eyemocean

The end of the Amazon Rainforest?

2012-01-19T10:55:00.001-08:00

The end of the Amazon rainforest could be in sight if a highly controversial road is allowed to go ahead, ploughing its way through the heart of Peru's most pristine rainforest, disturbing at least two previously un-contacted tribes.

The proposed road will connect directly with the 'Inter-Oceanica' highway, already well under way in Brazil, that would make road transport possible between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Such a highway has been the nightmare of conservationists for years, but until now political instability in the entire Amazon region has kept the completion of it at bay.

However, recently, many inter-Amazonian governments have stabilised due to high economic growth fuelled by a number of factors, including not least the boom in the Chinese economy that has seen investment in the Latin American region spiral without check.

If the 'Inter-Oceanica' highway goes ahead the fragmentation of the Amazon basin is likely to grow apace, so bringing the end the huge rainforest tract as we know it.

Blue Shark Azores Gallery

2012-01-17T09:55:00.001-08:00

I've just got around to posting some images in our blue shark gallery. If anyone is thinking of joining us for the 2012 season with a hosted trip to the Azores with our chosen top operator, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Humboldt Giant Mantas Exceed Expectations

2012-01-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Of any project, the field work is where the foundations are laid for successful data processing. Processing that data is maybe not as action packed as collecting it, but it is equally as engaging and fascinating. It is here, in the frigid blue light of a computer station that the real secrets of what we discover are revealed.

I have probably mentioned already that the start to this season was depressingly non productive. Almost a whole month without seeing a manta, but the later stages of the field work more than made up for the lull at the start. Herein lies something of a problem. Last year I chose a later field trip, but frustrated by local reports of mantas earlier in the season, in 2011 I organised an earlier field season to try to take advantage of those early mantas, and perhaps avoid the blank two weeks suffered in 2010 as the mantas left early. Our budget only stretches so far and aiming our field time to coincide with these mantas remains something of a guessing game. Unfortunately in a script written by murphy himself, the mantas arrived and left late, a complete opposite to last year.

Just as we finished the field work, some critical hardware problems caused a delay in processing of the data, but luckily our hard copy originals saved the day. Now, as our mantas are somewhere perhaps distant, and certainly a yet unknown, I am wading through gigabyte after gigabyte of data. It is going to take some time yet but early results show an increase in our year on year re-sightings. This is encouraging as previously we had only managed to capture one re-sighting. Whilst it is great to see new manta after new manta, it is important to quantify a result and simple addition is of little value for this purpose.

Another result that looks promising is that this year a greater percentage of females were recorded. Although the population remains predominantly male it is interesting to note at least one year where we captured more females than normal. There are some trends beginning to show. Our repeat sightings show some interesting patterns, and the next batch of ID’s I am working on will hopefully underline these early suggestions.

Piece by piece, my small dedicated team and I are beginning to reveal the secrets of this population. We look forward to what we will find out about them as we reach further into their unknown territory.

This post also appears on my Save Our Seas blog entry.

Is Shark Porn a Recent Fad?

2011-12-13T00:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a great video recently published of a shark subject heavy conference occurred at the California Academy of Sciences. A number of speakers cover a variety of subjects from shark attacks, to the politics of protective legislation, to the role sharks play in coral reefs. You can see the video here on web conference channel FORA.tv.

One part of the conference that I found interesting was where Juliet Eilperin talks about the celebrated painting Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley. I am not going to add my own overview of the ins and outs of the painting as you can read a full breakdown of events here, but what is interesting is that the painting was commissioned by the victim himself, and helped him further his career as a politician. Watson became the Lord Mayor of London between 1796-97.

So, long before The Sun newspaper got to dream up such killer headlines as Der-Dum Der-Dum (come on Sun you can do better) when someone saw a basking shark off the Cornish coast, the modern artists of the day back in the 18th Century were already at it. The public loved it too, and the painting propelled Copley to wider recognition, particularly in the UK. Less can be said for Watson, whose political enemies regularly commented that a wooden head would have served him better than the wooden leg left him by the shark.

Disclaimer: Shark Porn, for those who don't know it, is a derogatory term used by the conservation movement to refer to the poor level of media coverage ascribed to the subject of sharks, usually resulting in poor quality coverage of shark attacks and high drama, rather than informative biology or conservation based documentary. It is not my attempt at using porn as a keyword to get more hits ;)

WHO THE HELL IS DAVID SHIFFMAN?

2011-11-29T03:24:00.000-08:00

It just so happens he's probably one of the best marine science and conservation bloggers of today. This doubtless won't be the the only post written about this energetic young blogger and academic, as he is possibly quite close to winning $10,000 US in a blog voting contest that has got the shark world in a bit of excitement. It is almost crazy to think that a blog that heralds sharks as worthy beings on our planet would be so popular, something almost unthinkable just a few years ago, but such has been the momentum in the wider community to get people to love our sharks, and to consider the toothy carnivores as not just the domain of heavy metal loners sporting dodgy T-shirts, and misinformed film directors. (seriously, if you are over eight years old and wear a T-shirt like that, there IS something wrong with you).

So, here's a blog wishing shiffers good luck over the next few hours, I see there are a couple of competitors creeping up the ranks today (ooooh). Keep writing fun and engaging blogs David and I'm sure you will be successful for a long time to come. It is refreshing to see someone who doesn't have an ego so big they can't get out of bed due to the weight, and, well, by the looks of the shirts you wear, I don't think you have any ego at all :)

Giant Mantas in Peru

2011-11-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Migration is an eco-sexy word. You might be studying something altogether beautiful and inspiring in shape and form, but if you can say that is migrates as well, wow! That is really something. Think of those poor people studying elephants, they can only say that in the good old days before human population explosion and the great white hunter, that their subjects 'used to migrate'. Now elephant gurus have to deal with the fact that their subjects will most probably be retained behind the same piece of park boundary for all eternity, or at least until either a.) the elephant gets angry and breaks out, or b.) an angry poacher breaks in and the elephant gets shot. All joking aside, the best migrations are happening in the ocean, with many megafauna species migrating vast tracts of open ocean, in some cases such as certain whale species, the great white, the basking shark, these big guys can migrate half way around the planet. That is amazing!Whilst it might be considered that such a trait can render a species indelible in the public minds eye, migration also presents those charged with studying them a few problems. If it can be ascertained that saving a species in one country is beneficial, there are examples out there of real and very valuable conservation initiatives making changes on the legislative slate. However, if the species, so protected in once country, migrates, then it is only protected whilst it is within the boundaries of that country. Once it is outside, on the way to wherever it goes, it is as at risk as if never protected. The only real way to protect such migratory species are via international treaties such as CITES listing, or listing on a CMS appendicies as I beleive is going to happen with Manta birostris this month at the CMS COP in Bergen, Norway. With the mantas I am involved with in the Pacific, sits a perfect example. Protected in Ecuador since 2010 after an explosion in mobula take inspired a local reaction and pressure upon the government into prompt action, mantas are without protection in the neighbouring country of Peru. On a recent visit there, I saw first hand incidence of multiple mobula catches, and met face to face a fisherman that claims to be taking over 100 giant manta rays per season. The guy in the top image was out taxi driver on one day, who decided to buy a mobula wing for his lunch. Mobula and mantas all go for local trade within Peru, sold for a regional dish known as chinquirito. It is a type of dried ceviche dish of which ray wings are a sought after, primary ingredient. My aim for the next few years will be to see how I might help the local parties within Peru to bring about a change in attitude towards mantas and mobulas, so that these migratory species can continue their inspiring existence for many years to come.

Hummingbirds in flight

2011-10-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite images from this year. It is a hummingbird about to arrive on a flower. They are very quick birds, zipping around so fast they are virtually impossible to capture in a photograph. The hummingbird society says of them "On the one hand, hummingbirds appear tiny and delicate: the average hummer weights only about 1/10 ounce (3-4 grams). Yet they are hardy and resilient: some species annually migrate as much as 3,000 miles each way."Want to join us to photograph hummingbirds in the wild? Look here.

Dive with Basking Sharks in the UK

2011-10-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

We are having a good amount of interest in our basking shark trips for 2012. If you are interested, we have now extended the window of available trips between June and the end of August. This has come about from us lessening our work load on long haul projects and a preference for concentrating on European or UK destinations. Our basking shark trips are snorkel or freediving based although over the last year we have confirmed some excellent interaction with the local seal population and now offer scuba diving or freediving with these seals in crystal clear water as part of our itinerary. The location also has excellent macro opportunities with good populations of nudibranchs and other macro life.

Great Article about Great White Sharks

2011-10-18T02:56:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest threats posing declining great white sharks is the threat from shark nets, used for bather protection. Every time there is a death from a great white attack, the issue comes to the fore within the affected communities, and around the world. This article by Chistopher Neff highlights the issues.

Blue Shark Diving in the Azores

2011-10-15T13:17:00.001-07:00

Here are a handful of images from our trip to the Azores back in August. As expected, the Azores is a place of enormous potential for European divers as well as those from further afield. Although it has to be said that diving is still in its infancy in the region and operators should be chosen with care.

The Azores is a place that is bound to start growing in the diving community's imagination, with ample macro life and a whole host of pelagic species, not to mention one of the best places in the world for cetacean watching, and with the right paperwork - filming and photography of those cetaceans beyond compare.

The sharks diving on our trip was very nice indeed, with enough shark action to keep us busy for the entirety of the dive time. Blue sharks are bold, and come very close, checking out dome ports with regularity. Mako sharks are also to be seen, although this is still a part of the trip that remains a good chance rather than a guarantee.

If you are interested in joining us for a trip in 2012, please visit our travel site here.

Who? Pew? Barney, McGrew!!

2011-10-03T02:13:00.000-07:00

Not Trumpton, but conservation. Who are the Pew Environment Group?

Whoever they are, the Pew Environment Group has once again (They were key to the success of the Palau Shark Sanctuary Too) been the prime mover in shark conservation having been the driving force behind the new declaration that the Marhsall Islands have created the world's biggest shark sanctuary covering over 750,000 Sq Miles. You can read the news as reported by the BBC here.

In contrast to WWF who have nearly three quarters of a million likes on facebook, Pew has only 98. They need more recognition for their work.

Speaks for itself...my volunteers at work...

2011-09-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

Paradise Lost?

2011-09-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

We have drawn another manta season in Ecuador to a close. This year proved to be another incredible migration event, albeit after a late start, and whatever we lacked in action in July, the mantas certainly made up for it in huge numbers later on in the season. My team collected over 100 ID's in just two days in early august and the action did not slacken off at as the month wore on. The incredible experiences we had however were not without concern. We noted at high number of mantas with fishing gear trailing all over them and much of the gear had been stuck on the mantas for a long time. Some of the lengths of mono filament or braided lines were embedded deep into the flesh of the mantas and barnacles grew heavily on some of the trailing lengths. It is difficult to judge how much this affects the mantas, but it is bound to affect some of their ability to feed, to migrate, to reproduce. At the very worst, some of these injuries could be killing mantas as they get tangled up and eventually drown. Isla de la Plata is just one place along the Ecuadorean coast where this mass migration of mantas can be found. However it is the best place to see them as there is a distinct lack of diving services along the entire coast of this small country. As we get to know more of the people in the area, it becomes apparent that even with this spectacular event, Isla de la Plata is only a shadow of its former self. One elderly resident of the area recalls twenty years ago when shoals of hammerheads and other sharks could be seen along the reef systems that hug the edge of this deep water island. With our studies into this population revealing that they might well migrate into waters where there is a directed fishery for them, coupled with the damage caused by indiscriminate fishing methods, the question has to be: How long will it be before this population dwindles? Will the biggest aggregation of Manta birostris known, become a victim of fishing practices before it has a chance to be properly saved, like the hammerheads that have disappeared from the area years before?

A View To A Thrill

2011-08-31T14:53:00.000-07:00

Posted originally today on my Save Our Seas Blog

Until August arrived the manta season had started fairly bleak. Mantas can be found in these waters normally from early June. For the first time since I had started my work here, I had managed to secure enough funding to be in the field from mid July, and my volunteers and I were keen to make the most of this initiative and we were set to collect data from much earlier in the season.
The mantas however had other plans. Puerto Lopez sits amongst a range of low slung mountains that rise up somewhere along the road between the large industrial port of Manta near the middle of the country’s coastline and Ecuador’s second city Guayaquil some three hours to the south. This atypical topography attracts a thick blanket of cloud to the area during the winter months of June though October, a result of warm humid air mixing with the cold air generated by the Humboldt current running up from the south. One precursor for the arrival of the manta population is a band of cool water that hangs in this coastal zone for those months, sitting a comfortable but hardly tropical 21 to 24 degrees Celsius. This year though, by some quirk of Oceanographic trend, the skies were blue, and the water temps were up a massive 4 to 5 degrees. This was a disaster for our early start and the mantas stayed well away. We saw one solitary manta in the middle of July on one of our remote cameras placed on a cleaning station, and nothing more.
It was not until the 4th of August when mantas started to show regularly, and even then they frustrated our ID efforts by staying well away from divers. Fleeting glimpses seemed to be the order of the day before we eventually got our first ID shot on the 16th of August, more than a month after we began our field work. I felt particularly sad for my first dedicated volunteers Juliet Lennon and Natasha Snowden who put in hours of hard graft and only Juliet got some fleeting glimpses of our distant giants before she left. It is at times like these when you realise how fortunate we are when the mantas do eventually come. It is not by pure luck that this migration event happens, but an apparent melding of oceanographic elements that combine to set up perfect conditions for their presence, and it is the study of these elements that this project aims to identify.

I am overjoyed to report that now the mantas have arrived sporting full colours. Over the last week we have had some incredible encounters and our surface observations have seen numbers of mantas on the surface way off into the distance, as well as excellent activity on the cleaning stations.
We have recorded some 67 identifications over the last couple of weeks, many of those in the last few days, and we are currently processing those through our database to see how many of them are brand new individuals. With only one repeat sighting recorded since we started our database, we expect this number to be high. The next couple of weeks seem very promising for new ID’s
In my next blog I will be able to publish up to date ID figures, and perhaps allude to further fascinating information on this exciting population.

Inspiration...

2011-08-23T02:52:00.000-07:00

It is not diving with sharks per se that inspires me about the human/shark relationship. It is the men and women who have developed their bond with the ocean to such an extent that they can happily become a part of it. Only from the viewpoint of within can you truly understand any kind of environment or situation. Walk a mile in [my] shoes...

Not for these free spirits the tumultuous clank and spume of scuba equipment, as divers using such machinery, we do not so much enter the marine world, as try clumsily to take our world down with us...and is a rebreather really a step away from that notion, or closer to it?

This article in the LA Times explains...

It's the Irish in them!

2011-07-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

A shark that one of my groups sighted last week has been confirmed by the Irish Basking Shark Project as having been tagged on the 20th of April off the coast of Ireland. This is the first international re-sighting for that project for 2011.
The shark was sighted during difficult conditions. The week had been challenging with unseasonal brisk winds delivering a heavy swell, and a particularly inclement day at the beginning of the week had kept the food sources deep below the surface. Any shark sightings for the following three days had frustrated us buy showing only fleeting glimpses at numerous spots all around the coast of Coll.
Out of necessity, on day four, I sat atop the cairns of coll taking an unusual strategy for us of static coastal observations, with the chance that some of these fleeting glimpses develop into some prolonged feeding. I remember my teenage years spent angling, and know all too well that the number one law governing fish behaviour is sods law.
Only thirty minutes into my observation, this unmistakably large fin appeared on the surface very close to the coast, and continued to feed for a good 30 minutes within a tight pattern about the size of a football pitch.
Frustrating lack of phone signal meant that I could not let the boat know for about half an hour, and by the time they had headed south and turned about again, it was another hour before they got to the feeding area.

When the photographers got to the area, they could see that there was a very localised bloom of plankton, and also large numbers of lions mane jellyfish and also a lot of comb jellies. We have noticed that these two types of jellies seem to be present with feeding sharks and could be predating on the same types of plankton.
Alex Mustard was shooting some underwater shots for the 2020 Vision Project and managed to get a clear shot of the tag that was later confirmed with the Irish Basking Shark Project.

Such information is essential to understanding the lives of sharks and how we can best protect them. National legislation is only effective within that countries waters. Once the sharks leave sovereign waters, usually only a few miles from the coast, they can only be protected by international legislation, which is sparse, when it comes to sharks.

Shark Finners move from Costa Rica to Nicaragua..

2011-05-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

The true scale of the shark finning problem peeked its head over the parapet this week with the news that efforts to prohibit shark finning operations from using Costa Rican docks has resulted, not in a reduction of shark finning activity, but the moving of docking operations into Nicaragua. The finners had used private docks in Costa Rica to land their catches, until authorities closed them down and forced them to use public docks, hence falling foul of regulation and the media. Now it seems the finning mafia are taking a stride ahead of the conservation movement by using docks in Nicaragua.

How do you stop water with a sieve? Read the full article here.

Of frogs and sharks...

2011-05-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

...or how DNA research gives clues to the longevity of speciation and the subsequent effect in real terms of the loss of species.

Phew..after making that title I think I need to lie down. So, this article from Stony Brook University gives us an insight into a soon to be published paper in the jouirnal "Ecology Letters" which attempts to explain why it is that certain areas contain more species than others, despite having similar ecosystem characteristics; for example, some tropical rainforests outside of the Amazon basin have no more species than some sites in temperate North America. The reason for the high diversity in the Amazon is not due to the warm and humid conditions as we might expect, but the length of time that the species have been in the area, developing over an enormous time span greater than 50 million years. It seems the later in history that a colonisation occurs, the lower the species diversity will be in that region. Although this particular study used tree frogs as a study group, the report states that the findings could have implications for other species such as trees, birds and insects - and why indeed not for sharks?

This next report highlights the ability of DNA to pinpoint the home range of sharks when they are targetted and sold in the fin markets. By analysing DNA scientists have been able to identify a difference between sharks of the same species living along different continents. This allows the science and conservation community to identify shark fins sourced in world markets and identify whether these are being illegally sourced from protected regions.

There is a considerable link between the two articles. By trading strongly in low fecund species, we are not just risking the temporary absence of one or other type of shark, we are disturbing the development of species that has taken millions upon millions of years to occur. As we know, apex predators play a vital role in the trophic pyramid and so if we remove a key species, we are not just removing one organism from time, we are disturbing the building blocks of our most critical environment - the ocean. If that one building block took, let's say, 200 million years to develop, then how many blocks and mortar will fall around it, and how many millions of years of ecological constitution are we undoing? How serious, how long lasting, how never-mending will be the cascade?

A couple of nice basking shark video

2011-04-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

Oooohhhh.....I can't wait....

Want to come too?

The wildest trip in the UK?

2011-04-19T11:26:00.001-07:00

This warm weather is making my feet itch. It feels like it is the middle of summer and I should be loading my car up and heading off to Scotland already for the basking sharks. I have to pinch myself to remind me that is only April...still, it's only a handful of weeks before we will be up that way once again, on the beautiful coast of Mull and her surrounding islands, seeking out our photo-quarry, the mighty basking shark.

This year could see us having possibly the wildest trip known to the uk tourist. We will be camping on some nights to make the most of the location, the atmosphere, the heavy salt air, the clean washed seaweed that will tackle our toes as we land, and to be nearer to those leviathan shadows that haunt the coastline. It will be the anti-live-aboard. The rejection of luxury in exchange for the embrace of raw adventure.
Fade wicked sun, and let me be back in April, where I can imagine such magnificent things are still a while away.

Enormous Thanks (Manta Fund Raiser)

2011-03-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

Many Hands Make Light Work.

Last week, three marine conservation organisations came together to bring about a memorable night in the company of Martin Clunes to watch his documentary about the beauty of manta rays and also the threats that they face from increasing targetted activity from fishermen.
After the screening in stunning BluRay, Martin was interviewed by writer Tim Ecott. Mr Clunes was a superb laugh as we would all expect, and the mood was set for the ensuing raffle and Auction which raised an unexpectedly generous amount; a shade over eight thousand pounds.
It is often telling on all of our characters when we see daily, the negative impact of human activity on our oceans. On the night of the 24th March 2011 it was particularly encouraging to see the positive energy brought to the May Fair cinema to do something positive.
Bite Back, The Marine Megafauna Foundation and the Pacific Elasmobranch Foundation all greatly appreciate your support at this event and for our work.

We would like to especially thank: The May Fair Hotel, All of our sponsors who are all listed on the link below, as well as Jamie Watts who donated his beautiful marine life artwork, and of course, Martin Clunes and Tim Ecott for their valuable time on the night.

See the Thank You mailer Here

LIDS Stand 329

2011-03-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

Come and see us at LIDS 2011. We will be on Stand 329 and will be offering show discount on some of our itineraries for 2011.

Full Moon

2011-03-20T06:24:00.001-07:00

I am often fascinated by the moon and its effect on our oceans. It would seem that there is considerable influence by it over our manta rays, or at least an influence over the reasons why they come close to our sites...
Last night the moon as said to be larger that it has been for 20 years, some 14% larger and 30% brighter. Whatever the facts, it certainly was a magical moment being out there on a freezing cold downland taking these images.

Manta Fundraiser - London 24th March.

2011-03-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

I feel another post coming on...

2011-03-11T07:37:00.001-08:00

I've been a bit quiet lately, formulating my thoughts about a variety of issues, but I am quite sure there is something decent about to pop out of my ear via my fingers...
In the meanwhile this is worthy of one minute of your time...

Basking Sharks 2011

2011-02-21T01:11:00.001-08:00

We are running a deal up until the end of March with a 15% discount for all new customers. This offer is available on our Basking Shark, Blue Shark and Manta programs up until the close of show at the London International Dive Show where we will be present on stand No 329.

Our Basking shark charters run from mid June until mid July and we have very limited spaces. It takes part in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, and is populated by the most stunning wildlife the UK has to offer, in the air and on the land. Don't miss it.

This Is My Home...

2011-02-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

This is the place I learned to love the sea, the place where our island bleeds into the ocean that relentlessly batters this soft earth into an unwilling submission. The faces of the cliffs above slashed by trembling lines, the final bleeding traces of the land that sits atop. This raging sea betrays the silent, dispassionate blue sky of the first days of spring sweeping above. Both stretch uninterrupted to the horizon, and meld in their own infinity.

Here, on the frontline though, their separation I have never witnessed so distinct. The fringe between land and sea appears frazzled, the ground beneath my feet shudders as each wave pounds into the boulders beneath. The air is filled with the reek of seaweed; atomized, forced into the air by the treacherous force of each ragged howl.

The thunderous tumult of the roiling boulders, thrown about by deep water beyond is pierced by the desperate screech of the scattering foam as it rattles and scurries its way onto shore.
The land does not yield. Silently it sits in blank stoicism, ignoring the taciturn deeds of this harbinger in crystal raiment. Today the sea seems angry, like the chattering white caps are echoing the despair of all the people around the world concerned with its future, and like the rest of the world who care not, the blue sky looks down, unmoved.

This picture of the moon was taken on a fairly long hike back home after this incredible day. The elements were on full display, and this moon did not disappoint.

Corruption Wins in Costa Rica

2011-02-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

The private docks that were recently closed for the purposes of landing sharks fin in Costa Rica have been re-opened again. The controversial docks that had been successfully closed after pressure from the international community's outrage at Costa Rica's stark ignorance of the finning trade happening on their doorstep.
Landing shark's fin is illegal in the government controlled docks, but until recently had gone on unchecked in privately owned docks, with the pro shark lobby considering it a considerable victory that this practice had been checked with their closure.
Not surprisingly the ban has been revoked and the authorities have bowed to the corruption that tends to rule the way of life of this region of Latin America.
This site has begun the intent to rally up support to get them closed again:
Please write the following to try to turn the tide again.

Judge Rosa Cortés Morales
rcortesm@poder-judicial.go.cr
Minister of Tourism Carlos Ricardo Benavides
crbenavides@ict.go.cr
Contact form for President Laura Chinchilla (for residents only) and a question form (for those without a cedula)
And, here is your letter:
Estoy disgustada con la anulación de la ley de INCOPESCA y la reapertura de los muelles privados en Puntarenas, llevada por la decisión del juez de la corte civil Rosa Cortés Morales.

La práctica del aleteo de tiburón es horrible, insostenible, cruel y va en contra de todo lo que representa un “verde” y amigable con el medio ambiente para Costa Rica.

Además, se garantizan consecuencias negativas para el turismo ecológico del país, especialmente a la luz del asalto físico en contra el famoso chef británico Gordon Ramsey, el cual ocurrió a principios de este año en los muelles privados en Puntarenas, y que será lanzado internacionalmente través de la televisión sindicada.

Esta nueva ley tendrá consecuencias devastadoras para el turismo de Costa Rica, le instamos CERRAR los muelles privados a las embarcaciones de aleteo de tiburón y poner fin a esta práctica horrible.

Martin Clunes Manta Fundraiser

2011-02-02T01:29:00.001-08:00

Today sees the official launch of the Martin Clunes fund raising evening that will take place on the 24th March 2011 at The May Fair Hotel in London. Martin kindly offered to attend an event to raise funds for our research and so we can now proudly offer a night of cinema at The May Fair's private screening room for an exclusive viewing of Man to Manta.
I have built a site especially for the event and you can find more about it, as well as buy tickets at The Official Website.

Jim Abernathy - Shark Superhero!

2011-01-31T03:21:00.000-08:00

It is not news at all that Jim Abernathy was recently bitten by a shark on one of his shark diving operations in the Bahamas. What is news, and what is incredible, in fact, I can't quite believe it myself, is that The Sun Newspaper has published an article that CELEBRATES SHARKS!! This is the paper that, at the site of anything vaguely fin shaped or toothy, heads straight for the JAWS headline. How many times have we seen "Jaws seen in etc.." headlines and cringed at those poor testosterone deprived journos at The Sun. Apparently it is the lack of being able to use the Jaws headline that leads the lads at the red top paper to create other such corkers as "STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA" (Falklands war), "WHAM BAM! SAM CAM TO BE MAM" (UK Prime Minister's wife is pregnant" and "OBAMA LAMA DING DONG" (President Obama meets the Dalai Lama).
Watching from afar the events as they unfolded after Jim's accident, I was impressed by the way that the media was handled. The reports coming from the US channels were sobering accounts of how the real news on the agenda was the world decimation of sharks species through demand for sharks fin soup, and that the accidental bite to him was way down the agenda. If anyone knows how the media works, this was not something that happened by accident.
It is a great shame that the USA has a president and not a king or queen, because, in true Sun newspaper over-the-top fashion, I am going to say that Jim Abernathy should receive a nighthood for actually getting The Sun to print something positive about sharks.

Campaign makes a Splash?

2011-01-27T17:30:00.000-08:00

I was wondering what the effectiveness of the Channel 4's Big Fish Fight has been so far? It looked pretty positive today when I went to a Morrison's Supermarket to buy some fish to do this image. I wanted to make a set of images that summed up the idea of how the campaign has made an impact on public opinion. Fish - Splash. I think this image is pretty close to what I was aiming for, so I'm pretty happy with the shoot.
Anyway, on arriving at the fish counter, pretty much all of the fish on sale was mackerel or dab!! So, looks like the manager of that shop was watching Hugh's shows, either that or the local populace are too scary to mess with, and a few complaints and opinions secured the ideal, and a break in the status quo.
I did get a strange look from the assistant who served me. Maybe the amounts of dab on display were a test, and I was the first one to buy..I presume there will be follow up research from the Big Fish Fight Team to find out such things.
So, I bought a dab and a mackerel, and after the shoot, my daughter and I ate the fish. A truly sustainable photo shoot.

Basking Sharks 2011

2011-01-26T05:49:00.001-08:00

2011 is going to be Basking well fantastic. We have already filled two charters during June and are now moving into July for bookings. This is the, no, I mean THE! best basking shark trip in the whole of the U.K. Don't miss it. Book here.

A thought provoking article on fisheries.

2011-01-21T03:09:00.000-08:00

The recent hullabaloo in the TV media over fisheries in the UK and other parts of the world have generated new discussions of how to achieve sustainability for certain threatened species, as well as resurrecting old arguments and possible solutions. The focus of the vehemence over fish stocks is often directed at the fishermen themselves, when it is plainly and painfully obvious that it is we, the consumers, who are ultimately to blame.
I made a tongue in cheek statement a couple of blogs ago about unemployed folk from the UK being sent out on barges to hand line for fish a-la-maldives, but this excellent article raises the bar on the sustainability question and asks whether there could be a legally binding designation for some fish to be classed as "recreational species".
This would see the capture of these species moved over to tightly regulated hand caught fisheries where profitable sustainability is the sole purpose, and the trawler men of yesterday gain employment from these new enterprises, as well as associated industries such as tourism.
The pro shark movement have in general been reluctant to embrace the angling lobby, and with plenty of images from around the world of anglers holding up dead sharks whilst flexing their muscles and oozing testosterone, who can blame them. But there is another type of angler that inhabits the other side of the fishing coin. These are true water craftsmen who have lived by water probably since they were children. They are almost permanently dressed in green or grey, and over 90% of them have beards. When they catch a fish, they handle it like it is a precious jewel, if they don't eat it, it is returned gently to the water. OK, I'm a little heavy on the stereotype, but these types of fishermen were the pioneers of careful and respectful water craft, and provided the backbone for much scientific knowledge of shark migration through tag and release, as well as possessing infinite knowledge of local ecosystems and population trends, and I would hazard a guess that they will always hold more knowledge of such things than your average marine biology graduate.
The question therefore is not "How shall we manage our trawlers?" but "When do we decommission the nets and begin to use rod and line?".

About F*&$ing Time!!

2011-01-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

Gordon "Jeezus F@"$ing Chr!st" Ramsay aired his well promoted "Shark Bait" show last night on Channel 4. I've never really seen the point in getting that angry about how long it takes to boil an egg, or whatever else he swears about, but last night all his F'ing and blindings were well justified.
The show followed the shark fin trail from London's China Town through to a major fishing port in Taiwan and then on to Costa Rica. Despite some glaringly obvious staging on occasion, it has a been a long time coming getting major air time to the despicable and deeply disturbing trade of sharks fin.
The program really gets into its stride when Gordon visits Costa Rica and with the help of local conservationists, gets on board a small long lining vessel. The scenes are rightly gut wrenching, well done yet again Channel 4 for making a program that pushes us out of our comfort zone. If anyone managed to watch the large hammerhead get finned alive and not cry inside, then there is no hope.
However, it is programs like this, and Hugh's Fearnley's Fish Fight that give us all hope, that the tide is starting to turn to a wider audience. This, surely, is the beginning of a better day.
Credit must also be given to Hugh Fearnley's no bullshit approach to his quarry in his final Fish Fight show on Thursday. The way he bludgeoned the hapless salmon farm manager about his lack of knowledge on wild feed percentages was a delight to see, and holding a Tesco head honcho to ransom under threat of legal action for labelling breaches, well, I'm sure I was not the only one in the country punching the air.
Momentum has begun. I remember when I first got involved in shark conservation back in 2005 wondering how long would it take before shark finning and other important marine conservation issues became widely supported in the way that the Save the Whale campaign did back in the mid 70's. Whilst the movement is gaining pace as celebrities take up the cause, those key organisations should not be forgotten that have been working since way back when, to make this happen, namely the Shark Trust and Bite Back being the most prominent British orgs holding the torch. Support them, they need it!

Ecuador amongst nations named by NOAA as breaking fishing rules

2011-01-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

From the Underwater Times:
NOAA today submitted a report to Congress identifying six nations – Colombia, Ecuador, Italy, Panama, Portugal, and Venezuela – whose fishing vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in 2009 and/or 2010.

This opens the way for continued consultations between the U.S. government and each of the nations to encourage them to take action to stop IUU fishing by their vessels.

In this report, NOAA also announces that the six previously identified nations (China, France, Italy, Libya, Panama, and Tunisia) have addressed the instances of illegal fishing described by the United States in the 2009 report to Congress. These nations applied penalties to the vessels in question or adopted laws to strengthen control of their fishing fleets or both. Each has received a positive certification as a result of their actions.

The nations identified in today's report had fishing vessels that did not comply with measures agreed to under various international fishery management organizations, such as closed fishing seasons, vessel registry lists, and a ban on the use of driftnets. Other violations included illegal gear modifications, fishing without authorization, and possession of undersized bluefin tuna.

While Italy and Panama took corrective actions for illegal fishing identified in the 2009 report, other vessels from these countries still engaged in IUU fishing, which included illegal use of driftnets and fishing in an area when it was closed to purse seine nets.

If a nation fails to take appropriate action to address the instances of illegal fishing described in the report, that nation's vessels may be denied entry into U.S. ports and the President may prohibit imports of certain fish products from that nation or take other measures.

"We are encouraged that the nations identified in 2009 have taken significant actions to address illegal fishing by their vessels, and we are now reaching out to the six countries identified in today's report," said Russell Smith, NOAA deputy assistant secretary for international fisheries. "Illegal fishing must be stopped as it subjects our fishermen to unfair competition and undermines efforts to sustainably manage the valuable fish stocks around the world that so many communities depend on for food and jobs."

Annual global economic losses due to IUU fishing are estimated to be as high as $23 billion.

Today's decisions follow two years in which NOAA's Fisheries Service, working with the U.S. Department of State, conducted extensive outreach at bilateral and multilateral meetings to inform fishing nations of potential U.S. actions to combat IUU fishing. NOAA is addressing the problem of IUU fishing through the international provisions of the U.S. Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act.

The act amends the High Seas Driftnet Moratorium Protection Act, which requires the United States to strengthen international fishery management organizations and address IUU fishing activities and the unintended catch, or bycatch, of protected living marine resources. Specifically, the Moratorium Protection Act requires the Secretary of Commerce to identify those foreign nations whose fishing vessels are engaged in IUU fishing, and what actions those nations have taken to end the practice.

Today's identifications of countries will be followed by consultations to urge these nations to adopt effective measures to combat IUU fishing. Following consultations, NOAA will formally certify whether each of the six nations have addressed the IUU fishing activities of their vessels.

The latest report to Congress also includes information on multilateral efforts to improve stewardship of international marine resources. To read the report, go to http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/msa2007/intlprovisions.html

Cod Blimey, Hugh Must Be Joking!!

2011-01-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

Well, for some of us it has been a long time coming, but it looks like the wider media is embracing the considerably huge issues facing our oceans. Firstly I have to say what a great job Martin Clunes' team did of the Man to Manta documentary that aired last week. It is difficult to get a balance of something that is amenable to the layman, making something punchy and entertaining, as well as getting the more pertinent facts across in an accurate manner. No doubt writer Tim Ecott's involvement had a very positive impact on the overall production.
This week Channel Four is airing a number of programs by popular TV Chefs who had mostly been associated, at least by the pro ocean lobby, of being the source of all man-evil when it came to desirable fish recipes knocking a hole in our more exotic stocks. This time though, and no doubt a lot to do with campaigning by us conservationist folk, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay as well as some lesser know kitcheney types take on the behemoth of Fishery Sustainability. It is greatly heartening to see, as the uber trendy chef-meisters have been stuffing De rigueur recipes for endangered fish species down our throats like vol-au-vents into the truly bloated.
The leader of the campaign so far is the king of the cottage garden Sir (let's hope) Hugh. In the first program he took to the high seas with Scottish trawler men and witnessed first hand the ridiculous and wasteful practise of discards. Absurd and stupid have long been bywords associated with the EU cure-all response, the dreaded Quota system. In the eighties there were butter mountains, meat piles and milk lakes. Today's equivalent are fisheries discards, where each fish over that species' quota has to be thrown back to sea, very dead. Unfortunately trawling doesn't lend itself to selective capture and when the trawler men go about making their living catching species they do have quota for, the inevitable consequence is that the more abundant species that filled the quota levy first soon reach a high rate of discard. In the most mind boggling scene all the discards from a short two hour trawl are held in baskets before being thrown away. The fishermen add up that over the entire voyage they will throw away about £35,000 worth of fish. The annual tally for discards is said to reach as high as a million tonnes. The trouble is it is a mountain that no one can see. Until now.
The most welcome section of the program was when Hugh and Co decided to tackle the consumer end of the equation, the good old British fish and chip shop. It is true indeed that until demand for the at risk species wanes, there will always be a problem with sustainability. Hence Hugh's campaign to get more sustainable fish to replace the dearly loved Cod and Haddock. Enter the Mackerel Bap. It's an unfortunate word, Bap; somewhat comical, two parts smutty and one third ridiculous. I hereby request that the name of the Mackerel Bap be changed to Hugh Burgers.
Tonight's program dealt with the more spiny issue of Tuna. During a widespread and ongoing conservation war upon the consumers of Tuna, it was a welcome relief to see the program tackle this issue. Some great footage of highly damaging purse seiners was followed by some beautiful underwater footage of those friendly Maldivian Manta Rays (and Guy Stevens, again! Well done Guy) and other species at risk from damaging fishing practices. The issue of Fish Aggregation Devices was tackled as well as a superficial investigation into how bycatch ends up in the Tuna crop. We later get to see a clip of a Tesco offical denying what his distant fishing crew claim, that sharks, turtles and dolphins end up in the catch despite the supermarket's claims that they operate with their best conservation interests at heart.
The answer, it already seems plain, is not to avoid the target species, it is how the target species might be caught without damaging those that we must leave in the environment to reproduce. This is a fight that has been brewing in societal backwaters for some time and hopefully after this significant campaign on mainstream TV it is a fight that will come out in the open and rage on for long enough for something long lasting and positive.
When I was watching the team of pole and line fishermen on the barge in Mozambique hauling out their highly selective catch, I suddenly envisaged an answer to many a problem. We could send all ASBO holders and the long term unemployed out on Scottish fishing vessels to catch Cod and Haddock on hand lines. Surely then the quotas would take a lot longer to fill and discards would be reduced to zero. No..that's too politically incorrect..isn't it?

Blue Shark Diving in the Azores

2011-01-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most exciting opportunities I think will be happening anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean this summer. We are making an exclusive charter to the Azores during the first week of August to encounter Blue and Mako sharks. The Azores is known for its great viz and variety of species. Dare I say this is the European Galapagos?? Full details of the trip are available on our site here.

For an update on this trip, with images, please go here.

Man to Manta Airs Tonight.

2011-01-06T01:28:00.000-08:00

Tonight (Thurs 6th Jan 9pm) on ITV 1 is the first airing of Martin Clunes' new wildlife documentary Man to Manta. Martin was in Ecuador to visit our manta project to learn about giant mantas and film me working in collaboration with Dr. Andrea Marshall. Other places visited in the film include Sri Lanka, the US and the Maldives. As well as unique footage of our giant mantas, and other mantas around the world, important attention is bought to the manta's plight as they are becoming increasingly targeted by fishing interests.
Martin has kindly offered to help us with a fund raising initiative and details of this will be forthcoming very soon as I am currently finalising details of the event with sharktastic marine conservationists Bite Back.

Scarred Earth

2010-12-30T04:51:00.000-08:00

In just over 24 hours we will have completed the first decade of the millennium. It is an ideal time to look back over our recent history and see how we are faring from a conservation standpoint. The term Shifting Baselines entered the conservationist's vocabulary some time ago, along with the help of Jack Black and other Hollywood celebrities, they raised the perspective that we do not notice the changes going on around us; that over generations, even our own short lifetimes, the changes happening slowly around us are absorbed into our psyche and go pretty much unnoticed. Generational shifts are even less noticeable, with tales told to us by our grandparents of how this wetland used to be twice as large, or that housing project used to be a field with hedgerows full of wildlife, long forgotten by us in the mists of our childhood. And our own children, what we look upon as a degraded and destroyed environment, they will look upon as normal. And so what of our grandchildren?
I may be writing this at the risk of sounding a tad sentimental, but a recent online application made me realise that there are ways we can accurately look back into the past to weigh up the impact we are having on our planet, and what the real issues will be for our species in the years to come. The UNEP maps are viewable in Google Earth and other applications, that allow side by side comparisons of satellite images of a wide variety of sites around the world from very recent images and ones dating back numbers of years. The contrast of some of the images are stark to say the least, and certainly bring the changes we accept on a daily basis home to us. I recommend you look at it, if you are genuinely concerned about natural resource depletion, it is the cold flannel slap in the face you have been looking for to welcome you into 2011.

Get the Bite Back Calendar for 2011...

2010-12-23T01:37:00.000-08:00

O.K. so it might be a little tiny bit late for Christmas shopping, but there is still plenty of time until January the 1st to get a Bite Back Calendar. It is featured here in a BBC Earth News piece today. I have long been a fan of Bite Back and recently had the pleasure of meeting founder and driving force Graham Buckingham. Bite Back have done an incredibly good job of bringing the sustainability issue of seafood to the attention of the UK's largest retailers, with several successful efforts at getting shark products and other endangered seafood removed from large retail shelves. Graham and his crew do sterling work for sharks and rays, and a purchase of this calendar is not just an option; It is essential.

A Christmas message from Manta Claus

2010-12-22T09:26:00.001-08:00

House Approves Shark Shark Bill (U.S.)

2010-12-22T01:59:00.000-08:00

A report in the Washington Post describes this important process happening in the U.S.

The House adopted legislation Tuesday aimed at protecting sharks off U.S. coasts, though an exemption in the bill has raised concerns among federal fishery officials.

The Senate approved the bill Monday, and it now awaits President Obama's signature.

The Shark Conservation Act addresses loopholes in a law passed a decade ago in an effort to curb "finning," the practice of cutting off a shark's valuable fins and dumping its body overboard. It would require any vessel to land sharks with their fins attached and would prevent non-fishing vessels from transporting fins without their carcasses.

Shark finning, now prohibited off the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico but not the Pacific, has expanded worldwide due to rising demand for shark fin soup in Asia.

To win the support of Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the bill allows those catching smooth dogfish off his state's coast to bring in fins separately as long as they account for no more than 12 percent of the total weight of the catch.

Del. Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam), who wrote the House version of the bill, told her colleagues just before the floor vote, "While I am not supportive of this exemption, I think it is important to note that this fishery represents less than 1 percent of all the shark fishing in the United States and that the restrictions on shark finning currently in the law will still apply to them."

When asked whether the president would sign the legislation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said they were still examining the smooth dogfish provision and other portions of the bill.

"We are happy that Congress has taken up shark conservation," said Eric Schwaab, NOAA Fisheries assistant administrator, in a statement. "It's a priority for our agency. However, the bill's carve-out of one specific shark fishery presents major enforcement and implementation challenges, and we need to work to fix this loophole."

Most environmentalists back the measure on the grounds that it will help endangered shark populations recover.

"The law on the books was complicated and difficult to enforce," said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, "but this new set of standards will ensure that sharks will no longer be mutilated and thrown back in the water to face a gruesome death just for shark fin soup."

European Parliament Supports Strengthening the EU Finning Ban

2010-12-17T07:36:00.000-08:00

16.12.10: The European Parliament today endorsed a resolution on shark finning that calls on the Commission to deliver a proposal to prohibit the removal of shark fins on-board vessels.
Four Members of the European Parliament (MEPs): Jean-Paul Besset, Chris Davies, Sirpa Pietikäinen, and Daciana Octavia Sârbu, from the ALDE, EPP-DE, Greens-EFA and S&D groups launched Written Declaration 71/2010 on shark finning on 20 September. By 16 December, over 400 of the 736 MEPs had added their names, achieving a majority. The Written Declaration is now adopted by the Plenary of the European Parliament. Endorsed as a Resolution of the Parliament, it will be forwarded to the European Commission, who last month launched a public consultation on options for amending the regulation, including a ban on at-sea fin removal.
“The removal of fins on board vessels and discarding the carcass is a wasteful and unacceptable way to fish. Europe is home to some of the world’s largest fishing fleets and poor European shark policies with lack of enforcement pose threats to sharks not only in European waters but in other parts of the world. The shark finning ban needs to be enforced effectively and we welcome this support from MEPs from across all European member states and political groups”, stated Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP, Finland, from the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats).
“I would like to thank EU citizens for encouraging us to take action. It sends a powerful message to EU decision makers that these valuable yet vulnerable species must be protected”, added Jean-Paul Besset MEP, France, from the group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.
“The current exploitation of the world’s oceans is unsustainable and we need to act now to preserve marine biodiversity. Sharks are crucial to the natural balance of marine ecosystem, and this Resolution is a positive step towards their much needed protection”, explained Daciana Sarbu MEP, Romania from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
“The EU Commission now needs to propose legislation as soon as possible in 2011 with the one truly reliable option for preventing finning - a complete prohibition of the removal of shark fins at sea”, stated Chris Davies MEP, UK, from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group.
Sharks’ tendency to grow slowly, mature late and/or produce a small number of young makes them exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing. Roughly one-third of European species are considered threatened.

The Shark Alliance is a coalition of more than 100 conservation, scientific and recreational organisations dedicated to restoring and conserving shark populations by improving shark conservation policies. The Shark Alliance was pleased to support MEPs in this initiative.

MOSSAD is controlling killer sharks in Sharm el Sheikh...

2010-12-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

...but they are not effective in killing divers with over 50 logged dives...err..is it April the 1st? You might be forgiven for thinking so, but there has been intense heated exchange on Egyptian TV program "Egypt Today". Apparently General Abdel-Fadeel Shosha, the governor of South Sinai, backed a "famous" dive guide Captain Mustafa Ismail's theory that MOSSAD were sending sharks controlled by GPS into egypt to destabilise the tourist economy. In a phone call to the TV program, he said that it is possible that Israeli intelligence, Mossad, is behind the incidents and that they are doing it to undermine the Egyptian tourism industry. He added that Egypt needs time to investigate the theory.
In the meanwhile, as General Shosha and his friends await international experts to arrive (it is not known if these experts are knowledgeable in GPS, disaster movies from the 70's, or are agents of MI5 and the FBI) the dive sites around the town of Sharm are being reopened to divers with more than 50 logged dives.
If you don't believe me, read the original article here.

Now another shark attack in Sharm

2010-12-05T12:54:00.000-08:00

The BBC is today reporting the death of a German tourist by shark attack in Sharm el Sheikh only a short time after beaches were re-opened to swimmers. The two sharks killed by authorities recently therefore were not the culprits.
The shark conservation movement has recently been quietly celebrating the protection of oceanic white tips in the Atlantic, yet in Sharm, not that far away, we see authorised killing of individual sharks with no real guarantee the right ones are taking the hit. There should be a thorough search, and preliminary tests to see if any individuals removed are the correct ones.
Of course, any loss of life is deeply regrettable, but knee jerk reactions are clearly not a suitable answer to the problem, as was regrettably discovered today.

Shiver. Probably the best shark documentary made.

2010-12-03T04:30:00.000-08:00

I've just watched "Shiver", a brand new shark conservation film by Dave Charley and Chris Scarffe. I have to say it is everything that I have always wanted to see in a shark conservation film, and leaves the dissapointment of Sharkwater a long way behind. I sincerely hope that this film will become the most quoted and referenced shark conservation documentary of 2011.
Why do I think it is so good? It covers all of the aspects that we already know about shark fishing, but the film embraces the problem from a local community perspective. It follows the journey of a mozamibiquan man as he tries to find out more about fishing interests that are threatening the shark populations along his coastline. I enjoyed it as it is refreshingly devoid of ego, and in the absence of such, the content is turned to concentrate fully on the subject at hand.
This film is a must-see for anyone interested in shark conservation, and underlines the idea that local communities ultimately loose out if shark conservation is ignored.
Shiver. Spread the word.

Shiver: shark finning in Mozambique from aaron gekoski on Vimeo.

Where Doha Failed...

2010-11-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

At last ICCAT, the prehistorically slow moving regulatory body for the tuna fishing industry has pulled its finger out of the pie and after a meeting of some 48 countries in Paris, has protected the Oceanic White Tip shark and imposed catch limits on several species of hammerhead, as well as imposing catch data requirements for the shortfin mako.
Details are sketchy right at this moment, as this news is hot off the press, so expect more details in the coming days.
Although extremely welcome news, it remains to be seen whether this protective measure for the Oceanic White Tip will be enough as it is one of the most declined species in the Atlantic.

Costa Rica to close private dock to finning fleet.

2010-11-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

Through an official communication of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock MAG (CP-078-2010), Minister Gloria Abrahan Peralta announced she had reached an agreement with the Costa Rican fishery sector, to close the private docks of Puntarenas to the foreign shark finning fleet as of December 1st, obligating them to land their products in the public dock of Barrio el Carmen, as is established by law. This measure would mean the government would finally be abiding by Articles 211 y 212 of Costa Rica’s Customs Law, which mandate the use of public infrastructure for the importation of products.

Read More...

Science Leads on Shark Insights

2010-11-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

There are two interesting articles today on the web-o-sphere, which makes a refreshing change from the usual killer-death-shock-horror-probe blah that abounds on most days.
First is an article about how scales play a role in aquadynamics in the Mako Shark. The high speed hunters rely on the angle of their scales and can change their dynamic profile which is affected by the position of the fine scales on their skin.
The second piece is slightly wierdly titled leading us to believe that whale sharks can do maths (or math if you're from the states). I think what they mean is that the scientists used maths to justify the principle of their observation, but anyway, interesting notheless. Read it here.

Dive Blue Sharks with us in the Azores

2010-11-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

I have just released this very exciting itinerary for next summer, diving with blue and mako sharks in the azores. Our operator reports a 100% hit rate with the blue sharks, and about a 30% appearance of the elusive mako shark. This will be an incredible itinerary. Don't miss it. Only Eight Places.
Download the itinerary here and from the Acuatours site.

D'day mate, which way to the Acropolis..

2010-11-17T00:29:00.000-08:00

This interesting piece on the beeb's science and environment pages suggests that Great Whites from Australia were possibly touring the med some 450,000 years ago. I even think, if great whites could speak, they might possibly have an auzzie accent...

Tigers and Sharks

2010-11-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of comparisons between tigers and sharks, and I don't really need to list them here. This wild aid ad contains some great action shots and is worth not just a look, but a bit of thinking about. Culture is the key.

The Power of the Internet

2010-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

We received some really great news this morning that the tag Andrea Marshall placed on our mantas back in September, having released near to the border with peru, drifting further south, and subsequently been picked up by a fisherman, has now been handed over and should soon be winging its way back to the states and will allow finer analysis of the data captured whilst it was on the manta.
The journey of this tag since it came off of the manta has been almost as interesting as when it was on the manta, and serves to remind us that the future of mantas is inextricably linked with our relationship with them.
After Andrea launched an internet campaign to try to find the tag, a contact from somewhere in south america put us in touch with Kerstin Forsburg who runs a marine non profit in the northern peru region where the tag was loose. After an exhaustive search with the help of local contacts and fliers, a fisherman came forward and the tag was handed over yesterday morning.
Such an operation would never have happened in days pre-internet, and is a marvelous demonstration of how, through technology, conservation efforts can reach to the farthest flung corners of the planet. Through finding this tag, we have also found an important allie in the future of manta ray conservation, and the global manta village has grown by a few more inhabitants.

A Great Success!

2010-11-01T12:28:00.001-07:00

Phew!..24 hours after the Birmingham Dive Show and my feet are just about getting back to feeling normal, and after so much talking I think my mouth has lost some functionality. We had really strong interest in our manta and basking shark itineraries, and made some good business to business relations to sell some amazing new dive tour products. The Acuatours presence at the show was assisted marvelously by my '10 manta project volunteers Katherine Burgess, Christine Skippen and Tim Reynolds, who helped to inject some personal accounts of life in the field on our manta project so that our many potential assistants for next year can get a better idea of how we get things done. It was also great to catch up with some old friends, and to meet people who I'm sure will become new ones. It was also great of course to catch up with our favourite person of the year award winner Andrea Marshall and see her fill the auditorium to the brim with eager listeners on both days of the show. Top Notch!!

Birmingham Dive Show and November DIVE Magazine!

2010-10-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Acuatours, our travel company will be hosting stand number 230 at the forthcoming Birmingham Dive Show (October 30th and 31st). We are also featured in a full page article by Tim Ecott in the November issue of Dive Magazine. Come and see us on the stand and chat to us about our work this year, and we will see if we can fit you on a space during 2011. We will even let you buy us a cup of coffee...or even a beer if you are really lucky...

Ecuador: Grace Under Pressure

2010-10-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of images I took in my last few days of my recent time in Puerto Lopez. Ecuador has always been a turbulent country, and recently the propensity of its people to generate their own instability showed itself again, with futher unrest in the capital, said to be part of the aftermath of the events that unfolded in Quito on September the 30th.
So unrest is nothing new. What is new to the people of Ecuador is stability and direction, and the pressure that that brings. Maybe things are beginning to crack, but then again, maybe it is just society adjusting itself to the effects of long term growth, change and a new found national responsibility. In these difficult financial times, felt by countries rich and poor, there can be no certainty of the outcome.
Ecuador is a gem in the world's crown, and like that of any country, its future can be seen only through the eyes of its children.

The Secret Garden

2010-10-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

We are drawing our research here in Ecuador to a close for the season. The mantas have not been seen here for over ten days now, and it looks like they have moved away on their migration to who knows where, and won't be back until well into next year, when we will be back again to meet them.
This week though, it wasn't a manta ray that took our breath away and had us talking long into the night about our latest discovery. This is one of the privelages that one is presented with as a researcher; that of exploration. We had heard mention of one or two deepwater pinnacles, where the fishermen talk about sharks and other ocean going creatures, but we have never had the privelage to have visited them. However, our building of trust that has been going on over the last years, today bore fruit, and we were taken to one of the mystery sites to dive, probably for the first time ever. Too deep for hookah fishermen, and never dived by sport divers, we were to be the first people ever to set eyes on this site.

It wasn't a deepwater monster that greeted us however, infact it was quite the opposite. Our nearly 40 metre deep dive took us to some of the most beautiful coral gardens we have ever seen. Huge rock formations punched wierd cavernous shapes up into the stark azure backdrop, caverns, walls and tables lay before us. It seemed to me that we were witnessing the aftermath of a game of dominoes, or jenga, played by giants from eons past, such was the chaotic order of the rock about us. But covering those dark and forgotten boulders was a marvel of coral and sponges probably not seen between here and the red sea or the carribean. I hope these few images do it justice. I was really surprised at how pristine the site was, considering that it is a commonly visited fishing spot, but then the huge rocks would keep any sane net worker a good distance out.

We will be back there, to see if we can find out more about that secret garden, and hopefully uncover a few more of its hidden gems.

The Real Deal

2010-09-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

There has been an unfortunate amount of banter going on in the shark diving community over the past few weeks, and recently has come to something of a nasty climax. I am in two minds at this point whether or not to comment, but I think that one overbearing issue should not be ignored, nor forgotten. That issue, conservation, is the one that drives us all, and probably why we are all here in the first place.
The more infighting and back stabbing that goes on, the weaker we become as a group. Marine conservationists are a wierd bunch of poeple, we all ask for as much help as possible to achieve our aim from a joint perspective, but when it comes to working together for that sole aim; ideals, objectives, and cashflow get in the way, and before we know it, barriers go up and we become a collective of individuals, rather than a unified movement. This, I guess, given the nature of the beast, is inevitable. We all paint our garden fence nice and pretty, to attract the vital incomes that keep us all going, but that same pretty fence is a barrier to powerful alliances and friendships that could help us achieve our prime objective: to conserve the ocean realm.
I can count on one hand the individuals who I know that fully understand the significance of this, and one or two of them I know are involved in the recent debacle. I am surprised, and saddened by the tone of recent public communication over the issue, and I hope that all parties involved will consider the image I posted above, and make the right decisions over the coming months to unify a quickly dissolving alliance of like minds, for the benefit of all of us.
The SA press today released a story about a poacher being killed in Gansbaai, and typically of the media, the overriding tone of the article was not how we might control poachers, but whether the shark feeding industry in the area was to blame for the poachers death. It is this I guess that prompted me to write this blog. We have enough people in our world trying to shut doors on our good work. We should not be shooting each other in the foot. For the sake of sharks all over the world, the prime movers in the industry must reunify, and form a transparent, faultless standard for feeding practice that is beyond reproach.

The Manta Dance

2010-09-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

We've been suffering a bit with seemingly grumpy mantas who's mode of behaviour over the last few days has been restricted to 'fly by'. With this in mind we decided to resurrect the manta dance, which has been modernised and up-tempoed by our recent manta buddy Larry Chow (video to follow). Anyway, whatever vibe Larry was wacking out, it worked and this mantazo stayed around to show is his own verion of the manta mamba. Good Work Chowster!!

Mantas Behaving Badly

2010-09-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Oh dear! I couldn't think of a better title, which just goes to show how much I watch TV these days. I had the pleasure of meeting Martin Clunes last week, when he came to interview me as part of his next natural world documentary called Man To Manta. He was part of a team that arrived to shoot my work here as well as feature my best manta buddy Andrea Marshall, who was with us to satellite tag some of our rays as part of her worldwide study on Manta birostris.
True to any animal that gets to go on TV, the mantas refused to turn up for the cameras and in a show of defiance, left our study area for about five days. To be honest I was pretty happy with that as it adds to the mysterious awe they eminate when we do get to see them, and I hope the guys get to do that justice when they get in the editing suit. Man to Manta is due to air on the 2nd of January on ITV.
As for our mantas, they turned up again a couple of days ago and I will blog again soon with and update on how we are doing.
A pretty terrible photo of me, but a decent one of the other two..! Credit: unknown.

One Manta In Time

2010-09-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

There are certain events that happen in our lives that mark them for all of our limited sense of eternity, thoughts and memories that stay with us for the rest of our lives. Our short time on this planet is punctuated by events, so called rites of passage, birth, adolescence, falling in love, marriage, death. They effect us in such meaningful ways, but they affect only us personally and the handful of the people we surround ourselves with.

It is not often that we get to be involved in a moment in history that will be remembered for the rest of human time; recorded in Natural History Museum displays and vaults for the benefit of all of our descendants to come. Today I was involved in such an event, and as much as an encounter with a manta ray is always profoundly special to me, our encounter with this particular one will stay with me, and will be sigificant for the rest of the manta birsotris species for time eternal.

Five years ago I encountered my first manta ray at Isla de la Plata, and since then I have done what little I can to bring some sense of importance to the species in this area, and hopefully repay those magnificent rays with whatever I could to do help them enjoy a long and sustainable existence in the Pacific Ocean that they call home.

My interest in them soon had me taking handfuls of identification shots but it wasn't until 2009 when I brought my first volunteer researchers to Ecuador that the significance of this population became apparent. Unbeknown to me I had opened a chapter in someone elses life all the way over in Mozambique; Dr. Andrea Marshall soon got to hear about this population through my work, not too long a grapevine considering the tiny world of manta research.

With the support of the Save our Seas foundation, Andrea had embarked on a global manta ray satellite tagging program, and I myself had been awarded a Save Our Seas grant to continue my research here. By late 2009 it was almost inevitable that we were looking at making the first ever satellite tagging event in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

My work however was only based on four or five months work spread over five years, and given the fickle nature of the natural world, let alone the unpredictability and small population sizes of Manta birostris in pretty much all the places they are found, even up until the last minute, the whole project seemed it could easily fall into the catoegory of "An Impossible Gamble". Close to Andrea's visit date though, manta numbers seemed good, and despite challenging visibility and strong currents, we were getting regular sightings.
Our first dive was, for me, disappointing, a low amount of mantas seemed in a fickle mood and were navigating nonchallantly past us, cephalic fins tightly rolled, and it wasn't until later in the dive when we had all run out of air, that a relaxed, circling manta was spotted.
On our second dive to the same location, we were quickly into a more relaxed number of rays, but the visiblity looked somewhat reduced compared to the previous dive. I watched Andrea ready herself above one moderately sized male, and in a flurry of hand signals and fin strokes the manta decided he would dissapear into the enclosing gloom. Not two seconds later then another unmistakable shape appeared. It all seemed good. We were on a rock wall sitting above 100 metres of dark Pacific Ocean. The heavy plankton bloom fell around us like snow. Our limited range of viz made it feel like we were inside some kind of winter bound amphitheatre. All other divers had melted away into the darkness and it was just me, the queen of mantas, and...a manta. Heaven.

After diving with many very inspiring watermen (and women!) over my short underwater career, it takes a pretty special kind of diver to impress me, but the way Andrea handles all her tagging and camera and sampling equipment underwater is, well, impressive. With the blink of an eye the tag was in, and Andrea had changed tactics, now looking to photograph the tag to see if it had set properly. The manta received the tag with a movement that can only be described as just having had her bum slapped. Other than that she just resumed her nonchalant swim over the wall area, and dissapeared a fast as she had arrived.

Andrea dissapeared with her and for that moment I thought it was all over. I hung on the top of the wall in the current, breathing heavily after all the effort, looking down into the black deep listening to the strained wheeze of my regulator. I looked up to make my way back to the pinnacle to safety stop my way out of the site and nearly bumped my head on a large speckled belly sitting only ten centimetres above my head. At first I wasn't surprised as it wasn't unusual to see mantas do that here, they love hanging in the current with an annoyingly relaxed look on their face whilst us stupid and inefficient humans battle in our little plastic fins. As she gently slid back to come for another look at me, she dipped below the wall and I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. There she was, the first ever manta to be tagged in the South American Pacific, hanging in front of me, studying me with her wide set, trusting and beautiful eyes. What she was doing there, why she came back to me, why she stayed with me for those eternal minutes effortlessly floating in the whistling current I will never know. I can only guess, hope, that she understood all the intense effort that is going on above her wide ocean waves to save her and the rest of her kind from what us humans know is happening to them.

Today was a special day, not only for me, but for mantas and manta lovers everywhere. I want here to publicly and warmly thank Andrea Marshall for her sincere effort directed towards a greater understanding of these magnificent ocean giants, and I would like to also thank her on a more personal level for affording me the undeniable privelage of being present when the first tag here went on.

This tagging program will enable us to learn a little more about this population and will give me a valuable insight to their lifestyle. I can then use that information to develop more indepth studies to gain further knowledge that will be valuable in our wider understanding of the species, both on a local and international level.

Basking Sharks Galore!!

2010-08-22T04:33:00.001-07:00

In early August we headed up to Scotland for another dose of Basking Shark action, with hopefully another set of memorable encounters like those we had in 2009. The recession has certainly had an impact on firm bookings for this year, though with plenty of enquiries for next year, when hopefully at least the world's money worries will be a fading memory. I'm not altogether sure that the sharks will be any better, because, without wishing to wear out any superlatives, this year they were nothing less than blinking well gloriously amazing, incredible, AND spectacular. There you go, I didn't use too many, I didn't even say "stunning".

As ever our hearty Captain Fairbairns was up for the adventure and no sea would be too stormy, no wind too foul, no rain too watery(!?), to keep us from our quest. The site that eluded us last year proved to be this years hotspot. We had already spied one shark on leaving port, but we were not prepared for the sight that greeted us at the southern end of our destination island.

Some 40 sharks circled the spacious bay, and we only had to stay in one spot and patiently wait for them to circle. They were in full feeding mode, circling down current and then back up again ready to pose for us in some of their legendary mouth open passes.

We tried our our new itinerary modification this year and camped on some beaches to leave us closer to the action for the next day's work. We learned a few of the ideosynchrasies of beach camping in the process, and let ourselves be well prepared to offer this as a full product for the 2011 season. Look out for the new itinerary and lower prices to be posted on the Acuatours site soon.

Next up: The Giant Manta Rays of Ecuador. Supported by the Save Our Seas Foundation.

Amazon Itinerary 2011

2010-08-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

We have just posted details of our Andes to Amazon itinerary on our Acuatours main site. You can download it here. Condors, Volcanos, Spectacled Bears, Cloud Forest, Amphibians, Caiman, Pink River Dolphin. This has to be one of the most comprehensive Ecuadorean ecosystem naturalist and photography tours available today.

What a Corker!!!

2010-07-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

Cor Blimey Guvna!! I could get a job at the Sun writing headlines like that. Not that I would want one...well..just the pay cheque maybe. Anyway, on with the reasoning behind the post. My good friend and top class guitar player (her tutor says she has a really nice rythm) Marta "La Tomata" Rodriguez Herranz sent me this article about how eco friendly different types of wine bottle sealers there are. Cork, Screw Top or Plastic? Well, knowing nothing at all about the cork making process, after reading the article (sorry if you clicked the link and don't speak spanish!) it seems the 2.2 million hectares of land currently occupied by forests of trees grown for the industry, are important absorbers of CO2. Plastic corks are responsible for 6 times more CO2 emmisions than cork, and aluminium screw tops (you know, the ones where you think the wine must be crap before you even buy it) are responsible for fifteen times more CO2 emmisions than cork. Despite this, alternative wine "tops" are increasing in popularity, so much to the extent that WWF Spain have launched a "Save the Cork" campaign after studies showed that forests used for corking, which involves cutting limbs from live trees and allowing them to regrow, absorb between three and five times more CO2 than dormant forestry.

Probably the Best Diving Videos Ever...

2010-07-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

This video was first sent to me by my friend Wolfgang, a couple of months ago, back then I think it had something like 750,000 views on youtube. Now it has over 4 million!!! It is simply stunning. Fantastic camera and editing work and of course an inspirational subject.

And this is from the infamous blue hole in Dahab.

Why we should appreciate Shark Savers...

2010-07-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Shark Savers, the stateside non profit organisation, seems to be the first such organisation to be mentioning the need to include manta and mobula products alongside the call to protect all shark species.
It has surprised me how quickly the demand for manta/mobula products has risen, we have seen the growth of considerable mobula catches in Ecuador where only 12 months ago there were none.
It has been mentioned a time or two in the UK press, including this article in the Times, that as a side effect of the overfishing of sharks: a reduction in worldwide total shark catches, the buyers supplying the lucrative fin trade are seeking manta/mobula products to fulfil that demand. Of course it is not long taken before the fishermen answer that demand and begin to target these massive and graceful rays.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes the scientific community to begin to call for protective measures. There is very little research into population sizes, and for mantas it is thought that the numbers could be very small indeed, far smaller than global shark populations, and so the demise of these most magnificent of species could be swift, and dare I say, hardly even noticed by the land loving general public.
Shark Savers do not seem to be bogged down with the requirement of every argument to be backed up with scientific evidence. Although this does have its severe pitfalls (imagine the mess the IPCC would be in now if it didn't have peer reviewed scientific data to back up its arguments...errr..what..oh ok....sshhhhhhh), there is a definite case for much of the emphasis of conservation effort to come from the heart, and not the mind. There is a certain air of haughty exclusivity amongst much of the science community, some of that I would hazzard a guess, is derived from stopping someone from stealing all your data. Understandable, of course, but the closed society of science is not paritucalarly brilliant when it comes to asking for help from Joe Public. Shark Savers therefore is a fine example of how to bridge that gap. They have a very well qualified baord of directors, who collectively know an immense amount about the subjects that shark savers deals with, but, they present it to a broad audience, global in fact, in a non patronising, informative manner. Let's hope that the conservation community takes at least one leaf out of the Shark Savers book and starts to talk about the problems faced by a quickly dwindling population of Mantas and Mobulas.

Click here to sign the Shark Savers petition to save the mantas and mobulas of Raja Ampat.

The Way of the Dragon

2010-06-28T01:10:00.000-07:00

Heavyweight environmental bloggers, Mongabay, have published a very insightful piece on their site today, in a revealing interview with Grace de Gabriel, Director IFAW Asia. The post is a transcript of an interview originally aired on the radio show 'The Wildlife with Laurel Neme'.

The main interest of the interview is the deep cultural dependency from some sectors of Chinese society on traditional medicine, and how that is clashing with efforts to conserve the last remaining wild tigers on the Asian sub-continent. This revealing insight into what is probably one of the conservation sector's most urgent battles raises issues that are commonly encountered in shark conservation. What can us marine conservationist hope to learn from this scenario? One would think that, having estimated that there are only 3,200 tigers left in the wild, that us humans would have an easy time in convincing perpetrators of tiger crimes that it is time to hang up the traps and guns. Sadly, the Mongabay Article reveals that quite the opposite is true....
Image Source

Whaling Talks Break without result

2010-06-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

The blogosphere has started humming after the IWC talks in Morocco are reported to have ended without a solution. Therefore, the status quo will be upheld, i.e. whaling is still illegal, but those who deem that law non applicable will continue to break it. Japan, Iceland and Norway all currently kill whales illegally and conservation groups go out in their boats and try to stop them. This will now officially continue as before. It seems that not enough common ground could be met during the talks on which the opposing sides could hope to broker a deal.
Am I cynical enough to wager that Japan thought their long term benefit would be best served if the talks failed? Did they orchestrate the failure of the IWC talks, whilst the conservation lobby walked away thinking they might have scored a victory?
Hmmmmm I need a few more coffees before I try to answer that one. In the meanwhile, click on over to Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Blog that is usually about shark conservation but, but they have currently made space for a little Whale Discussion.

image source

Japan Corrupts

2010-06-16T01:52:00.000-07:00

I'm always one for a good consipiracy theory, in this world of ours that at times seems so boringly difficult, it is somewhat relieving to feel that it should not be like this were it not for those darkened souls that are deep within the mechanisms of society, working the agenda for their own super-enrichment. Unfortunately consiracy theorists are often poo-pooed for being extreme and mistrusting malefactors, who unnecessarily upset the status quo.

However, a pair of brave and virtuous reporters at The Sunday Times have been burrowing way beneath the surface of the shimmering mire that is international diplomacy. During preparations for next week's meeting of members of the International Whaling Commission in Morrocco, they unconvered some iritating truths about the commercial power of Japan. At the conference in Agadir,the end of the international 24 year moratorium on whaling is at stake, and Japan is doing its very dirty best to make sure that commercial whaling will be relegalised.
No doubt spurred into action by the disgusting tactics by Japan at the recent CITES conference in Doha, where the Japanese pilfered and plied marine resources from under our noses with promises of enrichment in return for votes, the Times reporters posed as lobbyists working on behalf of a made up swiss billionaire and attempted to corrupt the voting process with hefty bribes.

You can read an excerpt below and a link to the original article is here

"Doreen de Brum, the chief fishing policy adviser to the Marshall Islands, was the next official to meet the reporters. She seemed keen on taking up the reporters’ offer of aid to switch the vote.

Reporter: Do you think ... that would create a problem with Japan and maybe cease their funding?

De Brum: I don’t know, seriously, but I think that’s why we do have the position that we have. It is because of that aid.

Reporter: What, you support whaling because of the aid that Japan gives you?

De Brum: Yeah. We support Japan because of what they give us.

She went on say that the other Pacific islands also supported Japan’s whaling position because of the money they received. “Aid, the aid, that’s it,” she said."

So, there you have it. No matter what we think, however hard we try, we are being bought. I would encourage anyone reading this blog, to link to the original Times article from your own webspaces and do your utmost to spread the word. Corruption is a filth, a stain on our collective concience, and it must not be allowed to prevail.

Wierd Science

2010-06-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

Treehugger report on their site of a strange little experiment whereby a Brazilian aquarium has made a window in a shark eggcase to observe its stages of foetal development. Throughout the video you can see the tiny bamboo shark writhing around still attached to its embryo. It is rumoured that British shark specialists are to attempt a similar experiment with an endemic catshark species but are so far still trying to develop an eggcase window with double glazing.

Slightly more serious and potentially significant for the conservation success of many shark species is a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that reports that shark cartilage has no positive effects to sufferers of lung cancer. The notion that eating shark cartilage has health benefits is often cited by the pro fin soup culture and so this new report, the only one of its kind, will hopefully dispell the myth that shark cartilage has any health benefit at all and hopefully the demands for sharks fin will fade a little.

Just How Big is the BP Disaster Oil Slick?

2010-05-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting web page recently developed that puts the BP oil disaster into your local perspective. You can use google earth technology to see how big the slick would be if it was on your own doorstep. Click here to access the site, where I have planted the slick over London.

Basking Sharks Expedition June 2010

2010-05-26T10:41:00.001-07:00

We are getting excited now about the prospect of another trip up to Scotland's Inner Hebrides with the Fairbairns Sea Legend Captain Jimbo to look for and ultimately swim with Basking Sharks. Last year we managed in water encounters for four out of our five days at sea, and this year we are aiming at fine tuning our search areas. We already operate in the country's best Basking Shark hotspots, but after last year we have identified a few ways to get on site quicker and at optimum shark times.
If you are interested in joining us, then contact me here on the Acuatours site. Don't miss Basking Sharks 2010. Prices start at only £450 per person.

More Chevron Muscle Flexing

2010-05-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Chevron continues to fight its court battle against claims it should pay 27 billion USD to communities in the Lago Agrio region affected by massive contamination by the then operators Texaco.
After recently demanding that over 600 hours of raw footage be handed over by film maker Joe Berlinger, who made a documentary on the disaster named "crude", Chevron are now demanding that an environmental expert witness be disregarded in court.
The case is taking place in Lago Agrio, a town built amidst previously virgin rainforest at the time of the Texaco explorations during the 1980's.

Tiger Mind Maps

2010-05-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

A new study by University of Hawaii researchers suggests tiger sharks may use mental maps and calendars to guide their migrations as they search for food.

The study used satellite tags to track sharks at French Frigate Shoals in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

Researchers led by Carl Meyer of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology found some tiger sharks stayed at the atoll year-round.

Others visited in the summer to feed on fledgling albatross but then migrated to other spots along the Hawaiian islands or to the open ocean.

The study was designed to develop a better understanding of long-term movement patterns of sharks in the monument.

The study appears in the journal Marine Biology.

source

Thoughts on Oil

2010-05-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

It is interesting at this time of the immense and catastrophic oil disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, to note the wave of anxiety issuing forth from the blogosphere about the entire context of offshore drilling and what that means now or could mean in the future. It has been pretty usual over the last two weeks or more to be getting three or four mails per day asking me to sign a petition calling for the banning of some programs, or the halting of plans for future others.
These emails caused me to reflect on a conversation I had about oil exploration in the amazon back last year when I took a group into the rainforest for a three week trip. Our guide was a very active advocate of indigenous rights, and we were conversing about how the Ecuadorean government had opened up a part of Cuyabeno reserve to oil exporation. The communities were protesting about the invasion of their territory, and were mostly worried about what would happen in the event of a disaster happening to their part of the world. Our guide was of the opinion that technology has come so far, as well as awareness and global and social responsibility, since the 80's where we saw the Texaco destruction in the Lago Agrio area, as well as the Exxon Valdez disaster, so after three decades of learning how not to do it, he opined that lessons had been learned, and that such disasters were extremely unlikely. The wider and possibly more serious consequences of such exploration are the effects of social change on indigenous communities, and the ever lasting effect that continues long after the oil runs dry.
At the time, that made sense to me, and clear cut logging was probably inevitably more destructive in the longer term, and so was oil a viable alternative with possible ecological benefits?
I have not answered that question in my own mind, but what I can now say, is that "a low risk scenario" is not at all acceptable. There absolutely has to be a "zero risk scenario" or we just simply should not be exploring for fossil fuels in these pristine wilderness'. The multi identity (pass the buck) BP mess up in the gulf of mexico has reminded everyone that even the small risk is too big to take, and that even the tiniest chance of risk can bring the most monumental consequences.

Peruvian Government plans to explore untouched Amazon for oil...

2010-05-17T01:50:00.000-07:00

This is the first blog I am hosting from my Acuatours Blog, rather than maintain two blogs, I am now going to post everything here, to save me time and hopefully allow for more inventive blogging, so now instead of just marine world activity, you will be able to read my posts on the Amazon Rainforest and other things.

Here's some bad news to start with:

Spanish-Argentine oil giant Repsol-YPF has applied to Peru's government to cut 454 kilometers of seismic lines and construct 152 heliports in its search for oil on uncontacted tribes' land in the remote Amazon rainforest. Repsol's plans were revealed in a report sent last month to Peru's Energy Ministry, which will now decide whether to approve the project. Cutting seismic lines, a key part of oil exploration, involves clearing paths through the forest and detonating explosives at regular intervals.

The area where Repsol hopes to work, known as Lot 39 (in Loreto department near the Ecuador border), is home to at least two of the world's last uncontacted tribes, who could be decimated if contact occurs between them and the company's workers. Repsol has already carried out some preliminary exploration in this area in the past, when it recommended its workers defend themselves from potential attack from the tribes by using a megaphone: "If peaceful contact and understanding can't be reached and the attack continues, try to establish communication using a megaphone."

If Repsol finds commercially-viable quantities of oil, a pipeline would be required to transport it from the remote Amazon to a terminal on Peru's Pacific coast. Plans for a pipeline have just been made public by Anglo-French company Perenco, which has already found large oil deposits in the region. Lot 39 includes large areas of a proposed reserve for uncontacted peoples, and indigenous organization AIDESEP is suing the companies for working there.

Survival International director Stephen Corry said, "What would the uncontacted Indians in this region make of seismic lines and heliports? They're likely to respond in one of two ways—either by fleeing, or by attacking people they will view as hostile invaders. Either way, the consequences will be profoundly damaging. Repsol and the Peruvian authorities should know by now that you simply can't look for oil in rainforest belonging to uncontacted Indians in a safe manner." (Survival International, April 20)

On the identity of the uncontacted peoples in the area, Survival International's David Hill writes: "One of the two uncontacted groups is possibly related to the Waorani/Huaorani, known by some as the Taromenane. The identity of the other group is less clear, but names such as Pananujuri and Arabela have been used."

Meanwhile, Juan José Quispe, leader of Peru's independent Legal Defense Institute (IDL) issued a public statement demanding the government take measures to protect the life of Asterio Pujupat Wachapea, an imprisoned Awajun indigenous leader accused in the death of a National Police officer who disappeared in the violence at Bagua last June. The statement said that Pujupat had been "savagely beaten" by guards at the National penitentiary Institue (INPE) at Bagua. (La Primera, Lima, April 25)

source

Vote for me...

2010-05-15T02:59:00.001-07:00

I have entered the Bradt/Independant on Sunday travel writing competition. Please help me get the peoples choice vote by clicking on the banner on the righthand menu and then voting. You can read the entry there, it is about an amazing experience I had last year in the Amazon. I hope some of you that like my blog postings can give me a vote!

Sail powered ships found it easier...

2010-05-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

A report from the Marine Conservation Society and the University of York built on data from historical government records has shown how today's fishing fleet has to work seventeen times harder than when the fleet was mainly sail powered. The study measured exactly how much fishing power in the UK fishing fleet was used to catch the amounts of fish shown in the records, and that the tecnhnological and industrial advancement of the fleet has not resulted in an increase in catches. The records show that the UK fleet landed four times more fish into England and Wales in 1889 than it does today. The report is likely to shed light on the long term implications of European fisheries policy that is based on catch data that goes back only 20-40 years.
Professor Callum Roberts, from the University of York’s Environment Department, said: “This research makes clear that the state of UK bottom fisheries – and by implication European fisheries, since the fishing grounds are shared – is far worse than even the most pessimistic of assessments currently in circulation.

With that in mind I have just returned from a meeting with representatives of Balanced Seas who are currently collecting data from all water users so that the government will be better informed when establishing its commitment to a European directive to create Marine Conservation Zones by 2012. The indepth questionaires identify areas of water used by people from all disciplines such as yachting, diving, angling and commercial fishing. The data collected will hopefully help to identify key habitat and species dependant areas that could benefit from the protection that would be beneficial from conservartion zone status. You can contact Balanced Seas here.

Is this Zimbabwe?

2010-05-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

A politician in a plane crash, angry voters barred from voting, uncertainty and a certain British sense of mayhem. This could be a military junta run republic in the tropics, but no, it is jolly old England on voting night. I'll hopefully take a look at what the possible changes will mean for marine conservation in the UK, once we know who will hold the power. For now, back to the swing-o-meter.

Is Sea Shepherd Embracing Public Sensibility?

2010-05-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

Love or Hate Sea Shepherd, you have got to admire the tenacity of Paul Watson, and have more than a fleeting ounce of respect for his grasp of media wiles and how he plays that understanding to his generous advantage.
There are aspects of some Sea Shepherd campaigns that have had many or most marine conservationists publicly wincing whilst, I suspect, celebrating a well controlled inner yell of victory. However, there is ongoing serious debate amongst most major marine NGO's as to whether SS's tactics are actually damaging the cause. It is not helpful to be lumped in with a band of black shirted pirates, and seeing the SS stands at some dive and travel events has you wondering whether their recruiters hang out at local hells angel establishments, such is the mottliness of their crew.

So, it is with an pucker of trepidation that I read today that Sea Shepherd are to embark on an educational campaign within the Galapagos Islands. Is this a first for Sea Shepherd or is my understanding of their politica such that I can only envisage them as bestubbled gas mask wearing alumni? Maybe the dictatorial might of presidente Correa has cuddly pseudo terrorist Cpt Watson trembling in his Dubarry's.
It is a possibility that Watson's rattle shaking has brought about some unwanted attention of the angry president and another booting-out is on the cards, or, what would be more desirable is that the Sea Shepherd camp have recognised the success and acceptance of local community educational programs and that this new gentler side of Sea Shepherd will spread through the pirate ranks and become wider policy.
Imagine...antarctia next year will be a tranquil sea of westerners teaching japanese whalers the why's and wherefore's of conservation aboard a candelit flotilla.

First No Bus...

2010-04-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Good News is like public transport. You wait for ever for a bus and then two appear at once. Well, it happened like that for sharks this week. I have been holding off on writing a blog for a while as most of the shark conservation world has been hanging on to hear whether the Hawaiian Shark Fin law would be passed and today we received the news that yes the bill had passed with only one contrary 'no' vote from the original instigator of breaking the bill's passage a few weeks ago. No surprise there then.
Hawaii Shark Fin Ban bill - SB2169 now outlaws the posession, sale and distribution of shark fins in the state of Hawaii. This will hopefully send out a clear signal to other ocean nations who are capable of imposing such a measure of control over their ocean heritage.
Not only is this success a mark of intuition and bravery by Hawaiians who wish to protect their precious marine resources, it is also a demonstrative measure of the power of the internet, and how unified voices of shark advocates from around the globe united to bring a wave of support to help move this legislation through the senate. It would be wrong at this point to state immaturely that we had become 'an unstoppable force' or even something to be remotely 'reckoned with'. We are too close to coming out of the other side of the recent CITES disaster, and the thoughts that many of us held before and during the Doha conference, that the world 'had' to listen to us are too fresh in our minds.
Indeed, if anything, this Hawaiian victory is a perfect example of why CITES might never work as a convention for international conservation requirements. Many of the failures at CITES pointed to the fact that regional fisheries management plans should sway the control over regulations direly needed to protect sharks and other endangered species. Bill - SB2169 is a perfect example of how such local pressure, supported by global interest, can indeed sway the balance in our favour.

The second piece of good news to come whizzing into the inbox today was that Robin Culler's Shark Finatics have been nominated for Oceana's Ocean Hero award. Robin is a regular contributor to The Shark Group discussion board where we get regular updates about her students, who make a big deal about shark conservation in their class studies. You can join the Shark Finatics facebook page, and take a look at their nomination and other nominees at Oceana's voting page here.

Unfortunately, it was not all good news this week, as a fishing vessel with 100 blue sharks on board were captured in the Galapagos National Park. It was the second time this vessel had been intercepted in Galapagos waters. Once question. Why is it still floating?

A publication in Ecuador.

2010-04-07T00:47:00.001-07:00

If anyone is flying on the TAME airline this month you can see some of my images illustrating an article written by my friend Jorge Antonio Mahuad. Jorge's family own the Tip Top fleet in the Galapagos Islands and Jorge spends his time between the islands and their offices in Quito. Jorge is the communications director for Tip Top operations, and despite his young age is an astute and well versed professional in the business world and lends more than a passing ear to conservation concerns for the Galapagos and mainland Ecuador. I don't usually give my images away, but this time I was happy to donate them to Jorge's work as I know that the future of places like Ecuador lies in the hands of brilliant young men like Jorge.

Take a deep breath...

2010-04-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

It is with some trepidation that I poke my head above the parapet to write this blog. The dust is beginning to settle after CITES and everyone's thoughts are starting to clear. The more cynical of the NGO's have dried their faux tears whilst the more astute peer out from their locked studies for a break from their already half drawn battle plans for the next phase. What prompts me to write today of all days is that in my mail this morning was a post by my friend and shark hero Wolfgang Leander alerting his followers to this blog. It is a well written and well researched piece, and everyone should go and read it. I have to say that the tone of the piece hits the nail squarely on the head. The most surprising aspect to the article is a link to a video by Oceana which must surely be the most discraceful piece of conservation PR I have ever seen (and I used to be a fan..shame on you Oceana...(but more of that later)).

Somewhere between 1781 and 1785 Thomas Jefferson asked "What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypoctrites". He was talking about christianity back then, but the words apply equally today, particularly aptly to the lobbying of delegates at CITES. But who are the real fools? Are the conservation protagonists at fault in the first place for believing that there could ever really be hope in conservation goals at a convention dealing with trade in species? Personally, and I hesitate to say it, there is too much hippy idealism working within the conservation sphere. Take the Oceana video. A girl that can be little older than a graduate, she may at a push be post doctorate, paints a quaint picture of her personal and corporate dispair at the pro-conservation failure at CITES. She drops a failed simile in the name of science (I'm sorry...10 million kilograms of shark fins is how many elephants??!!) whilst her colleagues cackle in the background, sounding very sippy champagny. Sorry again Oceana but if your delegates did have a "really exhilarating and really exhausting day" shouldn't they be too tired for that?). What is needed desperately in this realm are hardened negotiators. The Oceana party (excuse the pun) should have been made up of experienced and hairy looking scientists, (or better still, field researchers), who can hold court with their commercial counterparts. In the corporate world, would you send a post-grad to broker a multi million pound merger, or your top honcho who cuts heads of in her coffee break? (Yes, women can be hairy too).

Before degrees became so dissapointingly de rigeur, the way you learned your skill was as an apprentice. It was impossible to jump up the ranks just because you were fortunate enough to be able to afford a few more years of education and earn a degree. I was speaking to a retired professional a few days ago who told me that a non negotiable prerequisite back when he was climbing the corporate ladder, to enter middle management was that you had to be forty five years old and not one day less. Sure, society has realised since then that if you are 45 you still might be stupid, but we have failed to hold dear the value of essential experience. We know without question that the future of our planet lies with the younger generation, but to hand the torch to student negotiators is far too permature, and just a little more than pinky quaint. How could we have improved the experience for delegates at CITES? An impromptu performance of high school musical, or a reasoned debate with a sunburned fifty something with bugs in his beard?

So what do we do next? If there is one message that should be adhered to post-CITES, it is that the emphasis on regional fisheries management agencies should be taken very seriously, and is the field where battles will be won. I have long said that there is a huge disparity between dive centre operators and real conservation initiatives, and who should be more passionate about their local maritime health and wellbeing than the network of local dive operators utilising it? There is a fine example of this going on right now in Hawaii where stalwart shark advocate Stephanie Brendl is rallying support for important local legistalation that will, if successful provide a precedent for global shark conservation initiatives.

I remember back a few years when attending DEMA and conversing with what we thought were a leading global shark conservation NGO: "well oh yes we know Ecuador has a terrible problem with shark fishing, here "take some leaflets". The feeling that I had been betrayed in that moment has never left me. Leaflets. LEAFLETS!! I can just imagine the next board meeting for that NGO. "Oh yes we are now 'in Ecuador'".

Things have moved on for my collueagues and I in Ecuador. We are now operating our own science based research, supported by doers, not talkers, from around the world and this year, we became Save Our Seas grant holders to continue our work there. We are fighting our corner, but we need our own hardened delegates to support us on the world stage. We should take a lesson from the Japanese, who practice a British political trait observed back in 1824 by historian and politician Thomas Babington: "The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion".

Great White Dive Record

2010-04-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

The scientifically ubiquitous great white shark has appeared in the media again, this time with a dive recorded at over 1200 metres. Previous recorded max depths were around 1000 metres, so this record off of New Zealand is a considerable extension to that. You can read the full article here.

My Summary of CITES

2010-03-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

They say a picture paints 1000 words...

CITES reverses porbeagle decision.

2010-03-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

Honestly I feel too damned angry and frustrated to write anything right now. What the hell is wrong with these people? It's probably better if you read a nice professional summary from the New York Times.

CITES. Lip service or successful green monitor?

2010-03-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

There has been terrific bad news drifting out of CITES over the last weeks, and one wonders if the small victories won were offered up as cynical "feelgood" bait for the media and conservation lobbyists present at the event.

Despite determined efforts to persuade delegates to vote in favour of further protection for sharks, pink and red corals and the mighty bluefin tuna, all of the tough and determined lobbyist's efforts proved futile as only one shark species, the porbeagle, was adopted to appendix II and attempts to bring ivory back into legal trading circles were rightly deafeated.

The porbeagle shark is the only victory to come out of CITES. How did it succeed where all of the other shark species failed? Maybe the porbeagle doesn't represent a threat to market forces in Asia. Its fisheries are primarily derived from the Atlantic and although their fins do find their way to the far east, they are under the jurisdiction of European governments, which so far have portrayed a decent amount of conservation savvy at CITES. Fisheries for the other species can be found all around the globe and are probably far more lucrative from a profit margin perspective as they are sourced from more poverty stricken nations than those of Europe. Sadly the lack of adoption for Oceanic White Tips to appendix II might be the final nail in the coffin for that species. Shown to be down to 99% of original stock levels, and dissapeared from many areas, their appearance in most fisheries now are as genuine bycatch, which is extrememly hard to legislate for. The next CITES meeting might be too late.

As with all debate, whether that is on a global scale, or locally, there are lessons to be learned and encouragements to be understood from CITES. Much of Europe and the developed world made sensible votes for marine species, and us conservationists, as though we didn't already know, were revealed the true cynicism of the destructive behemoth that is Japan and China. All conservation efforts must now concentrate on these countries and the effect that these gigantic markets are having on our flora, fauna, ecosystems and marine environments. It is obvious that these sentimantally inert people have no regard for the natural world, and are only interested in consumerist gluttony. They are happy to destroy everything that the rest of us hold dear. We must be heard. They must be stopped.

Libya Filibusters Tuna's Chance at CITES

2010-03-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

Humanity took a turn for the worst yesterday as political debate fuelled by scientific reasoning failed to make a show as Libya forced a vote on tuna proposals.
The Economist reports that a Libyan delegate exploded into a frothy rage in the middle of preliminary discussions, yelling that the move was a consiracy by developed nations to inhibit growth of developing nations, and that the science was flawed. He then demanded an immediate vote, hence forcing the meeting to a premature motion. The nation bringing the proposal to the table, Monaco, backed by interests within the united states and other nations were said to be 'dissapointed'.

Libya holds Africs'a largest amount of proven oil reserves, and GDP's in the mid 2000's show annual growth at over 8%. It does not sport the face of an international beggar very well at all, and likely the desert nation was plied with promises of international finance from a pro tuna nation to force that vote. It is said that this is how the real deals are made during CITES conventions. Japan hosted a meeting for delegates in their embassy the night before the debate and plied guests with top bluefin tuna sushi. Perhaps we should try this tactic in human related political decisions. Before meetings held to discuss human rights or other critical points of law we should hold a party the night before and eat the bodyparts of the underdog. A sure way to win the vote.

CITES falls at the first shark hurdle

2010-03-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

A proposal to bring openness to the shark fin trade and implement measures to curb illegal practices in the industry, failed to win the vote yesterday. Lesley Rochat, in Doha reporting for South African media reported that the votes were "52 in favour, 36 against and 11 abstentions". There needs to be a two thirds majority for a vote to succeed, so 14 votes short of a victory.

The most blindingly stupid statment in the whole proceeding was that China and Russia stated that shark populations were not in any danger of decline. How can it be possible that the country fast becoming the world's leading industrial and commercial powerhouse, can make such a bold and ignorant statement in the face of so much scientific data for the contrary?

However, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for us looking into this from a doom and gloom perspective. There was some opposition to the proposal based on the detail that if the proposal was adopted, that the governments of the nations would be responsible for the controls implemented. This would prove too costly for poor nations, burdening them with expensive enforcement requirments (AP)and it has been argued from some that the responsibility and costs should be met by regional regulatory bodies, those involved in shark protection measures.

We could look at it by saying that this is not within the remit of CITES. It was not a proposal on listing for the appendices, and to incur extra costs to poorer nations outside of this remit might not be the best way to proceed. The overriding concern is that this is a precursor for the more important votes on addition to the appendices for certain species, and that those too will fail. Let's hope that this will not be the case, and the vote will swing in favour of protection on that more specific agenda.

CITES convenes in Doha and the world awaits...

2010-03-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES opened in Doha, Qatar. This Oil and Gas rich desert peninsula, with a higher per capita carbon emmission rating than any other country, will be home to CITES nations delegates for the next two weeks. They will discuss the future of the world's most fragile and affected wildlife, and whether or not to implement trade restrictions relating to each proposed species.

CITES has long been criticised for failing to protect wildlife from trade, and rather than restricting commerce in certain species, may only serve to legitimise trade under its licensing system. The only safe place for a species to fall on a CITES list is appendix I, for which all international trade is banned. Appendix II listings are allowed to be traded, but under strict licensing controls. However, listing in appendix II does give incentive for host countries to implement strong pro-conservation initiatives for the species, and such a listing is considered critical for effective conservation management.

Eight species of shark are scheduled for discussion in Doha, the first time that such a significant number of shark species has been discussed by CITES. Currently only great whites, whale sharks and basking sharks populate appendix II but during this meeting, spiny dogfish, porbeagle, oceanic whitetip, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, dusky and sandbar sharks will recieve attention for discussion, debate, and hopefully eventual listing on appendix II.

The key species of this event however, has to be the Bluefin Tuna. The proposal for its listing in appendix I has received much media attention, and so it should. There is probably no greater icon for conservation requirement versus human appetite and desire than this majestic oceanic giant. It's latin name Thunnus thynnus conjures visions within us, of a creature of great stature and magnitude. But like all things spectacular, man has tried to harness it, and in so doing, has all but destroyed it. Said to be only worth $0.50 cents per kilo back in the seventies, the fine meat of the bluefin captured the imagination of asian chefs and now it is one of the most valuable fish in our oceans. A single tuna can command a price of hundreds of thousands of dollars. A war in the middle east in the next two weeks will be fought between those wishing to preserve this conservation icon, and those wishing to further their commercial interests and the subsequent imminent destruction of this king of the seas.

During the last years of the seventeenth century, mankind killed off the dodo. This giant flightless bird, populating a single island in the Indian Ocean, was not good to eat and probably didn't receive much attention from hunting practices of the day, however, introduced pigs and macaques were the liklely downfall of this waddling ground nesting bird. It went extinct because no-one really understoond the significance of extinction during that time. In fact, no-one really even noticed it had dissapeared, and it became a thing of myth, until discovery of their bones proved they really did exist. The same thing happened with the Great Auk, a large seabird, not dissimilar to a penguin, but inhabiting the North Atlantic, said to number in the millions, and populating Britain, Iceland, New Foundland and Canada. By 1840, a man named Henry Evans and a couple of friends caught and beat the last Great Auk on British Shores to death because they thought it to be a witch. So, we might comfort ourselves with the thought that superstition and ignorance were the real causes of extinction for the Auk, and for the Dodo too.

If the 175 CITES nations cannot agree to protect the bluefin tuna, then their failure will be down to only one thing. Greed. Today, with our abundance of science and news, we cannot side with ignorance. If we fail the bluefin, then can there really be any hope for the endangered species that might follow in years to come?

image source

HK Shark Foundation call for support.

2010-02-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

Please help a chinese based shark conservation organisation in their call for support in preparation for the CITES meeting in Qatar this coming month. Their online form is easy to fill in and only takes a few seconds. The CITES meeting is set to determine whether eight vulnerable species of shark will be listed on appendix II which will restrict international trade and hopefully alleviate commercial pressure bearing down on them.

You can find the online petition here.

Congratulations Felix

2010-02-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

It is always good to hear about what my old friend Wolfgang is up to. Wolf has been a leading light in shark conservation opinion and activism for years. His seriousness in such issues does not come immediately to light as he is a pure delight when you meet him. His small wiry frame belies the giant of a man that lives within it, and his elder gentlemanly appearance is betrayed by bright shining eyes atop his beaming grin. He is full of a childlike energy, and in the water moves like a man of only twenty years. He is an ispiration to everyone who spends time with him.

Now it looks like the inspiration not only rubbed off, but is actually present in the Leander genes. Felix, Wolf's son has just won the best Human Interaction category in the iDive sharks imaging festival. Let us hope that Felix proves as mighty as his father in all things shark, then at least a few sharks in our oceans will rest knowing a family of giants is looking after them.

More Manta News

2010-02-23T02:41:00.000-08:00

Manta Ray conservation looks set to take on new meaning in coming years. I have just read a report that came to my attention after my post last week about mantas in Mozambique. This particular post was from a report by investigative blogger Andy Stokes, and you can read it here. Andy and his friend visit a shark fin wharehouse but end up investigating an apparent thriving market in gill rakers from mobula rays.

If there is anyone reading this that doubts the seriousness of the possibility that mantas and mobula can dissapear within the next generation, I would like to recount the following: I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a very dedicated scientist working in the amazon and also the andean highlands on a number of raptor projects. He grew up on the coast of Ecuador and recalled during our conversation how as a child he would visit the beach with his father and see the sawfish that the fishermen used to catch. He said it was not uncommnon to see numbers of sawfish. Many fisherman would have a saw bill hung up outside their door as a decoration. Today, no kind of sawfish is ever seen along the beaches of Ecuador. They are only likely ever to be found on the CITES appendix one listing or the IUCN redlist. How old is my friend? Is he 75 or 80? Sadly he is only in his early forties. Such irreverible environmental mayhem happens in the space of a few years. It may be that we are only here to witness that. To document it, and watch helpless as it happens. I would like to think not. The time to act on manta ray conservation is now, before the worst happens.

Will mantas disappear before sharks?

2010-02-21T00:57:00.000-08:00

When you work in conservation, you get used to seeing the things you love being broken. A part of you hardens, and it becomes an everyday part of your life that you will see environmental destruction. You begin to feel less emotional every time you see a shark pulled onto a beach to make a bowl of soup. Your head hurts less when you see a line of trees cut down to make way for a road, or a giant hole bored into the heart of a rainforest to make a new oil well.
You have to harden up at the thin end of the wedge. It’s not a case of not caring; it’s a case of surviving. If I went every day feeling so desperate about the state of our oceans, like the first time I filmed unborn sharks being cut from their mother’s bellies, I would have shrivelled up and locked myself away from it all, or at least gone and got myself a boring job in an office somewhere and pretended it wasn’t happening.
Once it was hard to see just one dead shark, then it took twenty dead sharks to get me angry, and now, I can look at a line of a hundred shark hacked up on a beach, and although the sight will always disturb me, I know that out there, miles from me, there are people who care, who read our words, cry our tears, donate, write letters, get angry, frustrated and eventually become the movement that changes the world.
You could say that we form the thin end of the wedge. We drive ourselves forward and bring you the news so that you can form and disseminate your own ideas on how to tackle the problem. In doing so you become the thick end of the wedge; the part that finishes the job that the thin end started; the part that wedges open doors in high office until someone in a suit gives in; the part that cracks congress or parliament wide open; the part that gets the ink on the statute book; the part that won’t let the door slam until the job is done.

Back in 2004 I sat bewildered on a beach watching thick-set fishermen haul sharks out of the pacific in numbers that we were sure were not sustainable. We had no idea then that there was a movement beginning world-wide to bring attention to a global demand for shark fin soup. We felt hopeless, but resolute. Many of us dotted about the globe stayed into the early hours of each night tapping out emails and ideas; we began networking to bring down the giant. Our thin ended wedge grew in many of the right places, and we initiated a momentum that probably none of us thought possible. Although today there is still a long way to go for shark conservation, there is no doubt that we have made important progress.
It seems though, that the destructive nature of mankind is some way ahead of us. Back in the spring of 09, a report emerged stating how a drop in supply of shark fins meant that buyers were looking to mobulids to fill the supply gap to the fin market. It is normal for me to look into the media looking glass and sniff hard for the faint scent of alarmism in everything I read, and I guess it is a form of self protection that raises a cynical ear to every bad word written in the press. But, it looks like on this occasion that the bad news is correct and that there is a concerted drive to target mantas and mobula rays. For the first time in Ecuador this year, worrying photos have begun emerging of numbers of mobula on the beaches, and this morning in my email, I received word from a contact showing photos of fishermen in Mozambique with significant numbers of mobula and manta rays in gill nets.
The Mozambique fishery has been going on for some time, but an increase in activity seems to be developing. It seems that these latest developments are a worrying confirmation that manta fisheries will step up a gear and that we may be facing the destruction of populations of these most docile and majestic marine giants. As with sharks, reproduction rates are slow, birth numbers are low (only one per pregnancy). The worrying aspect though, is that populations are not large. Even today, the numbers of sharks caught stands at millions per year. Manta Ray populations do not even slightly reach these proportions and could be wiped out very quickly.
In Mozambique, respected researchers and tourism operators are looking out on an ocean with an uncertain future. They are probably bewildered and utterly distraught at the events unfolding around their family of manta rays. The thin end of the wedge has formed once again, new battle lines are being drawn in the sand. We must grow as a global community to help. We must drive our purpose home and ensure that the door does not slam on the mantas of Mozambique.

Click here if you want to keep informed on developments in this campaign.

Great Whites lower in numbers than wild Tigers.

2010-02-19T01:51:00.000-08:00

The UK press Association today reports:

Fewer great white sharks are left in the oceans than there are tigers surviving on Earth, it has been claimed.

The two top predators are almost equally under threat, but the plight of great whites needs more recognition, according to Canadian expert Dr Ronald O'Dor.

Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in San Diego, he told how the discovery was made by colleagues from the Census of Marine Life.

He said: "I recently heard a report from the team that's been tagging great white sharks. The estimated total population of great white sharks in the world's oceans is actually less than the number of tigers.

"We hear an awful lot about how endangered tigers are but apparently great white sharks are pretty close to the same level. Some people say 'I don't care, they eat people,' but I think we have to give them a little space to live in."

Dr O'Dor, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, added: "The Australians have now got a system where they put tags on great white sharks and they have receivers on the beaches so when a great white comes into the bay the receiver automatically makes a cell phone call and tells the guy in charge to close the beach. So we can co-exist with marine life."

"Until recently, people thought sharks were bad and there was no urge to save great whites. Now people are beginning to understand that they are rare and that they are a wonderful species."

Landmark Decision to protect 'some' shark species..

2010-02-17T00:44:00.000-08:00

This came through my inbox yesterday...a positive step indeed..

16 February 2010 – A landmark agreement to protect shark species threatened with extinction was reached today by over 100 countries signed up to a United Nations-supported wildlife treaty, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The 113 countries that are party to the UNEP-administered Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) agreed to prohibit the hunting, fishing and deliberate of killing sharks
species covered in an appendix to the CMS – the great white, basking, whale, porbeagle, spiny dogfish, shortfin and longfin mako sharks.

“This first global CMS instrument on commercially exploited species is a decisive step forward in international shark conservation,” said UNEP/CMS Executive Secretary Elizabeth Mrema.
“Wildlife conventions, UN agencies and international fisheries need to work together to prevent these creatures that roam the world’s oceans from becoming extinct,” added Ms. Mrema.

The CMS agreement, concluded at a gathering of government representatives in the Philippines, aims to restore the long-term viability of populations of migratory sharks, which are also set to
benefit from greater enforcement of existing laws on illegal fishing and trade.

UNEP noted that over-fishing, fisheries by-catch, illegal trade, habitat destruction, depletion of prey species, pollution with a high risk of mercury intoxication, boat strikes and the impact of climate change on the marine environment all seriously threaten sharks.

Gestation periods of up to 22 months, a life expectancy of up to 100 years, relatively low reproductive rates, migratory patterns, and low natural mortality combine to make the protection of some species and their habitat difficult and make sharks particularly vulnerable with little chance to recover if over-fished.

In addition, whale shark meat has been increasingly considered as a high-grade, exotic product since the late 1980s, and according to TRAFFIC – a wildlife trade monitoring network – prices have skyrocketed to $7,000 for 2,000 kilograms in Taiwan, for example.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), up to 900,000 tons of sharks have been caught every year for the last two decades, and calculating for illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing and missing data, the actual catch figure is estimated to be at least
twice as high.

Studies show that shark populations collapsed in both in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Mediterranean Sea by 90 per cent, and by 75 per cent in the north-western Atlantic Ocean within 15 years, said UNEP.

source

Eyemocean ranks No 1 on google

2010-02-14T11:19:00.001-08:00

I thought it was time for a celebration this week. After posting our commentary on the Charles Darwin Institute back a couple of weeks ago, Eyemocean now ranks No 1 on google for the word 'doominology'.

Fantastic. I can now spend the rest of the week contemplating whether this is any kind of achievement at all, considering that doominology isn't even a word. Well, not yet. Maybe it will become the latest in a long line of internet vocabulary and be in the Oxford dictionary within 2 years............

One Shark the Sun can't shame...

2010-02-13T07:08:00.001-08:00

The Sun newpaper, yes that international bastion of coherent, believable and upstanding journalism (cough cough) is usually the first paper to print the same old picture of a great white shark with its gaping teeth poking out at the reader every time there is a shark incident, however mild, pretty much anywhere in the world.
If there is a basking shark seen off of Cornwall, they print it, if there is an unfortunate surfer or kiteboarder bitten anywhere on the planet, the sun prints the picture. They would probably loosely connect the picture to a young boy stubbing his toe whilst paddling in a scottish brook; such is the Sun newspaper's childish and unrepentant fascination with great whites and the jaws mentality.

So, the guys at the paper (or are they young boys with runny noses flicking elastic bands at each other?) were probably really dissapointed when a shark 'attack' at Mona Vale beach off the coast of Sydney this week proved not to be by a Great White, but a docile Wobbegong instead.

Wobbegongs are of the order Orectolobiformes or Carpet Sharks. They lie well camouflaged on the seabed, sometimes in very shallow water and catch prey when it swims close to them. They are an ambush predator, usually hunting by night.
It is likely that surfer Paul Welsh stepped on the wobbegong as he and his ten year old son prepared to surf in the area. The guilty species was identified by a tooth that was removed from the surfers leg in hospital.

It is not the first time the sun newspaper has been unable to print their favourite great white photo. A wobbegong attacked a different water user back in 2007. Backpacker Scott Wright received wounds requiring 40 stitches whilst swimming at Bondi beach.

Wobbegongs can grow up to 3 metres in length. Sun reporters have been rumoured to reach a mental age of 12, but only on rare occasions.

image: "oh no..we can't print it...??"

Campana Sulks...

2010-02-10T03:18:00.000-08:00

Canadian Marine Biologist Steve Campana is in a little bit of a tiz because grocery chain Loblaws has decided to drop shark from its selling list as well as Orange Roughy, Skate and Sea Bass.

Campana is concerned that he will not be able to source sharks on which to conduct his research, which has so far yielded the information that Porbeagles migrate to the Sargasso Sea to pup.

Canada is one of the only countries to adopt a 'sustainable' shark fishery, and Campana is adamant that research benefits from this small allowable catch are justifiable.

However, his comments have received criticism from the conservation community saying that no justification exists for taking specimens from such a recently recovering population. If the porbeagles are known to migrate, then they are still at risk from foreign fleets in international waters, but Campana argues that such information would not be forthcoming without his reasearch.

Which ever way you look at it, the news that any supermarket is dropping shark from its displays has to be good, but the fact that a scientist supposedly promoting their conservation is damning that decision is somewhat concerning. Science provides valuable tools with which to carve out a conservation arguement, but, in some cases, science can go too far. Tag the last remaining specimen, harry it, disturb it, infiltrate its life so that it will not breed, so that it does become the last one on earth? If there were ten dodos left alive, would we be better off studying them, watching them die, or putting a fence 30 miles around them and letting them get on with it, in the hope that they would breed?

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Scientists unveil Galapagos conservation plan.

2010-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

Gabriel Lopez, executive director of the Charles Darwin Foundation said in a report released on Friday that the Galapagos Islands were facing "the most challenging days of their history". The report outlined successes of three "emblematic" programs that began in 2009 and were set to continue into 2010. Lopez said that data gathered by scientists show "it is almost certain that el nino events will be more frequent, more intense" and could have a devastating impact on the island's endemic species like sealions and marine iguanas". The report marks the 50th Anniversary of the organisation.

The quotes are particularly interesting as they contain, in both key sentences, adverbs of degree, indicated above in italics. One expects a certain amount of negativity within scientific doominology, particularly as the realms of science become more and more politicised. However, the foundation associated with the godfather of natural science should steer away from such lip service and be very clear and precise about what it is saying.

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