Suspense!

It's about to be unveiled!

I'm talking about the brand new mystery hot spot for Great White encounters.
Following the grand announcement on June 22, Patric and Shark Divers have kept massaging the media, all the way to placing this short video teaser and a pro-Conservation story in the LA Times.



All very nifty indeed!I specially like the 4th of July bit!
Kudos guys for a job very well done!

I really got no clue about the location (tho I believe I got a hint from the video itself) - but I'm gonna venture a wild guess:
It's probably here!

But it could also be here!

If so, the pics on the top and on the bottom may well be from there!
In any case, best of luck in keeping this safe, for both the people and the Sharks!

Bravo Sasha!

Not only for this great pic of Scarface!

But above all, for having mobilized many signatures from Russia, by posting the Discovery petition on his blog. asnas then re-posted it, together with this link (embedding disabled) to one of Les Stroud-Gurney's most infamous "experiments".

Yes, it's the turkeys and hams!
And listen to the idiotic comments by the great survivor man whilst he's heroically wrangling the Sharks from the safety of the boat!

Just in case you may have forgotten why this is important!

Talking of which: big disappointment here!

Again?

Meet Alice Newstead.

She's hung herself from some fishing hooks in Paris.
Apparently, this is a radical protest at the threat of extinction facing the world's Sharks.

She's already done the same in London with the "backing", or whatever, of Sea Shepherd.

Honestly, I wish she would stop doing that kind of stuff.
Grated, it's pretty heroic and a testimony to the lady's total commitment to the cause. It's also pretty far out there in left field, as in totally whacko! And pretty disgusting on top of it!

But does it ultimately help the cause?
Alas, the answer is probably No, on the contrary!
Extreme antics like this probably save zero Sharks - but they certainly reinforce the notion that Conservationists are just a bunch of lunatics that cannot be taken seriously.

But this is of course not Conservation - it's just a stupid stunt.
And I may add: so very Sea Shepherd!

In Norwegian!

Did you notice?

Suddenly, there's plenty of Norwegian signatures on the petition!

The reason:
Årets programmer i Shark Week inneholder derimot titler som "Deadly Waters" og "Sharkbite Summer", som blant annet dramatiserer og "normaliserer" blodige angrep på mennesker. Programmene i Shark Week bidrar dermed til fortsatt å skape frykt, slik som Haisommer-filmene begynte med, og skremte vettet av en hel generasjon - for 34 år siden. Forskjellen er bare at mens Haisommer-filmene ble markedsført som en fiksjon/skrekkfilm, presenterer Discovery sitt "skrekkshow" som vitenskapelig sannhet.

Well, I don't understand it, either - but I love the unusual letters!
Anyway, this is from a piece about Discovery's Shark Porn that Lill has published in Dykking (which I believe means "Diving"), Norway's dive magazine.

Thank you, Lill (again!) - you may keep your place in the pit!

The Ocean’s Nazis?

This was yesterday's dive! And 30 Bulls!

Are you still wondering what kind of "education" people get from watching Discovery Channel?

Look no further than this astonishing article!
Proof positive!

It's so bloody preposterous that I first took it for a spoof - but alas, it probably ain't.
I really don't know much about US politics but if being anti-Conservation is what US Libertarianism stands for, I shall be very happy never to endorse them!

But back to Discovery.
This is a direct consequence of Shark Porn - and this is why so many people are pissed off!
So, guys, make a choice as you really cannot have it both ways: if you really care about your "green" branding and the income it generates, you really gotta stop this shit.

Please.

PS: Sharky has just weighed in with a much more eloquent post.

Conservation Conundrums

Two apparently different topics dominate the headlines.

One one side you have the battle to protect the Whales.
Much loved and even glorified, they are at the center of a bitter feud that has led to the collapse of the latest Whaling Conference. Once nearly extinct, some species have miraculously come back from the brink, to the point that some Countries want to resume hunting them - and actually do, often in very unethical ways. The anti-whaling activists are dead set against it and the fight is turning increasingly violent.



On the other side you have the ongoing decline of the Tuna.
Everybody wants to eat them and stocks have been depleted to the point where many species are severely threatened and the Northern Bluefin Tuna is all but extinct. Once romanticized as some kind of heroic feat by intrepid fishermen, the killing is increasingly depicted as what it really is, the extermination of a species.



Whereas the Fisheries Agencies are finally trying to limit the catches, the fishermen have started to fight back as their existence is being threatened. Once again, violence is on the rise.

But really, these are just two examples of the same conundrum.
I've blogged about it a while ago when talking about the Shark finning industry: in order to protect the animals we love, we will have to accept that some of them are killed.

What I'm talking about is sustainable fishing.
Provided that the stocks are sufficiently plentiful (or after a moratorium, once we have allowed them to recover), we will have to accept a compromise: in exchange for agreeing to preserve the species, fishermen will have to be allowed to harvest sustainable quotas.

If that is true - and assuming that ethically speaking, all life has the same value regardless of personal preferences (and assumed cognitive faculties, etc.)

• some species of Tuna can probably be harvested sustainably. Other species, like the Northern Bluefin should be fully protected until stocks replenish (tho from what I hear, it may already be too late)
• some species of Shark can probably be harvested sustainably. Other species like the Hammerheads (please read the link) should be fully protected.
• most probably, the same applies to the Cetaceans where the populations of some Dolphins and e.g. Minke Whales appear quite robust, whilst other species warrant full protection.

Do I like it? Hell, No!

But pragmatically speaking, it's probably the only way forward - as long as we cannot curb the demand . And when it comes to Sharks and Tuna, chances for that are very slim indeed.

The sooner we accept that, the sooner we will work towards achieving tangible and hopefully, long lasting results - which is ultimately the only thing that counts.

Brazen!

I’m honestly of two minds about this.

It concerns how we should react to this post by Fijigirl on Wetpixel concerning the recent Discovery shoot in Fiji. I was really gonna follow the advice of a friend to just let it go and wait until Deadly Waters would air, after which the truth would be known anyway.
But our staff are very angry indeed and have asked me not to let this go unanswered.

So there:

The way I read that document, it basically claims that Brandon did this and that, loves Sharks, was unaware of the contents of the show, did nothing untoward and finally got "tricked" by us who just wanted to rubbish him.

Cleverly worded, it however contains a lot of factual "errors".
Some are well within the scope of the usual Aqua-Trek "mythology" but surprisingly, some is pretty brazen - actually, very unlike the Fijigirl who is Aqua-Treks consummate spinmaster!
Which begs the question, is she been lied to - too?

Anyway, the facts are this – and I’ll keep is as short as I can.

“Aqua-Trek” is a conglomerate of dive shops in Fiji with varying histories and shareholders.

Brandon worked for Aqua-Trek Beqa (ATB), did set up a Shark feed on Shark Reef in 1999 and resigned from ATB in 2002 to go and work for Aqua-Trek Management (ATM) in Garden Island Resort on the island of Taveuni. As is customary, a reef fee was paid to a village but the site was not protected and fishing continued there until 2004.

Shark Reef was formally protected on 8.4.2004.
A lot of people spent considerable time, money and effort to achieve this – but it had nothing whatsoever to do with either Brandon or Aqua-Trek who never assisted in that effort.

Beqa Adventure Divers (the “other Shark dive company”) was created by James Beazeley and ATBs senior staff in order to manage the reserve as ATB had breached some of its obligations and the villages wanted them out. The protocols for the Shark dive within Shark Reef Marine Reserve were developed by BAD in collaboration with scientists and Industry professionals and are very different from what Brandon was doing back then in ’99.

The “Ultimate Shark Encounter” on Lake Reef was established by the then manager of ATB, Petero Niurou, who negotiated with the village who controlled that reef, and who set up the dive with the other staff of ATB. Brandon was not there.
Brandon only returned to Pacific Harbour in 2006 when ATM acquired ATB.

Thus, ATB and Brandon can rightfully claim to be the pioneers of Shark diving in Pacific Harbour and ATB also developed a Shark dive and set up a marine reserve on Lake Reef.

That's all pretty awesome and very honorable - and way more than what most other operators in the Shark Diving Industry have done.
No need to re-write history and to claim credit for other people’s hard work!

But back to the matter at hand, Deadly Waters.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, I was away and upon coming back to Fiji, I've been busy doing the post mortem on this unfortunate matter. As Drew suggests, we’ll all see it when the episode airs – or better, hopefully not!
The show is currently being edited so let’s not pre-empt anything, shall we.

But Fiji is very small indeed and people always talk.
When it comes to Fijigirl’s fairy tale, what I can say with absolute certainty is this.

• Brandon knew of the contents and intents of the show.
• He willingly and knowingly completely surrendered his site and its Sharks to the crew of Gurney, to the point that his own staff was relegated to the role of mere spectators.
• ATB delivered chum and bait to the Fiji Peter Hughes vessel that the production company were using as their base and that vessel remained on site for several days during which the film crew conducted multiple dives with and without ATB.
• A chumsicle was deployed in total breach of established procedures.
• They conducted night dives in baited conditions, again a total breach of protocol.
• Clients were taken to Lake Reef to witness the film crew flailing around bait in the attempt to excite the Sharks – in total breach of protocol and the most basic safety procedures (one guest witness was so upset by what he saw that he demanded a refund and was given a free dive on the next day).

You be the judge of whether "They came and filmed our dive as we run it everyday. They conducted no experiments. The filming was about Les with a scientist swimming amongst large sharks. We only show sharks in a normal state of feeding, no chumsicle feeds. All very calm" is an adequate description of the above.
As I said, pretty brazen!

As to our despicable role in this fiasco... we did indeed not call ATB directly.
Brandon and his bosses have historically made it abundantly clear that they do not seek dialogue and co-operation with BAD and it would have been an exercise in futility. As it turns out, he knew everything anyway.

Plus, before Les Stroud turned up in our dive shop, Aqua-Trek was simply not on our radar.
We were working on keeping Gurney out of the country and were completely focused on talking to the relevant authorities and to the folks of Peter Hughes in Fiji and the USA. But as soon as Les left our office, we called and informed the Dive Commission which is the competent authority in such matters. They are part of Fiji Island Hotel and Tourism Association (of which we and ATB are members) and FIHTA did inform Brandon (who already knew) - precisely as per what I wrote in my original post.

We and many others are now trying to sort out Brandon's mess, as it's not about Brandon or Aqua-Trek. In the big scheme of things, they are frankly of no importance - and nor are we!
To us, this is about the Sharks, the reputation of Fiji and how the Shark Diving Industry needs to handle the media.

Please wish us luck in making this "go away".

Abomination 3.1.

Remember the drunken morons of the South Florida Shark Club.

They just killed this big beautiful female Bull Shark - likely once again a pregnant mother as Bull Sharks migrate to their nursing areas in Summer which in the Northern Hemisphere is in May to June.

Sad "story" here.
Let's hope "somebody" puts them out of their unholy business very soon indeed!