Shark Death - New Twist

It would seem there's a new twist in the widely reported story of a "Monster Shark" that was accidentally caught in Mossel Bay, South Africa.

Turns out the shark was caught some 1600 kilometers away from the Mossel Bay location and "trucked in" for a film crews shoot, contrary to multiple mainstream news reports and emails floating around the Internet.

Thanks to writer Martin Hatchuel who wrote us this week to offer the straight story. Martin is a travel writer for Mossel Bay tourism.

Media Release. Immediate. 28 October 2009.

Scientist Dissects KwaZulu-NatalShark in Mossel Bay.

Mossel Bay’s Oceans Research Laboratory last week dissected a massive great white shark which had been trucked into the town from KwaZulu-Natal, where it had drowned after being caught in shark nets.The animal was supplied by the Natal Sharks Board.

“The rumour mill has been working overtime, but the truth is that the shark was brought here so that the dissection could be filmed for a National Geographic television programme called ‘Inside Nature’s Giants’,” said Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm.“The series will be shown on both National Geographic and on ’s Channel 4, and features experts from all over the world who trace each animal’s evolutionary history by exploring its internal anatomy.”

According to David Dugan, chairman of Windfall Films, the producers of the series, “When the [first part of] the series aired in the UK, it received universal acclaim in the press and it is now being nominated for many major awards.“A team of researchers and production personnel flew in from New York, London,Durban and to assist scientist Enrico Gennnari, who performed the dissection as part of the requirements for his PhD degree,” said Ms. Holm.

“There are people who want to be frightened by this poor creature, but it really is worth remembering that he was dead by the time he arrived in Mossel Bay,” she said.Mossel Bay has featured in a previous National Geographic production - called ‘Sharkville’ - which showed how, in fact, man and the sharks really do live side by side.“If anything, we’re more of a threat to them than they are to us.”

Ms. Holm said that the risk of shark attack remained low, and that swimmers, surfers and other recreational users of the oceans could mitigate this even further by looking out for - and avoiding - unusually high concentrations of sea birds and fish in the areas in which they were swimming.

“We don’t catch great whites in Mossel Bay as they are protected by the law,” she said.

Sea Shepherd Crushing Dissent?

We have been critics of Sea Shepherd for the past year at this blog. Along with a growing number of others we have been hammering away at what appears to be a conservation org based on media fabrications, distortions, and an ongoing complete lack of credibility.

SSCS manages a 1970's direct action eco strategy that has all but failed to effect real conservation change. This strategy has been wildly successful in attracting millions in conservation donor dollars and a reality television show.

Dissent and Conservation

It is important that dissent is kept alive and well within the conservation community. Dissent and critique are the twin guides by which the conservation world polices itself. Or should be.

Global strategies and conservation efforts should be guided by clear and definable metrics for success. This is the basis of conservation. Choose targets well and roll out a careful and successful strategy to effect conservation change.

When conservation orgs fail to deliver conservation change they, as public entities, should be held to account. The money they accept is public money.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does not like dissent, or opposition to any of it's ongoing and very public conservation antics. We have discovered this first hand.

This blog is re posted on a series of blog aggregators and other sites. Over the past year SSCS has been quietly emailing and demanding these sites take our critiques of SSCS down.

The implied threat is one of legal action by SSCS.

Using vague and varied legal terms, SSCS has accused this blog of falsely reporting "facts" and basic muckraking against SSCS.

These are counter accusations coming a conservation group featuring Paul Watsons ongoing claims and faked video that he was "shot by Japanese whalers." A media "fact" that has all but been completely discredited including most recently by popular media's South Park.

When conservation critique is quashed, we lose the ability to guide the overall direction of conservation efforts. The very efforts that the public funds through donations.

We are all in the business of real and lasting conservation change - or should be.

This blog will continue to point out failed eco strategy in the hopes that change will happen. The fact SSCS chooses to deflect dissent is one indication that we are on the right track.

Faked hostage events, faked attempted assassinations, and made for television vessel rammings do nothing to save whales, sharks, seals or change eco policy in any country. Recently SSCS suffered a multi million dollar loss when the Canadian Government sized their sister vessel the Farley Mowat and sold it at auction. Seals will be slaughtered again this spring and the entire SSCS seal campaign was a loss, both monetarily and to the conservation movement.

To those few who support SSCS the world has changed since the 1970's. We need new strategy, new conservation goals, and new direction, not hyper inflated eco media.

Consider what you are doing, what you have been doing, and ask yourself...has anything really changed? Where are the solid, lasting metrics for conservation change?

Mossel Bay Shark Death Confirmed

Images like these serve as reminders that big sharks are not safe anywhere.

Rumors of a large shark caught in Mossel Bay, S.A home to several commercial shark diving companies have been floating around the industry for weeks:

"Commenting on the shark in the photographs, Geremy Cliff, head of research at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, confirmed that the 4,3-metre shark was caught in the shark nets off Zinkwazi beach on August 31."

We have been posting about how the death of just "one shark" can become the instrument for shark conservation change. Perhaps this shark will be that animal. For the many commercial shark diving companies in that region the loss of such a big animal will be felt. In the end it will be up to them with a coalition of NGO's to seek the regional changes necessary to save these magnificent animals from further catches.

S.A newspaper, The Witness, has the complete story.

Editors Note: See surprising update.

Sea Shepherd - Popular Culture and South Park

When Sea Shepherds plans for a new reality television show with Animal Planet were announced - we had to the following to say about it:

"Perhaps one of the most chilling departures from the entire 40 year global eco movement was this year when Sea Shepherd traded it's last shred of dignity and credibility for the cameras of Animal Planet and thus began Eco-Edutainment Television, where media messaging and outright fabrication of events have subsumed the horrors of actual whaling. Where dead whales and story lines are traded with advertisements for SUV's and laundry detergent. This is a meeting of eco media and horror that never should have happened and now that it has will change the landscape of the global eco movement for years to come."

No truer words have been written about the ongoing embarrassment to the global eco movement that is Sea Shepherds Whale Wars.

We're not the only ones to take notice, popular culture commentators South Park decided to expose Sea Shepherd this week in what can only be described as "Skewering the Emperor with no clothes."

We have been covering Sea Shepherds media rise and mistakes for the past year in an ongoing series of blog posts. In one year Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd have managed to completely redefine the term for "conservation," taking the concept from quantifiable metrics for eco success to a series of often inane talking points and million dollar media spectaculars that leverage main stream media's desire to sell advertising as their conservation vehicle.

Meanwhile whales keep being killed, year after year, while Whale Wars ratings climb. It is high time we discuss and enable real and lasting conservation efforts. Reality television shows are not conservation, and fortunately South Park has just embedded that idea with the next generation of conservationists.

Sometimes the best way to enact conservation change is with a popular culture backlash.

Unfortunately Sea Shepherd is soon to announce a new reality television show with sharks in the coming weeks. We're pretty sure the folks at South Park are looking forward to that announcement as well, while the rest of the shark conservation world cringes at the prospect.

See complete Whale Whores episode here.

Australia's "Monster Shark" - The Facts

The news media is having a field day with the story of a 10 foot white shark with two giant bites out of its side, indicating that perhaps a much larger shark, as large as 20 feet might have been involved.

We took a look at the images this week and came to the conclusion "if" this animal was in fact 10 feet long, these bites could be the result of a very, very large white shark.

Some have cried foul and declared this image to be photoshopped, others have suggested this image is a complete fake. Still others have said that men, not a shark, carved up the carcass.

We decided to find out the truth and made a series of phone calls to various agencies in Australia today and here's what we know:

1. This is a real image, or so says The Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries manager Tony Ham who told us "this is a confirmed 3.3 meters white shark, caught by our contractor, he measured the primary bite mark at 50 centimeters or twenty inches."

2. The sole contractor who catches sharks in the region has been doing so for Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries since 1986.

3. Tony Hams team estimate from the 50 centimeter bite radius, the feeding shark was in the 5.2 meter range or 16-17 feet.

4. Samples were collected from the bitten shark. The shark was dumped at sea following standard protocol. The bites were so severe that the head actually fell off the animal during transit shortly after this image was shot.

5. These are not man made holes in the side of the shark according to Tony Ham, "it is not a faked photo, the photo is absolutely genuine."

Tony Ham went on to say after they released this image to the media and the estimated size of the feeding shark "the sharks size grew by a meter overnight."

Thresher shark research & conservation project

Of the myriad of shark conservation sites worth visiting, none come better then the Thresher shark research & conservation project.

We have been following this site for the past year and are always happy with the vibrant field updates, images, video and news.

This months newsletter is a must read.

Consider taking the time to get to know the team behind the Thresher shark research & conservation project.

Shark conservation efforts are hard enough to get traction with, in places like the Philippines doubly so.

It's takes determination, good outreach, and a serious research program to make a difference.

Casting White Sharks as Villians...Again

We have been keeping tabs on a new production in the works called The Reef.

This mornings news from Australia confirms suspicions that another "white shark attack film" is in the offing, just in time for 2010:

AN overturned hull is causing some consternation near Shelly Beach but the person most affected by the makeshift shipwreck is a movie character. Thankfully.

The character shall remain nameless. Best to say he or she meets a “grisly demise” in the waters of Hervey Bay this week and a great white shark is probably involved at some level.

Complete Story

Body Glove Knows Shark Diving

It is refreshing if not downright appealing to notice the stance wetsuit maker Body Glove has taken in regards to the shark diving industry.

Where many makers of water apparel and dive gear shy away from commercial shark diving - Body Glove embraces it.

Kudos for the industry vision and the upcoming blog posts featuring twin shark expeditions with Body Glove, whale sharks and white sharks.

The commercial shark diving industry needs more outreach within the manufacturing side of the dive, surf, and water sports worlds.

As high profile ambassadors for our industry forward thinking companies like Body Glove can begin to dispel many of the myths surrounding commercial shark diving.

What begins as a blog post today, with a little vision, often becomes much more.