Getting Crusty With Quotes - GrindTV

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"On Saturday a surfer was bitten by what is believed to have been a large white shark just north of Monterey. He sustained moderate injuries to his arm and neck and the shark tore a 19-inch chunk from his board."

Today I added a rather crusty quote (according to a long time friend) for Grind TV and Peter Thomas's article on a surf contest in San Francisco.

Top notch surfers from around the world are gathered in SF this week to compete off Ocean Beach in the shadow of the Farallon Islands and in the territory of the white shark.

Does this make any sense to me as a commercial shark diving CEO?

No it does not.

If Kelly Slater thinks it's o.k to surf at the peak of white shark season off the California coast that's Kelly's decision. Having the major media on site, 100-200 fans on the shoreline, and an actual sighting of a white shark fin during the competition is a recipe for a disaster not of a white sharks making.

Fact is there's a whole lot of good folks worldwide, including many surfers, who are trying to change perceptions about the white sharks away from the 1970's JAWS stereotypes and into a broader understanding. Why would we want to set up a white shark at the peak of the habitual shark season with a man made media frenzy "if" a top rated surfer was to have a negative interaction with a white?

I am a huge fan of Kelly Slater by the way and not singling him out, rather I believe that competitions like these and the promoters who set them up are the responsible parties, or should be.

The white sharks off the California coasts are survivors, the few and last of their kind and I believe we should defer to them more often then we do. Every attack resonates around the world, every bitten board sends an unmistakable message, and in every instance the shark is not at fault, we are.

Is it about time to give the white sharks of California their due? Or are big dollar surf contests ruled by chance encounters and the hope that wildlife will not mistake the participants?

I think we can do better. In fact I know we can, all crusty quotes aside.

Cheers,
Patric Douglas CEO
www.sharkdiver.com
www.sharkdivers.com
415.235.9410     

Protected White Sharks Targeted in S.A?


Riaan Engelbrecht has been a very busy South African white shark fishing machine going back to 2009.

He's also the owner of South Africa's Extreme Fishing.

Targeting white sharks in South Africa his Facebook site reads like a one man ecological disaster for animals that are supposed to be protected in his home waters.

As the owner of Extreme Fishing you might think that Riaan is aware of the protected status of white sharks. Perhaps he is, or perhaps the four images he recently posted of different white sharks stranded on local beaches with his smiling face are just a fluke, an accident, and not a targeted trophy fishery.

We have been here before, last month, when the conservation world became outraged at the sight of another white shark harvested by trophy seeking locals with little regard to the health and welfare of the animals they sought.

It's officially a problem when you discover a guy like Riaan Engelbrecht who posts four white sharks with the title "Tight Lines" on his Facebook site with no media backlash, no government intervention, and no conservation push back.

We said it last month when the first locally white shark was caught and photographed, a rally call for local shark conservationists.

Here is our post again and perhaps this time these images can motivate those who claim to love sharks into action:

Wolfgang Leander, the wizened sage of the shark conservation movement, has been raising awareness about the tragic S.A shark disappearing act for several years now and yet it still happens, and now we have the visual proof to back his many blog posts up.

So before one more so called shark conservationist in S.A stands up to cry about sharks, before we are subjected to another pretty You Tube video from S.A featuring a bimbette riding the fin of a now dead and poached Tiger shark, let's get real about shark conservation.

It starts with this guy and a call for prosecution, the ensuing media madness, and a follow through to see that it is done. This cannot stand.

We understand that S.A is a world away from conservation norms, but to those who would claim that they are the leaders of any conservation movement with sharks in S.A we say "show us what you got".

It's your backyard and this guy just took a great big dump in it.

For these many white sharks at least - time has run out.

Update: The South African Shark Conservancy is on the case and looks like they know a range of illegal fishermen, fishing groups and websites promoting illegal white shark catches in South Africa. Their Facebook site has all the details, if you can support or help their ongoing investigations in any way please contact them it is time to put an end to trophy white shark fishing in S.A and it starts with some media pressure.

The Official Shark Divers :: Guadalupe Island 2011

The 2011 white shark season at Isla Guadalupe is winding down with just a few more weeks of incredible shark encounters and thrilled divers from around the world.

Once more Isla Guadalupe has delivered the finest combination of animals and education.

Here's a small sampling of the faces and trip reports from the 2011 white shark season. There's more to come and we haven't yet called an end to the fun.

"Day  two had gotten off to a great start, but it got even better, when a few hours later, we had a juvenile get a little frisky with our cage. Seeing a great white that close to the cage, mouth open, ready to have a go, was priceless!  I could not have asked for more!"

- Michelle M


"Shredder is definitely the comedian of the shark world!  Occasionally he would give a smaller shark the chance to say hello but chased them off the minute he felt he was missing the attention of his adoring public.  For eight hours he was cruising around the boat and cages and once the cages had been lifted for the night, he breached next to the boat almost as if to say, ‘hey guys, what are you doing, I’m still here!’  Apparently this was the best ‘sharking’ day of the season so far as 13 different sharks were identified."

- Bev D


"Most importantly, every member of the crew seemed to be there because they love the sharks and love what they do.  They made sure we had almost as much fun out of the cages as in them."


- Sarah F

As we wind down 2011 and look forward to 2012 we have to give a big kudo to our divers and the entire crew of the M/V Horizon.

For the past decade the Horizon and crew have been the longest running dive operation at Isla Guadalupe.

The first vessel to ever do shark cage diving at this remarkable dive site and we are proud to be working with them still - after all these years.

And to our new minted Shark Divers and to all those who have come before them. It is your good cheer, lust for adventure, and love of sharks that has allowed Shark Diver to be the company that it is today.

We honor all those with a dream and say, "If you dream, dream big".

To those who fly halfway around the world, to those who have saved every penny for the past two years in a jar, and to those whose experience with the white sharks of Guadalupe have lead them to  help save sharks around the planet.

You are Shark Diver, and we are proud of you all!

USA Today Shark-Free Marinas 2011

shark free marinas
The revolution continues with 110 marinas now signed up to be Shark-Free and growing.
Not mentioned in this article are the many folks world wide who became early adopters of the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative along with the fine folks from Fiji who saw this initiative and adopted it, creating the first actual Shark-Free Marinas in the world back in 2009.
Additionally kudos to Old Bahama Bay Marina in the Bahamas who went Shark-Free in 2010. 

USA Today Oct.18.2011

Less than two years after its creation, SharkFreeMarinas.com lists more than 110 marinas and businesses from eight countries — including 78 in the USA— as either shark-free or shark-friendly.

The initiative, organized by the Humane Society of the United States, the animal-welfare grantor Pegasus Foundation and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, which raises funds for marine-conservation research, works to persuade marinas to either refuse to allow sharks to be landed at their docks or to discourage the recreational killing of sharks. Marinas are registered as shark-free in the first case, shark-friendly in the second.

"This is a way to help the shark population, to save species of fish in our waters," said Tibe Larson, manager of shark-free Bonita Bay Marina in Bonita Springs, Fla.

Bob Hueter, a shark specialist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., which supports the initiative, said he's not against bringing a shark in once in a while for food. "I've published recipes for shark," he said. But, "too often," Hueter adds, "people bring a shark in, hang it up to show it off, maybe take the jaws, and then dump it."

Without a place to show off a dead shark, fishers are more likely to practice catch-and-release, he said.

"We used to fish for sharks, but I got out of that business close to 20 years ago, when it occurred to me that sharks were being depleted," said Phil Lobred, general manager and partner at H&M Landing, a shark-free sport-fishing landing in San Diego. "Usually, it's the younger crowd who wants to say they caught a shark: It's a macho kind of thing," he said.

In its most recent study on shark depletion, the National Marine Fisheries Service said that recreational fishermen along USA's Atlantic and Gulf coasts killed more than 200,000 sharks per year from 2004 through 2008.

SharkFreeMarinas.com members get signs with their shark-free or shark-friendly status, free ads on the initiative's website and educational literature.

Initiative director Luke Tipple, an Australian marine biologist and TV personality, said he doesn't expect the program to stop the recreational harvesting of sharks. However, he said he thinks it can have a positive impact on an important segment of the shark population: big breeding adults that trophy hunters target.

"They are selectively removing sharks that can contribute to the recovery of their species," Tipple said. "It's not how many sharks we save. It's how many we can protect."

Contributing: Lollar and Ruane also report for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.

Steve Jobs is Gone - We'll Miss Him

steve jobs
Visionary, Genius, Pitchman.

Many people will be spending the next few weeks trying to package the history of Steve Jobs, Apples late CEO, into something that people can understand and digest.

For us here at Shark Diver, and for me personally, Steve Jobs can be summed up in one word "Liberator".

Apples technology has allowed our company to benefit from "tech that works" and tech that was so far ahead of the curve that at times (iPhone) we wondered if Jobs had actually created a time machine into which he was jumping into the future to secret back items that fundamentally changed the way we do business.

Sadly we never got to see the Apple iHover Board, but you can bet if Steve had been graced with another 20 years we would all be marvelling at it.

My enduring gratitude to Steve Jobs will forever come from a moment in one of the most remote corners of America. I had been in the middle of a 4 day drift down the Snake River, fly fishing with some good friends and more great wines than I care to mention.

My iPhone rang and 45 minutes later I had sealed the deal on a film production complete with signed contracts and video.. This is the power of "tech that works" allowing me to live the life I want to with tech that travels with me every step of the way.

Who needs an office?

I will miss Steve Jobs. This week saw the passing of the last of the industry greats.

Cheers,
Patric Douglas CEO
www.sharkdiver.com
www.sharkdivers.com
415.235.9410

Mexico's Big Shark Conservation Announcement - Politics or the Real Deal?

Last week we jumped into the shark conservation world of SINO's with a specific focus on Mexico and their inability to enforce conservation laws for sharks.

As we have been documenting for the past several years white sharks are frequently taken in Mexico's waters, leading us to questions a recent announcement out of Mexico that would protect all sharks and rays in Mexican waters staring on 2012.

It seems that we were not alone in this line of questioning and as it turns out the entire announcement of a vast shark sanctuary in Mexican waters may be premature or downright politics as usual in Mexico.

For an in depth update on Mexico's ongoing shark problems read Serge Dedinas blog post from the NGO Wildcoast, one of the the most credible sources for front line shark information in Mexico.

The Mexico Shark Fishing Moratorium Fiasco

So is the shark moratorium truth of fiction?

These types of policy “wars” in Mexico over proposals used to be carried out domestically in the state-run media. Different newspapers would publish policy proposals by competing factions in a government agency (the Mexican government under the PRI essentially bankrolled the press).
You would always know an article was a political message because it would appear without a byline with a very forceful and badly written statement about a very obscure policy. Another newspaper would carry the same type of article from a competing faction of technocrats calling for a different obscure policy.

Then the issue would vanish from the public spotlight.

What is unfortunate is that in the past, Mexico used to pass far-reaching conservation initiatives because it was worth the positive international media exposure it received–and then those plans would be implemented (to some degree).

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