Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Aussie kills Great White Shark in self defense?

According to a report in "The Daily Star" a tuna diver killed a 6 meter long (19.8 ft) great white shark. The article states:

"It was either the shark or him. South Australian tuna diver, Dean Stefanek, 38, battled a 6-meter shark for 30 minutes and lived to tell about it.
Although, he said he regrets having to kill the massive White shark, he said he felt it was either the shark, or him.
He said he volunteered to jump into a tuna pen to try to kill the injured shark."


Now this is complete rubbish. If the report is accurate, how could it have been the shark or the diver, since he is saying that he volunteered to jump into the tuna pen to kill the shark. Since he wasn't in the water to begin with and jumped in specifically to kill the shark, he can't exactly claim self defense!

Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com

Monday, October 21, 2013

No more shark fin soup in China?

Have the Chinese seen the light and stopped eating shark fin soup?

According to an article in the Washington Post that is exactly what is happening in China. The report states that  "consumption of shark fin soup in China is down by 50 to 70 percent in the last two years,” 

It goes on to state  "Thanks to a former NBA star, a coalition of Chinese business leaders, celebrities and students, and some unlikely investigative journalism, eating shark fin soup is no longer fashionable here. But what really tipped the balance was a government campaign against extravagance that has seen the soup banned from official banquets"

We talked about this a few months back, when China first announced that they would stop serving shark fin soup at state dinners and we are happy to see that the changes are happening faster than anyone anticipated.

We are always happy to report when things are changing for the better and want to thank the Chinese people for caring about our Oceans and the sharks that are such an important part of it.

Cheers,

Martin Graf
CEO Shark Diver


About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Shark sentenced to death?

Strange things are happening in Australia. According to a report on sharkyear magazine and the international business times a shark has been sentenced to death, because of a suspected attack on a diver. "A catch and kill order was issued and staff have been sent to the dive area about 180km east of Esperance to deploy capture gear."

While reading the article I realized, that victim was diving in an area that is known for various species of large sharks "A spokesman for Surf Life Saving said the coast off Esperance was dangerous for divers, as many big sharks are seen in the area on a regular basis. The species of shark is unknown, but both tiger sharks and great white sharks are known to the area."

So how are they going to determine which shark
to kill, if they don't even know the species that was responsible for the attack? Now I can understand the urge to do something to make the ocean safer for divers after an attack, but to just go out and indiscriminately catch and kill a shark doesn't accomplish anything.

Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO Shark Diver

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Superhero Shark Wrangler?

Ocearch seems to be on a publicity campaign to promote their tagging of great white sharks again. This article on CNN is a bit ridiculous, even by OCEARCH standards.

The headline is calling the captain of the Ocearch vessel, Brett McBride, "Shark wrangler who sleeps with the fishes" The article it goes on to say:"Imagine you're sitting at the bottom of the ocean, amidst 500 sharks in a feeding frenzy.Would you: A.) Swim to the surface as fast as your trembling legs could take you. B.) Find a weapon to arm yourself with. C.) Fall asleep. Brett McBride fell asleep. For a minute. While hundreds of three-meter-long Galapagos sharks swarmed around him during a feeding frenzy off the coast of Costa Rica."

Ocearch lifiting shark out of the water.
That should tell you something about the intelligence of the guy. Falling asleep while scuba diving is an act of heroism, but a great recipee for a disaster. The article states "The 46-year-old shark wrangler doesn't suffer from some kind of severe narcolepsy. Instead, he was merely proving a point -- these fearsome predators aren't going to be interested in you, if you're not interested in them." How is falling asleep while SCUBA diving and risking to drown, proving a point that sharks are not interested in you? It's just another stupid stunt to impress an uninformed public and make him out to be a superhero.

Their definition of a superhero seems to be someone who gets his boats lines tangled in the props, which forces him to dive in order to free them. Wow, who knew that this makes one a superhero. I've performed dives like that myself and never felt particularly heroic doing them. Heros are people like firefighters, paramedics, soldiers etc. who risk their lives for the benefit of others, not publicity seeking idiots. Interestingly, most of those real Heros are a lot more humble than these Ocearch publicity seekers.

Dr. Domeier tagging a shark without lifting it.
Mc Bride goes on to offer other words of "wisdom" "When the shark is taken out of the equation, the squid populations explode. They're voracious eaters so every night they'd eat the baby fish -- swordfish, tuna, marlin. The fish are being wiped out, not by man, but by squid. And that's because man took away their main predator -- sharks," said McBride.  Wow, I wonder where he get's that info from. Is that a scientific or a PIDOOMA (Pulled It Directly Out Of My A..) statement? 

The fact that Ocearch still insists on stressing the sharks by taking them out of the water to tag them, when Dr. Domeier has shown that it is no longer necessary, clearly shows that they are much more interested in what makes for good TV instead of good science.

We at Shark Diver support responsible shark research, but we do not condone sharks being abused in the name of sicence, just to get TV ratings.

Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO Shark Diver

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives
Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

What does a Miami Herald reporter think of our expeditions to Guadalupe?

Susan Cocking, a reporter for the Miami Herald came out with us to visit the Great White Sharks of Isla Guadalupe  She has written this excellent article about her experience with our toothy friends at the island.

Like most of our divers, Susan had an expectation what it would be like to come face to face with a Great White Shark. She was expecting a "giant, fearsome creature" that she had traveled thousands of miles to see. When a 16.5 ft shark, named Jaques in our photo database, approached the cage, her reaction was different than expected. "Instead of cowering back behind the bars, my three companions and I waved, banged and stomped to attract his attention, and readied our underwater cameras"

Her reaction to encountering a Great White Shark at close range the first time is actually quite common. We are so used to thinking that these sharks are mindless killers with dead black eyes. Instead of trying to bite her, Susan discovered that these magnificent creature "meandered to within about eight feet of us and cruised the length of the cage, seeming to stare at each of us in turn with its blue/black eye"

I'm glad that Susan had a chance to come out with us and experience first hand how our toothy friends really are. Since the sharks get so much bad press, Shark Diver  is happy to be able to allow reporters like Susan to find out what they really are like and share their experience with their readers.



Cheers,

Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/26/3650194/great-white-sharks-even-more-magnificent.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/26/3650194/great-white-sharks-even-more-magnificent.html#storylink=cpy
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.