Jaws 3D - Blog Reader Notices and Reports

Shark Diver Gabriel Beyrent sent in this story.

As the JAWS franchise slowly slid into the realm of comedy (sharks with personal vendettas?) there's a movement to bring back shark horror in next generation 3D.

As the industry knows there's a titanic footrace at the moment to provide 3D content to both cinema and television, with most of the major players looking for good franchise programming. Alas, Jaws would be the last 3D effort that would make any sense with today's smarter more sympathetic shark public.

We have evolved a long way since the 197o's.

Story by Monika B at Cinbematical

When we hear a ridiculous rumor, it's quite easy to become either incensed at the sheer audaciousness of the claim, or laugh it off as too stupid to be true. Take this latest goodie: Cinema Blend reports that a source at Universal Pictures claims that since audiences are expecting more from their movies, the studio wants to tap into the franchise pile for 3D magic, and are "strongly considering" a remake of Jaws "in hopes of dazzling younger audiences with new special effects."

The notion makes sense. If there's one movie that would look downright gorgeous in Real D 3D, it's Jaws. However, folks, that's not all. That same insider claims that Tracy Morgan has been considered for the role of Richard Dreyfus' Matt Hooper, but it's "uncertain" whether he's still in the running. To hedge their gossip bets, Cinema Blend states that this is a new source and could be hooey just as much as it could be truth.

It's easy to shudder when thinking of a comedic Jaws led by Morgan, because the thought sounds downright terrible, but let's back up. See that shark up there with the super-visible robot metal in his mouth? That's the big beast of Jaws 4. After that monstrosity of moviemaking, is it really that ridiculous to imagine Morgan facing off against a 3D shark?

It's either the stupidest, most moronic rumor of the year, or a sad reminder of where Hollywood is heading in the future. You make the call ...

Kip Evans Superb Documentary Effort

The waters around Isla Holbox off Mexicos Yucatán Peninsula teem with plankton, a feast for giant whale sharks—10-meter giants that gather by the hundreds from June through September. These super-sized but toothless filter feeders are the core of a local tourism industry, but over-development could threaten this delicate balance.

Dr. Sylvia Earle narrates. Kip Evans - Producer and Director of Photography:

New Jersey Shark Conservation Window

New Jersey has a political shark mess on it's hands, and an open window for shark conservation groups who are looking for a way to close shark tournaments in the region.

We covered this unlikely turn of events last month.

Shark fishing interests in New Jersey are applying pressure to government agencies to sign bills into law enacting new compliance standards for shark fisheries off the New Jersey coastlines.

If these bills are not signed, the entire 2010 shark fishery will be put on hold, a win for conservation.

What is not happening at this time are any efforts by shark conservation folks (large coordinated and vocal groups) to stall these unsigned bills or even demand status reviews that might slow the signing process down.

A rare window of shark conservation opportunity, and the clock is running.

Any shark conservation takers out there?

Keep Fishing Sharks to Support Research?

The world of shark conservation often works at cross purposes as agenda driven groups push for conservation strategies that have unintended consequences.

From direct action protest groups who ultimately embed resistance and cause disparate fishing interests to successfully band together against conservation, to "Shark Messiahs" who push unsustainable messaging about what sharks really are - top order predators.

This week Loblaws' Canada (a grocery chain) announced a ban on the sale of shark meat and a few species of fish declaring them unsustainable.

Clearly a win for the shark conservation folks, but hold on a minute, researchers now claim this ban will damage research efforts as the vessels they use to tag sharks are the fishing vessels that catch sharks for sale at Loblaws' Canada.

If your faith in the shark conservation movement is being shaken at this point, you might not want to read the entire story. The take away from this story is the need for all groups to look beyond just their immediate efforts and push for a holistic approach to conservation.

If you think the chances of that happening anytime soon is as good as Sea Shepherd Conservation Society actually stopping Japans whaling efforts or the Canadian Seal hunt - you would be right.

This blog often points out issues and trends that mature over time, one thought, one idea, and one post at a time.

Sharks and research in Canada.

Law of Attraction - Baited Cams

Currently being passed around the blue blogs some interesting research video from Australia:

Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) have been developed by AIMS scientists in order to monitor the vast areas of deeper inter-reef and shelf habitats inaccessible to research divers so that important bioregions there can be included in marine protected areas.

BRUVS consist of tourist-grade “HandiCam” video cameras in simple underwater housings made of PVC sewer pipe and acrylic, with a canister of minced pilchards on the end of a bait arm in the field of view. The housings are held in steel frames, and are deployed in strings of four to six under separate ropes and floats, to be picked up after one or two hours filming at the seabed.

Baited videos record species attracted to the bait plume or camera station, species attracted to the commotion caused by feeding and aggregation at the station, species occupying territories within the field of view of the camera, and species indifferent to the station but present in or passing through the field of view during the deployment.

The range of fish, sharks, rays, sea snakes and other animals sighted on BRUVS tapes has been remarkable – over 300 species to date, from 3cm leatherjackets to 3m hammerhead sharks.

Seacology Announces Desal Plant at Isla Guadalupe

MEXICO, Guadalupe Island, Baja California Pacific – Sea water desalination system in exchange for a 1,235-acre marine reserve for a duration of 10 years.

Guadalupe Island, with a total land area of 80,000 acres, is one of the most remote islands of Mexico. The island’s only community is mostly fishermen and their families who have been using the island for decades, fishing lobster and diving abalone. Guadalupe Island has one of the best preserved marine environments of Mexico. Since the decree in 2007 of the “Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve”, the management and regulated protection of its natural resources is under the federal authority of the Natural Protected Areas Commission.

Guadalupe Island is one of the best examples in the world of an ongoing island ecosystem recovery where different entities (governmental and nonprofit) are participating. A water desalination plant is the local community's most urgent need. A desalinization system will be purchased with the help of Seacology in exchange for the creation and protection of a 1,235-acre marine reserve for a period of 10 years, where fishing, extraction of resources, damage to the sea floor, contamination or any other kind of damage is forbidden.

The desalination system will be able to supply as much as 3,000 gallons per day. The water supply could also support reforestation and restoration projects, particularly in the remaining patches of endemic forest. In 2000 and 2002, Seacology funded projects to construct and maintain fences to keep invasive goats out of the most sensitive areas containing endemic plant species. Goats have since been eradicated from the island.

White Sharks - Isla Guadalupe - Video Snack

Over at the Dorsal Fin Blog a very nice video expose on the perils of fishing at white shark hot spot Isla Guadalupe.

Catching a 100lb tuna at this site is exciting, having said tuna "whomped on" by a 15 foot great white? Priceless.

Shark Volunteer Event San Francisco

Hello, COARE volunteers!

We hope that you are all enjoying the new year so far, and that you're as enthused as we are that it is going
to be a good one.

To kick off this year's activities, we have a few volunteer opportunities in February.


Sharks in the Park


Date: Sunday, 07 February 2010
Time: 11am-3pm

Location: Portsmouth Square, SF Chinatown

Lend a hand to save some fins!

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, last year's
Sharks in the Park event was a great success, and we're
excited to do it again!

The consumption of shark fin soup spikes up each year
during Chinese New Year celebrations. This year's
Sharks in the Park event will coincide with the festivals
preceding Chinese New Year, so attendance and outreach
are both is expected to be larger.

We're really hoping for a big turnout on this one.
Even if you can't volunteer, or even attend, please help
us spread the word.

Pass along the link:


For this event, we need volunteers to hand out
literature, answer questions, and generally engage
curious passersby.

For more information, please visit:


Our World Underwater

Dates: Friday-Sunday, 19-21 February 2010

Location: Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
Rosemont IL 60018

OWU is one of the premier consumer dive shows in the US.
This year, COARE will have a booth there, and we'll also
be giving a seminar on ocean-bound waste and our Green
Diver program.

We're looking for volunteers to help staff the booth and
be part of the COARE team.

If you are planning or hoping to attend the OWU show,
this is a great opportunity for you. In exchange for
your assistance, we'll provide admission to the show for
the days you're volunteering.

Contact Christopher at 510-495-7875 or info@coare.org
for more info.


Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you all soon!

Wishing you healthy oceans,
- Christopher Chin


Please feel free to share this newsletter and these
volunteer opportunities with friends, family, and
colleagues who you think might share our passion.
If you received this newsletter second hand, we
encourage you to join the COARE volunteer force by
sending a note to volunteer@coare.org

White Sharks in Vietnam?

This image is apparently from a recent white shark landing in Vietnam.

The image and posting was discovered by Helmut N over at the Shark-l who has a long and storied history of attributed images and shark events from around the world.

If a shark event happens in some obscure place, Helmut will usually uncover it.

Date: February 4, 2010.
Location: Phu Yen Province, Vietnam.
Species: Carcharodon carcharias.
Size: said to be 5 metres in length ( estimated 1 ton weight )

For more details.

The Shark Legacy Project

The Shark Legacy Project exists to protect sharks as part of the marine inheritance of all people. Founded by PADI Course Director Peter Wilcox, together with Shark Biologist Giacomo Palavicini, our research aims to assist governments in the establishment of shark sanctuaries.

Our pilot research project launched January 2010 in Roatan, in conjunction with the Roatan Marine Park and DIGIPESCA (Honduras Fisheries Department). The project combines shark diving operators in Honduras with our biologists to determine a dollar value of the sharks to tourism, and so protect them as a valuable marine resource. Recently DIGIPESCA enacted a bill establishing a complete moratorium on fishing of all shark species in Honduras until the research has completed, the government has a better idea of sharks as a resource to its people and a management plan can be established.

Victory number one was recently signed into law, now the research begins!

Want to help?

Visit www.sharklegacyproject.com and sign the petition, spread the word with the links on the site or better yet, come visit Roatan in the Bay Islands of Honduras and dive with us and the sharks!

Elegance in Black and White - Google Oceans

Speaking of RTSea Productions, when Google announced "Google Oceans" joining it's wildly successful Google Earth, Richard Theiss was on the original content team providing video and images to ocean searchers worldwide.

This week his short shark PSA "Sharks:Elegance in Black and White" was uploaded to Freeport, Bahamas exposing millions of content searchers worldwide to the stark beauty of sharks.

In case you missed the video here it is again:

Hawaii - Hobbling through conservation and commercial shark diving

Small island politics often breed strange laws, and non stranger then the seven anti-shark diving bills currently circulating through Hawaii's political center in Oahu.

At least one politician sensing the oncoming political circus surrounding sharks has added an anti-shark fin bill to the mix, that's the only good shark news coming from this island.

RTSea's Blog covered the entire political mess nicely in a post last week. Fine reading and summary of small island politics at it's best or absolute worst, depending if you happen to care about sharks, tourism, conservation, and good old fashioned mid term electioneering.

Read here.

Tonga Shark Free Marinas Initiative

The first of what will undoubtedly be many Shark Free Marinas in Tonga came to fruition this month thanks with the help of "interested parties" in the region. Mike over at BAD in Fiji has the scoop:

Bless Henk and Sandra Gros!

They have graciously agreed to act as trailblazers and are now the Kingdom of Tonga's first Shark Free game fishing operators. This is far from being trivial as contrary to many Fijians, Tongans hunt and eat Sharks and will thus regard any attempt at sparing their life as a wasteful and incomprehensible act of utter Palangi foolishness.

Kudos!

In the big scheme of things, this will again turn out to be a wise business decision - like everything the Gros' have done so far.

They are among the original pioneers of tourism in Vava'u and have struck gold on practically every one of their ventures. On the accommodation front, they operate one of the first, and still the only clean and reliable backpacker hostel, Adventure Backpackers and are the developers of Mystic Sands, one of only two beachfront resorts on the main islands. Sandra and Kiwi Magic's Pat also operate the only reliable and highly successful agency for holiday homes in Vava'u, Vava'u Holiday Homes and provide access to reliable and trustworthy local help through their Vava'u Property Services.

Yes, I did indeed stress the term reliable, and for good reason! Whatever your provenience and intentions: nowhere does caveat emptor (and I'm not only talking in terms of legal transactions!) apply more than in the Friendly Kingdom- and I'll leave it at that!

Henk himself is the quintessential factotum and provided that he likes the project, you can avail yourself of his expertise for anything from building your next home (he did build mine) or installing a smoker for the most delicious home-smoked Wahoo, all the way to constructing and then successfully deploying a FAD in 1,000-odd fathoms of azure pelagic waters.

But his true love is game fishing and his Target One Sportfishing Charters is one of the most successful (and reliable!) such ventures in the whole of the Kingdom.

Vava'u prides itself on some of the most pristine fishing grounds in the whole of the South Pacific and anglers flock there from all over the globe to try their skills against good sized Sails, feisty (but generally, rather small) Blues, Wahoo, Mahi Mahi and in season, great numbers of migratory Yellowfin. This is also the place where one can still experience important numbers of pelagic Sharks, be it Silkies, Bronzies and even elusive Oceanic Whitetips.

Until very recently and much to the joy of the locals and the chagrin of the environmentalists, all fish caught in Vava'u were being landed and consumed, this largely regardless of species, season and size.

But progress being inevitable, more and more enlightened customers have been asking that the Billfishes be tagged and released and even the most backward operators had to grudgingly abide, to the point where the last national tournament was held under that formula - and won by none other than Henk and his Target One!

This is hopefully yet another step in the right direction.

After Palau's epic declaration and Fiji's simply mind-blowing performance, Tonga is hopefully on its way to becoming yet another Pacific island nation that fully embraces the concept that Shark conservation is not only essential for the health of the marine ecosystem but constitutes great tourism marketing on top of that!

Fingers crossed that after Target One, many more game fishermen in Vava'u will see the light and embrace the Shark Free Marinas Initiative!

Bravo Henk and Sandra - and Malo 'aupito!

Shark Legacy Project - Honduras 100% Shark Fishing Ban Enacted

They say big things come in small packages. In the shark world nothing is bigger then governments who enact bans on shark fishing in their waters.

Palau's recent shark fishing ban and the Maldives decision to ban shark fishing in their waters was met with acclaim both in the tourism and shark conservation worlds.

As it turns out other governments were watching, and taking note.

Thanks in part to the Shark Legacy Project headed up by a small and dedicated team in Roatan, Honduras the government just announced they will ban all shark fishing in Honduran waters while they study the issue of shark fishing and the economics of Honduran sharks which, for a Latin American country, is a simply stunning decision.

The next steps will require resources and help from the shark tourism industry and from the research side as well to make this ban a permanent and regional example.

From Peter Wilcox Director of the Shark Legacy Project:

"Thanks Patric - have a major victory down here. After our meetings with DIGIPESCA they pushed up the passing of a bill that has now gone into practice. It puts a moratorium on the fishing of all shark species in all the waters of Honduras! Think that makes Honduras the first in the Caribbean to have a shark sanctuary! Part of the drive behind this measure was to cease use of sharks as a resource until research can be done to evaluate the population/species of sharks here. So finally, a government willing to step in before the problem gets unmanageable. We met with the government this last weekend to discuss how we can assist in this research (as you may be able to guess they do not have much in the way of funding for their own research). We are travelling to Tegucigalpa this week to discuss further research and affiliations to benefit the goals of protecting sharks here."

We would Like to congratulate the Shark Legacy Project and all those who have worked to this point to get the ban in place.

This is very good conservation news indeed.

Guadalupe Island - Research Critter Cam

The multi-year CICIMAR research effort at Isla Guadalupe studying movement patterns of regional white shark populations employed some interesting technology in 2009:

Rare Conservation Window - NJ Shark Fishery

Sometimes government can act on the behalf of sharks without even knowing. Just such a limited window of opportunity is happening now in NJ where unsigned bills allowing new fishing regulations for sharks might prohibit the entire 2010 sport caught shark fishing season.

A successful and savvy conservation lead campaign would have a remarkable effect at this time:

New Jersey fishermen could see a shutdown of the summer shark fishery - and the suspension of big money shark fishing tournaments because a two year old revision of the state's marine fishing regulations was not approved before former governor Jon Corzine left office, industry advocates say.

Now they are afraid the regulations could be delayed again by Gov. Christie's declaration of a 90-day moratorium on new regulations and rulemaking.

"Because of Governor Corzine's failure to act on the package, New Jersey is facing a potentially damaging shutdown of our shark fishery," the Recreational Fishing Alliance says in a letter sent today to the governor's office.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to meet in Alexandria, Virginia, from February 1-4, and during those meetings New Jersey is expected to be voted out of compliance on our shark regulations, which will begin the process of shutting down our shark fishery.

Complete Story

Ocean Dancer Supports Maldives Shark Research - Smart

Ocean Dancer is 110' of pure luxury and is a labour of love for French owner/operator, David Mesnard who has lived in the Maldives since 1990.

David is a highly regarded Free-diving and Scuba Dive Instructor and also a keen surfer. In his time in the Maldives he has witnessed dramatic changes to the marine environment. Changes that made him realise he needed to do something to help the oceans flourish again.

The MWSRP team first met David and Gaëlle at South Ari Atoll, in December 2008 when they ended up in the water together on what the research team thought to be a whale shark.

A large dark fin had breached the surface amongst a few tourists close by, so the MWSRP sent two team members in to take the ID photographs required to log the encounter. As the guys approached the ‘shark' they were not greeted by the usual large dark shape emerging from the plankton rich water. Instead, David, on scuba gear, was cruising around at around 5 metres, holding a fin he had carved from wood and painted black. The ocean loving French man then surfaced, removed his regulator and took great pleasure in his fooling of the ‘whale shark researchers'.

Ocean Dancer has always supported shark conservation programmes. Now they have become the MWSRP's newest sponsor, and the team is ecstatic to have them onboard. David and his wife Gaëlle are true ocean lovers. They, along with expert crew, are the shark friendly tour operator who encourages their guests to enjoy their holiday responsibly.

For more information about Ocean Dancer please visit here.

Fishermen catch shark, raise controversy

In Florida fishing for sharks from beaches is allowed in most counties.

While most of these landings are released back into the ocean this method of catching sharks draws the ire of conservationists, and the eye of the media when animals as large as this one are caught on camera.

Last weeks landing of a nine foot animal in Florida's Riviera Beach was no exception.

The article mentions a $9.00 extra shark fishing permit that fishermen are paying each year. It would be interesting to see local co-operative ventures with regional researchers to tag these animals using these fishermen.


Complete Story.

Sea Shepherd - Losing Hearts and Minds

Sea Shepherd has "Jumped the Shark."

In the process they have become an open laughing stock of not only the conservation world but of the general public as well. What started with last summers expose on South Park has become a full blown online rebellion against staged reality television under the increasingly thin guise of protecting and saving wildlife.

By any metric including Sea Shepherds own Paul Watson they are losing the media battle for the hearts and minds of a non-radicalized public.

Watson recently posted a long winded and far fetched explanation for why the worlds online comment media is not buying into his spoon fed and faked Whale Wars spectaculars, such as the ill fated "Watson Was Shot" (Whale Wars Season One) and this years alleged ramming of the Ady Gil.

Paul Watson

"One of the most insidious and underhanded attacks has been the ability of the Japanese whaling industry to use cyber warfare. We have reason to believe that they have infiltrated internet social forums and websites with a well funded campaign of disinformation and strategies designed to undermine our morale and erode our support with a barrage of lies, ad hominem attacks, character assassination, and cyber bullying."

The most obvious explanation for Watson's pseudo Clive Barker analysis? The public is no longer buying into patently faked Sea Shepherd media. Sea Shepherd has grossly underestimated its audience and their intelligence.

Therein lies the problem. Across the Internet and beyond Western audiences are tuning out of the conservation message of whaling. Anti-whaling efforts have become an entertainment vehicle, not conservation, and Sea Shepherd is to blame for this bizarre shift in consciousness.

If Western watchers of these seasonal media antics are not buying into them, where are Eastern sympathies for Japans ongoing whaling efforts?

Smart Conservation People

There are some undoubtedly smart, dedicated people who work with Sea Shepherd, and to ignore them would be wrong. Like pirate vessels of old, the captains role as master and commander of his vessel was a "performance based job." Pirate crews had the right to depose their captain if he failed to deliver.

We would like to suggest that happens now.

Over the past decades Paul Watson alone has managed to stubbornly apply a leisure suit wearing 1970's strategy to every "save the" campaign he has put forth. Today, twenty plus years later, whales are still being killed, seals harvested, and sharks taken all over the world.

Meanwhile in just the past two years Watson has lost close to 4 million dollars in donor money, vessels and equipment. Canadian authorities recently sold his impounded vessel the Farley Mowat at auction and now the Ady Gil lies at the bottom of the sea. Not to mention the untold gallons of diesel and oil spilled into the pristine Antarctic, trying to save whales - yet again.

Paul Watson's continual resetting of eco goals is one indication that even he, in his most private moments, realizes his organization is failing to effect any real and lasting changes. Over the years he has been quoted as saying his goal is to "stop whaling." That soon changed to "limit the numbers of whales killed," and today Watson's new and fully open ended commitment to whales suggests that his goals are to "bankrupt the whalers." With that one statement Watson has slyly committed Sea Shepherd and its radicalized followers to another 20-30 years of ineffective media staging.

This years sinking of the Ady Gil was tantamount to a group of camera laden PETA protesters ramming a car into the side of a meat processing plant...and then blaming the plant for attempted murder.

The conservation world is becoming tarnished by a small group of increasing irrelevant media event stagers who have redefined the meaning of metric based conservation to reality entertainment.

Clearly, the public has had enough. What is needed now is leadership change from within.

Which begs the question, are there any real leaders within the Sea Shepherd ranks?

"Chatham, Carcarius has landed"

"Non invasive" archival pop up tagging with great whites has been a mainstay of research for the past decade.

CHATHAM — For years, information about the migration and feeding habits of great white sharks has been as elusive as the predators themselves. Now, thanks to information from a tag attached to a shark off Chatham last summer, researchers will soon have something to sink their teeth into.

At around midnight on Friday, Jan. 15, a data-logging tag popped loose from a shark 50 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla., and began transmitting data to researchers by satellite. The tag was one of several which were fastened to white sharks off Chatham last September, and is designed to detach and float to the surface after having collected information on water temperature, depth and light levels.

The tag transmitted information for about five days, and Senior Biologist Greg Skomal of the state's Division of Marine Fisheries is now poring over the data. Spokeswoman Catherine Williams said Monday that the process is slow.

“It was tracking since September, so there's a lot of data on the tag,” she said.

With help from fisherman Bill Chaprales, who wielded the harpoon, researchers tagged five white sharks in September after there were multiple shark sightings close to shore. The sharks prompted officials to close area beaches to swimmers, which in turn drew many curious sightseers to the shoreline.

“We're hopeful that we'll see all of the tags,” Williams said. “We're very interested to see what the data can tell us about this species.”

“For Massachusetts citizens and biologists and shark enthusiasts across the globe, this is an exciting opportunity to study these fascinating creatures,” state environmental affairs Secretary Ian Bowles said in a press statement. “We're looking forward to sharing the findings—so far, all we know is that this particular shark is a snowbird.”

Many species of fish, including sharks, migrate to New England's coastal and open waters in the summer months. At least a dozen shark species migrate in and out of New England waters annually. Massachusetts is the northernmost range for several species, and is an important area for monitoring the health and distribution of shark populations. Although relatively rare in New England, great white sharks are known to visit local waters, where they are sometimes seen feeding near seal colonies.

Last May, the journal Current Biology published Skomal's research on the migratory patterns of basking sharks. Using similar tagging technology, Skomal and his team documented the movements of the species, identifying previously unknown winter habitats. The discovery has implications for that species' conservation.

While many of the secrets of white sharks remain unknown, local officials would be content to have one question answered: will the sharks return this summer?

“That's difficult to predict,” Williams said. “We don't know if they'll be back.” But if the great whites return, and if it is possible to safely tag additional sharks, “we'll definitely take that opportunity,” she said.

Skomal's research is funded through the Division of Marine Fisheries' Recreational Marine Fisheries program. Among the funding sources for the work are grants from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, the National Science Foundation and NASA.

Dive Photo Guide Offers Free Online Tutorials

New York (Jan 27, 2010) – In response to the global demand from photographers, scuba divers, surfers and snorkelers around the world, leading underwater photography website DivePhotoGuide.com has launched a highly anticipated free series of comprehensive underwater photography tutorials.

The underwater photography guides offer easy-to-read tutorials for photographers all levels to learn how to take great underwater photos. The tutorials are written by professional underwater photographer Jason Heller and DivePhotoGuide.com editor Matt Weiss, along with contributions from several world renowned professional and award winning underwater photographers, such as National Geographic photographer David Doubilet, Martin Edge, and Alex Mustard. Each tutorial includes beautiful underwater photos and equipment set-up shots that illustrate each technique.

Underwater photography can be incredibly rewarding, but it does pose unique challenges and requires an understanding of basic principles and techniques. Beginners will find the Getting Started Guide very intuitive, including the top ten basic principles of underwater photography and how to select your first underwater camera system. Other tutorials include macro, wide angle, super-macro, composition, lighting, surf photography and a number of creative techniques. New and advanced techniques and tutorials will be added on a regular basis.

Popular underwater photography website DivePhotoGuide.com has been a valuable resource to a community of over 50,000 underwater photographers around the world since 2005. In addition to the new free techniques guides, the website features underwater photo galleries from the top pros and amateurs in the world, daily underwater photography and ocean related news, in-depth articles, a comprehensive underwater photography equipment guide, travel guide, event calendars and a monthly photo contest with prizes.

Shark Research Isla Guadalupe - Complex Emotional Data

Science is not always pretty. Field science even less so. The headlong rush to extract data from big charismatic mega fauna like the white shark has lead us to a real debate within the shark community over invasive tagging methods.

SPOT tagging is a questionable method of tagging whites that involves catching them with baited hooks and attaching a "drilled on" dorsal tech package. The argument is these packages last longer and deliver more data to researchers which is then used to protect the species.

We have been supporters of this method until recently.

Unfortunately when reviewing videos of SPOT tagging, one comes to the conclusion that these efforts are in dire need of set protocols that do less invasive harm to magnificent breeding aged animals. The loss of just one of these animals through invasive research would be a major blow to the entire western pacific population.

At no point should anyone on this team be lacking for any contingency, seconds count, and the lack of basics, like support tires for this animal, multiple and conflicting directive voices, and a fresh sea water tube that is 10% effective is appalling to watch:



More from the Dorsal Fin Blog.

Australian Shark Conservation - Makos Back on the Grill

One of the most perplexing issues with modern shark conservation is regional and local government buy in. Too often rules and regulations that protect shark species take years of legislative process, time, money, and energy to adopt.

And all too often we see a watering down or outright reversals of conservation rules and regulations. Such was the case in Australia this week, where new laws governing the take of mako shark were overturned by government slight of hand and a shameless buckling to commercial fishing pressures.

That's why we developed and support the Shark Free Marinas Initiative as an effective method to bypass government while enacting shark conservation measures.

The SFMI works with direct source points of shark traffic creating a win-win with local marinas to request that sharks are not landed at their facilities.

The metrics are there. In the USA alone 400,000 sport caught sharks arrive at marinas each year (NOAA) With just 50% of marinas in the USA adopting the SFMI we could save 200,000 sharks a year. Over the planet many hundreds of thousands more while educating fishermen to catch and release ethics making a shark fishery sustainable, without any government buy in at all.

A case study for modern shark conservation and one that has already seen 70% of Fiji go Shark Free with the help of PADI Project Aware, Stuart Gow and others.

Shark Diving Industry - Threats of Violence?

The last report we ever expected to see coming from the Maldives and the South Ari Atoll, home of an excellent regional whale shark research program, might involve commercial operations in the area threatening violence at knife point.

From the Dhivehi Observer this week tales of "ugliness on the high seas" as commercial operations come into conflict with regional researchers over whale shark gold.

This is not a new tale, shark diving operations that are in conflict with each other are the stuff of legends within the commercial shark diving industry. Up until today these conflicts usually stayed quiet and never appeared on the front page:

"MV Orion and MV Southern Cross crews have allegedly threatened to ram rival boats and stand accused of throwing heavy dive weights at tourists and dhoni crews from nearby Diva Resort. Most shockingly, in January, the crew of MV Southern Cross boarded a dhoni belonging to the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, foreign researchers who monitor the sharks. The MV Southern Cross crew threatened at KNIFE POINT to kill the researchers unless they quit the area."

For the record we fully support the efforts of the Maldives Whale Shark Program and have done so for a few years. Small minded industry ugliness is not a new phenomenon. Calling it out for public consumption is.

The owner operators of both the MV Orion and MV Southern Cross must be made to understand that user groups have rights to animals as much as they do. A smart minded operation would seek ways to incorporate research into the fabric of its dive and marketing efforts, a win-win solution to user group conflicts under the banner of conservation shark diving.

Hopefully these well known dive operators will realize their errors before it is too late and commercial whale shark diving in Maldives becomes tainted by irreparable scandal.

Deep Blues - R.I. Shark Documentary

To all who had forgotten about the venerable Snappa Charters and Captain Charlie, here is a reminder that he's still "Running with the Blues" on the east coast and still thrilling divers almost 12 years later with a recent documentary about his operation. Snappa Charters remains one of the USA's oldest shark diving operations.

Kudos to Scott Tucker for the documentary, as always the Dorsal Fin Blog looked into the media side with a finer comb and brought up some salient points:

Guadalupe Island -Topside

Very few people have had a chance to view Isla Guadalupe from the air. It is a breathtaking sight.

Now, thanks to one mans efforts, everyone can share in the experience. These images are the perfect compliment to undersea encounters with great white sharks at this wild and remote island.

Thanks Eddie, this is really great footage.

The changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure

An updated paper on the shifting financial impact of whale shark tourism in Australia's Ningaloo region is a must read for those within the shark diving industry.

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was $894 per trip, total expenditure was $6.0 million (all figures are in Australian dollars), and between $2.4 and $4.6 million would have been lost to the region if whale shark tourism did not exist. Our measure of participants' expenditure is substantially lower than the calculation of $2370 per participant from a previous study of whale shark tourists using data collected in 1995. We argue that this is consistent with a change in the types of wildlife tourists that participate in an activity as the industry reaches the point of consolidation. Our results also suggest that using old data to forecast wildlife tourists' expenditure needs to take into account the industry's stage of development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Paper Here.

Taiwan civic groups protest chain stores selling shark-fin soup

Smart direct action protests begin with indigenous populations. The issue of sharks fin soup has been a tricky one with the perception of Westerns trying to influence a primarily Asian cultural issue.

Asians, for good reason, are resistant to heavy handed direct action eco push by outsiders. A fact many within the Western shark conservation community have discovered first hand over the years.

So, how do you change destructive indigenous cultural practices?

The IUCN has an idea, protesting and messaging with local populations:

"Lured by high profits, fishermen kill sharks only for their fins. They cut off shark's fins and dump the sharks into the sea and let them bleed to death," said Wang Yu-min, director of the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan. "Each year, some 4,000 to 7,000 sharks are killed for their fins. The International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that 111 species of shark are being threatened, of which 20 species are seriously threatened and 25 species face
extinction," she said.


Complete Story.

Fuchsia Dunlop BBC - Refusing Sharks Fin

The BBC has a first rate story today on the culture of shark fin soup and one woman's determination to end it's acceptance at the dinner table.

It is a classic tale of east vs west mentalities with a surprising twist at the end. The shark conservation movement may just end the practice of eating sharks fin soup "one table sized international incident" at a time:

"There was an awkward silence. My dinner companions had not heard this kind of stuff before and certainly not from me, who they know as the Englishwoman who eats everything."

Complete Story.

Hammers in Love?

Swim at Your Own Risk blog got the scoop from Perth yesterday featuring a video shot from the air of Hammerheads schooling off the coast.

Local experts think this is high seas shark love in action.

We'll let you decide.

Video Here.

Cape Cod to Florida - Pretty Neat Trick

You have to love the marine sciences for one reason only - data, lovely, undisputed data.

So when we hear tell of a tagged white shark arriving in Florida's waters that's just a cause for celebration, and then some.

For the folks in Jacksonville it may be the cause for some concern, but fear not:

“We were very pleased to hear that this one had surfaced,” said Catherine Williams, spokeswoman for the Division of Marine Fisheries, which led the tagging project. “We’re expecting that the other four will surface any time between now and the spring, but, of course, there are no guarantees.”

Complete Story.

Save the Sharks - Tampa Bay Editorial

Today's in house editorial from the Tampa Bay Newspapers is a perfect example of well researched pro shark discussions.

We need more just like this:

Vilified, maligned and abused, some species of sharks are vulnerable to extinction.

Fortunately wildlife agencies and conservationists, recognizing that sharks are invaluable to the survival of marine ecosystems, are taking steps to ensure that threats to these fascinating creatures aren’t left unchecked.

Complete Story.

The 200,000 Hook Gauntlet - Amazing

What happens when you hold a festival in South Korea featuring mountain trout?

You get a 200,000 plus fishing event that takes your breath away. The images from this event are hard to comprehend.

"Hundreds of thousands of people have descended on a frozen river to drill through the ice to hook mountain trout - or even fish for them with their bare hands. Visitors to Hwacheon in South Korea have arrived for the annual Ice Festival, which saw 200,000 people visit over the weekend, and which organisers anticipate will see more than a million taking part by the end of the three-week event."

Complete Story.

Chip Scarlett and Sharks - Visually Stunning

We are big fans of pro shark PSA's, especially ones that deliver strong and cohesive personal narratives.

Underwater photographer Chip Scarlett knows this art form well and has delivered one of the most engaging shark PSA's we have seen in a while. All that is needed now is a gentle push into the Internet and about 100,000 more viewers.

Kudos:

Shark Conservation Australia - Solutions?

Shark fishermen in Australia face potential $11,000 fines for harvesting newly banned shark species like the longfin mako.

Naturally fishermen are unhappy with the arrangement asking the question - are we really saving sharks by just banning shark takes?

We're not so sure there's an easy answer to that without a follow up outreach programs in "safe shark handling" for fishermen.

Featuring heavier tackle, circle hooks, and limited handling protocols shark mortality rates could be effectively curbed with a well coordinated two step conservation approach.

In Florida this approach will be launched in the summer of 2010.

Complete Story.

The Million Dollar Vote - Shark Conservation Win

Georgienne Bradley from The Imaging Foundation is the smartest woman in the shark conservation room right now.

With her small team she has managed to create a tsunami of interest in the Chase Charitable Giving Event and with your help her team can capture the ultimate prize of One Million Dollars for shark conservation efforts.

Why are we supporting this effort?

Bandwidth. Bradley's team have managed to capture a lot of it all over the Internet and beyond and that is the cornerstone of today's conservation world.

Bandwidth.

Please support this effort today with your valuable vote. Yes we know Haiti is also an important issue right now so do two things in the next 24hrs.

1. Donate 5-50 for Haiti relief efforts.

2. Vote for The Imaging Foundation.

Haiti thanks you and the sharks thank you. A double win in 2010.

NY Times Featuring Industry Member

If there's one thing we like to see it's well balanced and pro industry reporting in the major media.

Too often the industry receives a black eye when operators fail to heed basic media commandments.

As in "Thou shalt not do extreme shark diving media, ever".

It is once again gratifying to see Beqa Adventure Divers in 2010 leading the charge with a well balanced article by Greg Winters.

All the commercial elements are open for review in this article, featuring the pros and cons of the commercial shark diving industry. Coming on the heels of last weeks anti-shark diving media orgy in South Africa - this is fair and balanced reporting.

It could not have come at a better time.

Kudos.

2010 Florida Shark Fishing Regulations

Here are the new shark fishing regulations for the State of Florida.

As a barometer for the sport fishing industry the State of Florida is making improvements to shark fisheries.

■ New additions to the prohibited species list are sandbar, silky and Caribbean sharpnose sharks.

■ Sharks must be landed whole. This means filleting and removing heads, fins, and tails of sharks at sea is not allowed. Gutting and bleeding of sharks at sea is allowed to preserve the meat.

■ There is no minimum size limit for Atlantic sharpnose sharks, blacknose sharks, blacktip sharks, bonnethead sharks, finetooth sharks, and smooth dogfish, all other sharks must be at least 54 inches long (fork length) to harvest or possess.

■ Sharks may be harvested with hook and line gear only. Additionally, snatching and use of multiple (e.g. treble) hooks with natural baits is not allowed.

■ There is a bag limit of one shark per person per day and a maximum of 2 sharks per vessel per day.

■ Smooth dogfish and the Florida smoothhound are now included in the shark regulations. For a complete list of regulated sharks please visit MyFWC.com. Many sharks are difficult to identify and it is up to anglers to learn how to properly identify the sharks they harvest.

Please visit MyFWC.com to view shark identification information and other management information.

Haiti - "The world is coming to an end"

Take a minute today to consider the following video. Under the dust in this clip was Haiti's most populous city Port au Prince - 1,750,00. The young woman who shot the video just went through a magnitude 7.0 earthquake.

Haiti could use some help. The people of Haiti, already considered some of the poorest in the western hemisphere could also use your help. We donated this morning to a few of the charities listed. They have long track records and large humanitarian crews in Haiti with the best ability to get needed supplies and assistance to the country now.

You can help by adding your 5,10,20 to the cause.

We're shark conservationists, but we're also human too. Take some time out of your day to help those who really need it. We can get back to sharks next week.

Habitat for Humanity

Red Cross International

World Vision International

Shark Attack - Save Our Seas Response

As a general rule we do not get involved in hyped media surrounding shark attacks, unless they are industry driven.

Today a well researched and thoughtful response to the recent shark attack media hype in South Africa caught our attention.

Save our Sea Foundation have taken an ongoing leadership role in many issues surrounding sharks and conservation.

Today's Op Ed was one more example of industry leadership with a nice blend of pro shark pro conservation messaging. Kudos.

"Hollywood catapulted the great white shark into the world’s consciousness in 1975 when Steven Spielberg’s JAWS hit the big screen. Previously confined to an obscure world below the ocean’s waves, the box-office hit created a monster with a lust for wanton killing in the terrified minds of its audiences. As shark-attack hysteria gripped the world a great white shark killing frenzy ensued. Population numbers plummeted and an apex predator with a history 200 million years older than the first dinosaur started swimming towards the land of the dodo."

Complete Post

Shark Research in Action - Bahamas

Kristine Stump, the current Principal Investigator at the Bimini Biological Field Station, describes the research she is conducting as a part of her PhD studies.

Kristine's doctorate thesis investigates the effects of habitat loss on the juvenile lemon sharks that use Bimini as their primary nursery.

Bimini's mangrove lagoons function as critical habitat for a wealth of wildlife, from seahorses and snappers to stingrays and sharks. Kristine's study aims to quantify the impact that removing these mangrove nurseries will have on Bimini's lemon shark population, and the wider ecosystem as a whole.

One Vessel To The Power of 10,000

This mornings conservation image is of a single vessels shark take in Japan.

The image comes from the Blue Voice Blog, normally focused on whale and dolphin issues, this one time take of blue sharks is, none the less, a heart wrenching scene.

Kudos.

BlueVoice.org

Hardy Jones is a former journalist with CBS News and UPI. He has been making television documentaries about the oceans and marine mammals in particular for more than 20 years. "The experience of forcing Japanese fishermen to release hundreds of dolphins simply by pointing a camera at them led to the original concept of BlueVoice.org," says Jones. "The advent of the internet has given us a tool of unprecedented power to end some of the brutalities committed against marine mammals and the oceans."

Our film "If Dolphins Could Talk," hosted by actor Michael Douglas, complimented the work of many environmental organizations when we broadcast video footage of dolphins dying in tuna nets. Soon afterwards Heinz announced it would no longer accept tuna caught by surrounding dolphins with nets.

BlueVoice.org draws on the hundreds of hours of film produced by Hardy Jones/Julia Whitty Productions, a leading production company specializing in films on the marine environment.

Shark Nets: Thomas Peschak Reports

The newly redesigned RTSea Blog has great coverage of premier underwater photog Thomas Peschak and South African anti shark nets.

As a team member with the Save Our Seas Foundation Thomas has been featured in several informative PSA's demonstrating marine conservation leadership with this ongoing and deadly issue.

About SOS

The Save Our Seas Foundation sponsors marine conservation projects around the world from White Sharks in South Africa to Giant Manta Rays in Mexico. We are committed to educating people about the importance of conserving our beautiful oceans.

Find out more at saveourseas.com.

Sea Shepherd - Mastering Reality Disasters?

We would like to congratulate Sea Shepherd and Animal Planet on a fantastic staged event for television - perhaps one of the best staged disaster moments of 2010.

As production people ourselves we know the hazards and very real dangers of staging live disasters for television. It's a highly technical world only professionals can effectively operate in.

Multi-million dollar staged disasters are often canceled at the last minute due to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) non-compliance or studio fears of death and dismemberment. Sea Shepherd on the other hand have found a way to circumvent all of the requirements for staged disaster television by only allowing volunteer crews and staging the events against non-paid, non-union, Japanese whalers.

By-passing all clean environmental requirements for television productions by producing this man made disaster in the Antarctic ocean was another master stroke. The clean up of several thousand gallons of bio diesel spilled by the Ady Gil and retrieval of the vessel from the sea floor would have cost Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars Productions millions if this disaster had been filmed in the USA.

Brilliant!

Managing to move Sea Shepherds $2 million dollar vessel Ady Gil into the path of Japanese whalers was a quirk of nautical timing by a seasoned captain who knew his vessel and the direction wind, waves, and engines were carrying it. Catching the whole thing on video from the Bob Barker at just the right angle was pure reality television.

We were doubly impressed with the witty and show branding quote from SSCS Paul Watson immediately after the stunt, "Now we're in a Real Whale War!" reminding the global audience that this is, after all, Must See TV!

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have clearly evolved from earlier staged productions such as Paul Watsons being shot by Japanese whalers. In terms of production quality and emotional leverage that earlier staged event was not one of the top three of the 2007 reality television season.

Kudos to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson, and Animal Planet for once again bravely leading the way into a new decade of reality television firsts. The televised disaster staging they have created together keeps getting better and better, and their complete and ongoing circumvention of all production norms and safety regulations allows their organization to literally shoot-for-the-moon.

We're looking forward to more man made disasters in the coming months!

More on Sea Shepherd Conservation Society here.

Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme - Report

The DC Rainmaker Blog has an in depth first person report of whale shark research in the Maldives this week.

We had the pleasure of meeting the DC Rainmaker folks at Isla Guadalupe during the filming of Shark Diver: The Movie in 2009.

"The Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (with an ‘e’ at the end, British style…) was founded in 2006 by a group of marine biologists looking to setup a permanent facility in the Maldives to study whale sharks. Unlike many other areas of the world, it appears a bunch of the whale sharks actually stick around the Maldives year round, providing an excellent opportunity for long term research. Though they don’t quite yet have the financial resources to stay year round, the goal is to be able to rotate teams and individuals to the island for sustained continuous research."

Full report, great read and Kudos guys!

Global Conservation Messaging

How do you effect conservation change with media?

For our money this is one of the better efforts out there.

Sharks - Elegance in Back and White

RTSea Productions takes the planet on a journey this month. The end result is visually stunning emotionally guiding the viewer into the magnificent world of sharks.

Shot in the Bahamas at Tiger Beach, this is pro shark pro industry film making.

Kudos.