Bravo Mauricio - Isla Guadalupe Great

 

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 sharkcrew@gmail.com.

WWF, AlJazeera, and Whale Sharks?

If you want to see some really good conservation reporting - go to AlJazeera this week. 

AlJazeera you say? Yes.

Kudos to Gelareh Darabi and her entire crew for this production.

For the past three years AlJazeera has produced a series of  top notch and in depth looks at our planet and the many conservation issues facing it.

This week the program Earthwise focused on Donsol and commercial whale shark diving there along with actual bots on the ground conservation efforts by the WWF who have made Donsol home for the past decade.

The look at how commercial shark diving helps local communities is a breath of fresh air, and for a global commercial shark diving industry proof positive that the net effects of commercial shark diving are good for local economies, conservation, and ultimnately the animals themselves.

Sustainable tourism trumps extractive fisheries every single time.

"Whale shark hunting hit a peak in the 1990s, with prices of up to $800 per kilogramme of dried fin meat attracting a fresh influx of hunters to Donsol in the Philippines. In 1997, around 200 of the creatures were slaughtered. Whale sightings started to diminish. After campaigning by the local community and conservation groups, whale shark hunting became punishable by Philippine law in 1998. WWF Philippines, the UNDP and the local government together developed a community-based ecotourism and conservation programme, with the aim of providing local people with a sustainable income whilst protecting the species. In a few years Donsol had transformed from a small coastal community into one of the world's most popular destinations for whale shark tourism."

Watch video here.

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving, film television productions, 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 sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Shark Conservation Messaging - WWF

What can we say but we like it.

WWF is among other conservation organisations leading the fight to save the world's sharks. It is seeking a ban on certain kinds of fishing nets and working to regulate the trade in shark fins. It supports trade controls through TRAFFIC.

WWF directly works to address the problem of overfishing throughout the world's oceans through its Smart Fishing initiative.

Specific projects aim to raise awareness of the plight of sharks, improve the management of marine protected areas and develop ecotourism projects which support sharks in their natural environment. A 2011 study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science found that a single reef shark in Palau generates nearly $2 million for the tourist industry over its lifetime.

Examples of WWF projects that specifically or indirectly target shark conservation:

• WWF Hong Kong Shark Fin Initiative
• Donsol Community-Based Whale Shark Ecotourism and Coastal Resource Management
• Smart Fishing Network Initiative - Asian Seafood Guides
• Marine protection for the Gulf of California

PangeaSeed Launches Inaugural Philippine Shark Study Tour

PangeaSeed, a Japan-based nonprofit conservation organization, is kicking off its inaugural Philippine shark study tour 26 March -10 April 2011. PangeaSeed in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Philippines and the Thresher Shark Research & Conservation Project will host a not-for-profit international research expedition and cross-culture exchange. The event will aid in the gathering of information and ideas through community outreach and awareness activities to educate and develop a better understanding on the global need to protect sharks and our oceans.

With 70-100 million sharks slaughtered each year to satisfy the global demand for shark fin soup, considered an Asian delicacy, the expedition will focus on shark preservation and conservation. The United Nations released a report in the spring of 2010 stating that if the mass harvest of sharks continues, global shark populations will disappear in the next ten to twenty years. It is known that sharks now represent the largest number of threatened marine animals on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species. Furthermore, as an apex predator, sharks play one of the most important roles balancing the delicate ocean ecosystem. Today, over 1 billion people on the planet depend on the oceans as their main source of food and income – if that source disappears, imagine the problems we’ll face.

Tokyo-based PangeaSeed is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and raising international understanding of the plight of sharks. PangeaSeed is the first and only organization in Japan to raise public awareness regarding shark conservation and preservation. “In collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Donsol and The Thresher Shark Research & Conservation Project in Malapascua, our organization will host an international ecological awareness study tour in two parts 26 March -10 April, said Tre’ L. Packard, PangeaSeed managing director. “This pioneering tour is the first of its kind for Japan. With the kind and generous support of our sponsors including Aqua Lung scuba gear, Oxford Suites Makati & renowned global artist Brad Klausen, our group will continue its goal to break down the misconceptions of sharks and help to redirect attention to the urgent environmental needs surrounding our oceans.”

The first leg of the tour will guide a group of international attendees to assist PangeaSeed and WWF Donsol marine biologists with whale shark research and data collection. The data collected will be added to an international database shared by researchers and scientists worldwide. These efforts will help to develop a better understanding of the need to preserve and protect the threatened whale shark. Packard added, “Attendees will have the rare opportunity to be in the water with these magnificent animals and study them in their natural state.” Additionally, attendees will host a number of cultural exchange events at Donsol schools to educate students on their very unique and special responsibility of whale shark conservation, ocean preservation and how it can directly benefit the local population.

Whale Shark Highlights Donsol, and WWF

This weeks news coming from WWF staff in Donsol, Philippines is shedding new light on the breeding habits of the biggest sharks in the ocean - and how serious boots on the ground efforts by NGO's help shark conservation.

A tiny whale shark was found at the weekend with a rope tied around its tail, secured to a stick poked in the sand in a coastal town near Donsol in Sorsogon province.

Environment group WWF said a hawker was allegedly trying to sell the fish in an area that sees the world's largest known annual gathering of whale sharks. After checking to see the baby whale shark was unhurt, WWF, police and government officials measured and photographed it before releasing it in deeper water.

The find is very significant for scientists, who know little about where the biggest fish in the ocean goes to give birth to its live young.

Until now it was thought the Philippines was simply a stop-off point for the rare species. But WWF-Philippines chief executive Jose Ma Lorenzo Tan says the tiny size of the whale shark caught on Friday strongly suggests it was born there.

"In spite of all the research that is being done worldwide on whale shark, to this date no one knows where they breed or give birth," Tan says.

"For many years, scientists thought that Donsol was merely a 'gas station' along the global network of marine highways where whale sharks cruised.

"This new discovery is the first ever indication that this coastline may actually be a birthing site." Tan said the find showed how critical it was to protect marine environments in the Philippines, and other countries that make up the Coral Triangle.

"This is no surprise. After all this has happened in the Coral Triangle - the nursery of the seas - where life begins, and many things remain possible," he said. WWF promotes conservation programs across Coral Triangle countries, which also include Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.

It is aiming to establish a network of marine protected areas that will help ensure whale sharks continue to migrate safely to the waters off Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia's northwest coast.

Papua New Guinea is hosting a high-level meeting this week on a plan to protect marine ecosystems and food security in the Coral Triangle. Details will be announced at the Coral Triangle Initiative Summit at the World Ocean Conference on May 15.

WWF to World-10,000 sharks a year "unsustainable"

Using data from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has revealed hundreds of tonnes of shark fin are being exported from Australia every year.

They say on a conservative estimate that is the equivalent of 10,000 adult sharks.

The WWF is using the figures to add weight to its call for the Queensland Government to ditch a proposal to issue specific licences to target sharks.

The Federal Government says a final decision is yet to be made but it will take a precautionary approach.

WWF's Dr Gilly Llewellyn says the appetite for shark fin overseas which Australia appears to be feeding, is insatiable, and in the past 13 months 230 tonnes of shark fin have been exported from our shores, mainly to Asian markets.

"Using a really conservative estimate using the largest possible size of shark, using a low fin to weight ratio, that's still 10,000 sharks that would have needed to be killed for that amount of fin," she says.

Dr Llewellyn says there is no scientific evidence to show whether that amount of shark fishing is sustainable.