The shark diving industry blog covering sharks, shark cage diving, shark conservation and things we find "amusing" since 2008 www.sharkdiver.com, www.sharkdivers.com, www.divingwithsharks.com
There's an ongoing Battle Royal between U.K and Canadian researchers with completing theories over corkscrew deaths of seals.
Canadian researcher Zoe Lucas who works on Sable Island has conducted an eight-year study of "corkscrew" seal injuries.
She maintains Greenland Sharks are capable of inflicting such wounds.
However, scientists at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at the University of St Andrews, U.K have ruled out the possibility of the deaths being caused by sharks. They claim mechanical ducts are causing these wounds.
Having a shark blog that goes back over three years allows us to cover the stranger side of sharks and this enduring predatory mystery.
As we posted last week, "unless the same set of mechanical variables is present on the remote Sable Island in Canada, their efforts (U.K) leave much to be desired as does the removal of a biological answer to the mystery of the Corkscrew Killer in the U.K"
The Challenge
Underwater Thrills is officially offering a fine bottle (signed) of 2005 Floodplain Proprietor Red from Napa Valley, California to any U.K researcher who can prove without a doubt that the Corkscrew Killer is in fact a man made object or machine.
When you own your own submarine, life at depth can be pretty sweet:
A 10 foot long Smalltooth sandtiger shark charges the Idabel submarine at 900' depth off Roatan, Honduras on Aug 15, 2010. Passengers are Peter Etnoyer and Fred Boltz.
Pilot is Karl Stanley of Roatan Institute for Deep-sea Exploration.
One of the more interesting members of the conservation/film and television community is, without a doubt, Scott Cassell.
Recently he's been involved with a front running conservation project called rECOn.
rECOn changes the way the public views conservation initiatives by documenting and then putting in jail poachers in regions where enforcement is non existent.
This is boots on the ground enforcement to effect conservation change.
Scott just got back from Baja with this after action report from his team.
What they discovered in Baja shocked them and will shock you as well.
Warning: Contains language and heartfelt emotion:
Dale and I have just returned from our latest rECOn mission hunting poachers which ran from August 15th to the 20th.This time we were joined by cameraman XXX whom was filming our operation for consideration to produce a series for XXX.
XXX had expectations but he expressed they were exceeded by what he saw and now is a firm believer in what Dale and I do as we hunt and film some of the the worst of humans.
Weeks ago Dale had a tip that somewhere near the city dump was a pile of shark heads. Intrigued we searched around and in short order we found what we were looking for.Frankly, none of us were ready for what we would find.
The first few shark heads we found were tiny. Barely 2.5 inches across indicating the (Silky) sharks were only 10 inches to one foot long. These were just babies! We found 27 heads (20 silky, three hammerhead and four dogfish) and were disgusted with the cowardly act of slaughtering baby sharks for the export of their tiny fins to the Asian markets and the tiny fillets being sold at the local markets.
We decided to lay them all out in neat rows to film them and as I maneuvered to make the line straight my foot slipped into a burn pile opening up the charred surface exposing underneath. Dozens of tiny shark heads showed through... and as Dale, xxx and I looked around with our eyes calibrated to what to look for we began to realize what was all around us.We found an old plastic box-crate and began loading it up with all of the tiny shark heads and the deeper we dug the more we found... then I found the worst of it.A huge pile of of horse shit covered hundreds of baby shark heads.
I love sharks. I love sharks like many folks love dogs and cats.For years I have hand fed and admired sharks. I have tagged them, saved them for net entanglement, and reached out and touched ‘one ton’ white sharks and tigers as they swim by in their full majesty... and my life is greatly enriched because of these unique encounters.
To discover over one thousand disembodied heads of babies in a dump covered in horse shit was almost too much to endure. All of this suffering for sushi and shark-fin soup.
XXX found the heart to keep filming and despite his own emotions... he kept asking me to talk to the camera in order to record my reactions to this display of ‘humanity’.I found myself on the verge of tears as I dug out tiny lifeless heads of shark pups with their vacant eyes staring into man’s world of trash.The anger welling up inside of me had to be focused as I inhaled the dust composed of murdered babies, horse shit and human filth.This illustration of man’s complete lack of respect for the sea and indeed for life itself lowered my faith in Mexican fishermen and mankind overall.
Dale called out to us with another sickening discovery... but at least this one offered a recourse I very much wanted. “Dude! Here are about 25 to 30 poached Totuaba!”XXX and I came over to see for ourselves and confirmed his discovery.Dale had carefully laid out about ten of the dozens of filleted fish carcasses for positive identification. The tell-tale rounded Caudal fin and skull shape offered the positive ID we needed to present as evidence and we carefully video recorded it.
This has special significance to us because the Totuaba were fished to near extinction and are now protected by Mexican law. Having a Totuaba in your possession regardless of how you obtained it is a mandatory 8 year prison sentence.So, if we can find out where the poachers fish the Totuaba we can find WHO they are and bust them.
XXX, Dale and I gathered at the tail gate of the truck and reflected for a moment on what we just found and I glanced across the dump at a strange shape propped-up on a rock. At first I thought it was just a piece of junk like a trash can lid... then I saw a familiar shape along the edge of it. “No Way!” I jumped up and set to look at it with a quick walk.What I thought was junk was a Green Sea Turtle shell with the center kicked in by a poachers boot-covered foot.What I did not know is that I had just found the best way to catch these sick bastards.Dale had a network of friends in the area and they know everything that goes on nearby.They know Sea Turtles are easy to poach.
The next morning we set out on Dale’s panga to the islands we selected to explore for Poaching activity. Upon arrival to Lobos Island we noticed the Sea Lions were afraid of human approach and scrambled off rocks at the sight of us. This behavior is learned, not instinctual. Here humans kill Sea Lions.As most Sea Lions scrambled into the water I noticed on was hesitant to leave her rock perch. We slowly worked our way closer to her and noticed she had a dark ring around her neck. I trained binoculars at her as XXX focused his camera’s long lens on her and we both saw she was gravely injured from a Poachers net fragment cutting through her skin, blubber and muscle into her throat.I took out my knife and asked Dale to close it so I might try to jump-tackle her and cut the net off... but she dove in at the last second closing the window of opportunity on her survival.
Under permit, we landed and began our survey for poaching activity and didn't have to look long. XXX, Dale and I found several dead Sea Lions with either nets on entangled on them, or stab wounds on their head and necks.But the real heart breaker was when Dale discovered a baby Sea Lion corpse with a suspicious head wound and called me over. Upon inspection I discovered it was blunt trauma induced skull fracture. The baby was killed by a rock strike at the base of the occipital of the skull.
Poachers murder the innocent.
We left the island with heavy hearts.
As we arrived back to the storage location for the Dale’s panga we unloaded the gear but Dale quietly disappeared with an old friend of his to chat with him. XXX and I finished unloading the boat and waited in the truck. Upon Dale’s return he looked visibly upset. “GUYS!” He demanded, “You cannot even F___KING believe what just happened! I just got a tip on the Sea Turtle Poachers!”“Some guys want to sell me Sea Turtle meat!”
We unloaded our gear and prepared for what was about to happen. XXX assembled his long-lens with a Night Vision intensifier and I set up a small camcorder to give to Dale. The mission was simple although potentially very dangerous.Dale was going to go into the poacher’s campo and film the Sea Turtle while pretending to want to buy it.
With XXX set up on an observation point to film Dale at long range and Dale’s tiny HDV camcorder ready, Dale jumped into the truck and drove to the Poacher’s campo. XXX was able to film Dale’s entire drive into the campo and even captured outstanding images of him walking to the Sea Turtle’s remains (on a table). At that point it was all up to Dale to film the Sea Turtle’s body and what the Poachers were saying. Much to Dale’s credit he filmed the Sea Turtle, the poacher’s faces and even recorded them saying how they kill up to two Sea Turtles per day, how to cook the meat and even the methods of how and where they set nets to catch them!
Dale politely declined purchasing the dead Sea Turtle and chatted with them about weather, fishing, a cut on a fisherman’s hand and eventually left safely.
So: How much is a Sea Turtle worth?The Sea Turtle was offered to Dale for $100. We decided it would have sold for much less to a Mexican.
Upon his return we watched the film Dale captured and it was incredible!Now we needed to film them in the act of fishing for turtles and (thanks to Dale’s film) we knew exactly where and when to set up the surveillance.Almost on cue, a Poacher carries a huge net on his shoulder to the shoreline in complete darkness... all the while being filmed by XXX’s watchful eye (complete with night vision camera).Once the Poacher dropped the net Dale and I set out on the beach to get close up images of the net to be certain it is the kind used to kill Sea Turtles.Dale set up an over-watch position with an Electrophysics Thermal Camera and radio to keep me informed of Poacher movements, especially if he decided to return to the net while I was there filming it.I used my Sony Z-1 with an Electrophysics Night Vision 9350BRAC Module to film in the darkness like it was daytime.I worked my way out on the beach to the net in a low a profile to avoid detection while Dale looked out for me.XXX was filming us both from a higher more distant vantage point using his night vision module and long lens.
After some sneaking around I found the Poacher’s net and confirmed it was the kind used to kill Sea Turtles. A surge of anger rushed through me and I wanted to destroy the net and wrap it around the Poacher’s neck like the condemned female Sea Lion we saw earlier... but I stayed on the mission profile and departed the area.As soon as I found Dale’s over-watch position and joined him the Poacher was half-way to the net. I luckily missed the Poacher’s return by less than a minute!In my heart I felt it was more lucky for the Poacher than me we did not meet alone in the dark.
We silently filmed the Poacher deploy the net over the course of 45 minutes in the darkness.I felt good about the footage we caught but was seething inside about the innocent creatures this drug-hooked-miserable-excuse of a human was responsible for killing for a few pesos. He was not a man. He was a coward.
The next morning we all loaded Dale’s panga and we went around the point to where the Poacher’s net was set.Dale passed by the cove a few times in order to give me amble opportunity to get a compass course set with my TAC board.I finished putting the Ghuille cover on my O2 rebreather and I donned my new Riffe Cryptic Camo Wetsuit and combat dive gear and slipped into the water. On my TAC board was a HERO HD Camcorder facing me to record my actions during the dive and another was mounted on my helmet facing forward to recordwhat I saw.I descended to 20 fsw and noticed how my body blended perfectly into the water thanks to the Riffe suit.I made a communications call to Dale and then followed my pre-determined course and counted kick strokes right up to the net (which was in full view of the Poacher’s campo... hence the need for stealth).The net was already indiscriminately killing fish while it waited for the illegal targets (Sea Turtle) to wander to close.I filmed the full length of the coward’s technology and called Dale to let him know I was safe and departing the net back to the boat.Once back onboard we left the site to set up another surveillance site to wait for the poachers to recover the net.They never came.Did they get tipped off to our operation?Were they just too high to care about getting their illegal catch out before it spoils?We may never know... but we did collect several nets and placed them into our little bonfire ring.It feels really good to destroy these nets and I hope it financially cripples these bastards so they find it harder to Poach.
Dale, XXX and I were lucky enough to meet with our ‘client’ in Baja as we headed back to the US.We showed him some of our evidence and explained in detail what we found. He was quiet at first... then he offered us some insight to his vast wisdom and experience.He told us he would be able to take our evidence and show an exclusive audience what we have discovered.These powerful people will influence other leaders to design change and encourage new directions of protection.But... before that he will take our evidence and show it to the Mexican District Attorney so he can open an investigation, make arrests and remove these people from the equation.
As of today, four Poachers face 8 years in prison each. A Mexican prison.
Although this is a good result... I am haunted by the vacant eyes of a thousand baby sharks, the dead baby Sea Lions and the complete lack of respect for life and the oceanthese Poachers demonstrated.
As my friend Dale put it:
“The poacher is an international fugitive, not just a mexican one. The mind of a poacher transcends borders and morality, they are of the same mind no matter where you go. Out for fast easy money with no regard for the law, or the world for that matter”.
I will never stop Hunting Poachers. The rECOn Mission has just begun.
On the evening of Aug 16 at around 9pm 11 others and myself boarded the MV Horizon with Shark Diver at H&M Landing in San Diego in search of adventure, Great White Sharks, and in some cases in search of ourselves. We came from Ireland, London, Hong Kong, the U.S. and in my case Canada. It truly was an international trip!
The crew introduced themselves as we all got to know each other through the course of the evening. The crew is simply unbelievable! The level of care, service, and friendliness is top notch. Throughout the entire trip they displayed and executed some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Easily rivals that of Disney’s legendary service and in some cases bettered it. Kyle and Spencer will have you laughing, both Marks and John will make you feel at ease with their easy going salt of the Earth nature’s, Martin and Cary will fill you up on knowledge and information, and Beth will make you feel right at home with that outgoing bubbly personality.
The accommodations aboard are obviously on the small side but are surprisingly comfortable. More than enough comfort throughout the boat whether it be in your cabin, the galley or the decks to get yourself some space when you feel the need. In those rare times I wanted to be alone in my thoughts I always found it. But you’ll be having too much fun with the crew and fellow travelers for too much of that.
I will give a heads up, the nights can get surprisingly chilly and I wish I had brought a couple more long sleeve shirts over short sleeve. Also make sure to bring some seasickness remedies. Bring more than you think you’ll need. The going there was excellent, very smooth. The way back however got pretty rough and I did get sidelined to my cabin for about 20 hours or so and missed out on some of the best damn food you could ever eat and fun times with new found friends.
And that food I mentioned, well it is incredible. Mark and Beth know how to put together a menu! I miss it already especially Mark’s raspberry chipotle sauce! Kyle warned us at the beginning of the trip that they would keep us well fed to the point that we’d beg them to stop feeding us. He wasn’t kidding. We all began to worry about our waistlines.
Enough of the boat and the crew and food. It’s the sharks you want to hear about. So lets have at it. One day after we left Ensenada Mexico with a pod of dolphins and later a pod of pilot whales leading the way we arrived at Isla Guadalupe in the early morning. According to my journal it was around 5am that it began to appear out of the darkness and cloud cover with the anchor dropping around 6:30am. Oh one more thing, do yourself the favor and set an alarm for that experience. As the resident early riser aboard among the passengers I can’t begin to describe how incredible the sunrise at Guadalupe is. It’s so picture perfect that if you saw it on a postcard you’d think it was photo shopped.
The cages had been in the water for all of about 30 seconds and the first group not yet suited up before Ariel shouted from the back deck “SHARK!” We all scampered to the back deck rails and there it was. A beautiful Great White Shark cruising past the cages leisurely making its way around the boat. We all ooohed and ahhhed at the size and then laughed as Martin said he’s just a little guy only about 9 feet long!
Well you never saw 6 people put on wetsuits so fast in your life! I was in the first rotation and first in our cage. I did slow things up a bit as having no previous scuba experience I got nervous and a little panic’d once under water. I found breathing difficult and had a claustrophobic feeling and had to surface. Thankfully Martin was in the cage with us for first rotation and he quickly explained that what just happened to me was normal for first timers and gently and calmly reassured me. I can’t say enough about how well Martin calmed and re-instructed me. Within 2 minutes we were back underwater and I was doing fine.
In the first hour of our rotation we had the shark that Ariel had spotted and shortly thereafter Bite Face who was sporting his tag from Operation Great White joined him. Bite Face loves to swim close to the cages and make eye contact with you. Let me tell you, when you look millions of years of evolution in the eye and it looks back at you making eye contact with you it changes you. Your life and the way you see the World won’t be the same.
Throughout the entire first day every cage rotation there was always 2 – 4 sharks of varying sizes nearby. Not one rotation went by without divers able to get up close ands somewhat personal with a shark. Martin was so excited to see Bite Face and perhaps Bite Face was excited as well. He never did leave the area. He continued to make visits throughout our 3 days of diving.
Over those 3 days we saw either 14 or 15 different sharks anywhere from around 5 feet to 14 feet in length.We saw Bite Face stalk and try to have a snack of sea gull. We watched a game of cat and mouse play out for over an hour between a sea lion who ventured out to the cages and the 2 sharks that came to investigate said sea lion. It was fascinating! The sea lion would constantly swim upside down so it could look below for potential attack runs. It would position itself behind the sharks so it could nip at their tails. When it would get caught by surprise it would swim to the boat hull and Spider-Man style perch upside down and crawl along the hull to hide in the props. All of us were of mixed emotions of the event. None of us were sure weather we wanted the little fella to evade being lunch or not! He eventually did return to the safety of the beach by eventually pestering one of the sharks so much it left the area for a while.
I can’t recommend this trip enough. Even if you’re not that fascinated by sharks it’s an amazing adventure. The crew is amazing; I miss all of them already. Not waking up to Spencer’s cry of “White Sharrrrrrrrk” and Kyle’s one-liners makes me sad. Not to mention Mark and Beth’s food, fantastic conversation with John and Mark and the wealth of information that Martin and Cary are able to provide about the ocean and the animals in it.
As I sit a few days removed from the experience I can’t help but feel a little sad. It was bittersweet coming home. While it was nice coming home it almost doesn’t feel quite like home. As I said at the beginning of this some of us came in search of ourselves as well as White Sharks. Well that would be me. I’ve been on a road of some self-discovery the last year or so in hopes of making some changes in my life and the way I approach it. I did just that on this trip. I discovered a part of me I had lost a long time ago as well as found some new things out about myself. I told deck hand Mark this through tear filled eyes as we approached H&M Landing as the adventure rapidly came to a close. I won’t share his words here as they are for us suffice to say his kind words and warm handshake and embrace went a long way and I know I’ve made a new friend. So while I’m back home in Canada there’s a part of me that’s still in the deep blues of the ocean. I fell in love with being in that endless blue water and it’s varying shades. The rays of sunlight dancing down from the surface as far as the eye can see. The peace and serenity I found under the waves was as awesome as the White Sharks. I will be getting my SCUBA certification. I also rediscovered my love of photography and will be getting back into that as well.
I look forward to seeing my new friends aboard the Horizon again in the future; I will be doing this trip again! Several times! I also look forward to keeping in touch with my fellow adventurers. I’m sure once you take this trip you’ll find you will want to do the same.
Many thanks to Patric and Shark Diver and Greg and Horizon Charters.To the crew of the MV Horizon and my fellow travelers on this trip, happy trails to you all until we meet again.
Shark Diver - Mark Denstedt
P.S. Kyle mentioned sharks love AC/DC. He is right. Anytime he found AC/DC on the radio sharks showed up within seconds of it being turned on. I recommend bringing the AC/DC discography on your iPod.
The Australian Gov just announced that, over the past 20 years, shark nets designed to keep swimmers safe off Australian beaches have entangled an additional 3944 animals from rays to whales.
3944 animals over 20 years?
Somehow this number seems a bit low. Granted these nets are up on a seasonal basis September through April, but one might assume many more animals have been caught given that some 47 nets are in place.
We're going to look into this, contacting the actual vessels involved in netting operations and the conservationists on the other side of this issue who are calling for a take down of the nets.
If there's one thing we have come to discover about government statistics, wonky math tends to rule the day one hard data gets filtered though politico's.
Shark tour operators who were cited for allegedly chumming off the North Shore say they will challenge the law.The case will likely cost more than the cost of paying a fine because it will raise some complex issues in court.
"It's basically a ridiculous charge and we are going to fight it all the way even to an appeal," attorney Ken Kuniyuki said.Five employees of two Haleiwa shark tour companies were charged with illegal chumming last week, nearly a year after federal investigators collected evidence.
The charge is a petty misdemeanor with up to a $1,000 fine, but an attorney for one of the men said state game wardens treated the defendants like felons.
Back in 2006 we fabricated a shark cage system for the M/Y Triton, perhaps one of the prettiest private yachts working right now. Private cage systems for yachts offers the ultimate freedom to the yacht owner to conduct cage operations on the fly when sharks are present.
In the case of the Triton her cage has seen service from Alaska (Salmon Sharks) to Mexico and beyond.
This is the cage we built in use at Isla Guadalupe with the crew of the Triton, enjoy:
A federal undercover investigation uncovered alleged criminal activity at two of Oahu’s North Shore shark tour companies.Five shark tour employees have been charged with illegal shark feeding.
Law enforcement officers, who posed as visitors, posing as pretended to video tape their shark tour adventures but instead, they allegedly, caught tour operators red-handed.
As NOAA's Director during Americas foremost ecological disaster she proudly wore, and then hid behind, a pair of glided policy handcuffs of her own design as if they were some sort of magic talisman.
Life is defined by moments of crises when people in positions of power are called upon to act beyond their constraints, rise above them, and lead.
Not so for Ms.Jane Lubchenco who, during the Gulf Oil Disaster misrepresented facts, stalled, berated independent researchers, and towed the BP corporate line whenever and wherever possible.
From NOAA's low ball estimates on oil leaking into the Gulf, 5000 barrels a day, to outright data suppression, her time as NOAA's Chief demonstrated a lack of will, lack of understanding, and a not so carefully concealed Academic C-Y-A Dance that all but shocked anyone who has been monitoring the events as they unfolded.
Her tenure at the job during and after the crises has been piss poor at best, at worst may well let BP walk away from responsibility to existing oil still in the Gulf, oil her offices say does not exist.
As Hurricane Katrina was to Brownie Brown, another next to useless public servant, Ms.Lubchenco should pack her Disney lunch box with the picture of Ariel on it and begone from Washington, begone from ocean policy, and begone from any position that requires her to be in leadership.
President Obama unwisely chose a global warming advocate for NOAA's Chief, never imagining that policy wonks make poor generals in times of crises.
The premier white shark husbandry and tagging project for juvenile animals is celebrating nine years of cutting edge work in Monterey.
This week Sea Notes posted a summary worth reading:
This summer is the ninth year of our White Shark Project. Through this work we have been able to display five juvenile great whites in our Outer Bay exhibit and have tagged and tracked these sharks, and nearly 40 others in the field, to learn more about the movements of these young animals along the coast.
This year, with the Outer Bay exhibit about to undergo a transformation, we won’t try to bring a shark to Monterey; but the field work continues.
From our previous research results we’ve seen that some young white sharks tagged in the southern California region move to, or return to, warmer winter waters off Baja California. We’d like to know if they return to California and regularly make this south-north migration, but the size of the young sharks limits the tag we can use, and thus how much information we can gather.
How do you get 500K (and counting) people to change perceptions on a Plastic Bag Initiative?
When you're smart, like the folks over at Heal the Bay, you produce something like this highly entertaining Mockumentary. You want to be watching for the "vast cement rivers," segment and the "home to" quote, classic.
Folks on the front lines of shark conservation should take note. For the past four years shark PSA's have focused on the blood and gore of shark fining but it is time for a fresh look at this and another take.
Blood and gore is a one trick pony and we could be mining an audience outside the traditional shark conservation crowd, a broader reach with a viral video like this is always a good thing.
The Corkscrew mystery is back and we're not saying its a shark that is causing all the seal damage we're just saying is all.
Almost a decade after first reports of corkscrew seal deaths by researchers on the East coast not much is known about dead seals that wash ashore with a corkscrew pattern missing from the fat layer surrounding them.
As a lot of production companies crawl through this blog trolling for ideas (we know you do), here's one that would make a great Shark Week 2011 episode and you may have it with our blessings:
Corkscrew Killers
We happen to have the show treatment already written out, the dive sites picked, and the research contact list...that's if you want it of course.
As predicted it has aroused quite a L'oragedumerde among members of the shark diving and shark conservation community.
If the litmus test for industry anger and backlash could be measured in email terabytes, then this "documentary" would win all manner of awards.
Having not seen the film but watched the evolution of it within the industry I am struck at how fast some of those involved with the film are running for the hills. Disavowing their on screen presence and soft pedaling their way out the back door.
You either support a film or you do not. As far as media is concerned you are defined by it.
Far too many within our industry try and have it both ways, acting as conservationists and then wholeheartedly endorsing, supporting, and enabling shark productions that, in a time of a well defined shark crises, do nothing for sharks and everything for those that buy and sell shark productions for profit.
There are persistent rumors that some featured in this film had its intent misrepresented on the front end, thereby were sandbagged for their on screen quotes.
Regardless of the films dococircut run and laurels for "being selected," the current news (?) that has many in a righteous fury is that this film is now going to see a prime time run on a major network.
Opportunity?
The opportunity exists for those involved with this film to step back and reconsider.
It is one thing to produce a well researched, well balanced documentary with serious voices who can speak to the often byzantine and complicated issues of commercial shark diving, shark conservation, and shark media. It is another to Michael Moore your way though a tantamount wildlife issue in the time of crises with "colorful onscreen characters."
The Shark Cons responsibility to a wider uninformed audience is to present real and lasting facts.
As the industry knows, the general public, as far as shark facts are concerned will believe almost anything regurgitating factoids about sharks around office water coolers for years to come. It is conservations greatest challenge surmounting these man made hyper perceptions we often see on Shark Week, making The Shark Con an uncertain commodity in a time of wildlife and oceans crises.
One year ago this same team enabled this production on the Today Show, leaving many to wonder if they possess the media wisdom to truly pull off - The Shark Con:
Scientific American did a great piece this month with Doc Gruber in the Bahamas on sharks, research and conservation.
Sci Am jumped into the shark conservation arena with Shark Diver on 2008, but this latest article hits all the right notes.
Kudos.
"Many sharks have good learning capacity, which is one way we measure intelligence," says Samuel Gruber, a marine biologist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), who discovered in 1975 that lemon sharks could learn a classical conditioning task 80 times faster than a cat or rabbit. "I was shocked to find that they could learn so rapidly," he says.
There's an ongoing Battle Royal between U.K and Canadian researchers with completing theories over corkscrew deaths of seals.
