Swimming with Nurse Sharks & Keys Shark Diving

20th of July 2013; Shark Aid International went on a wonderful snorkel trip with Keys Shark Diving. It was a trip that served two purposes; of course to swim with sharks and also to establish a partnership between our two organisations for future work and trips together, for both us and anyone wishing to explore the amazing reef and swim with some Nurse Sharks, and various other marine life - the trip was a great success!

On this snorkel trip, 3 and a 1/2 miles off Marathon in the Florida Keys, we shared the water with all kinds of wonderful and spectacular wildlife! We saw Grunts, Snappers, Rays, Parrotfish, and of course SHARKS! We also saw a juvenile Cuttlefish and some beautiful and healthy reefs!

Then after the array of marine life, the Nurse Sharks arrived. Ranging in sizes from a tiny 3 feet to a large 8/9 foot big shark. They were all very docile and so beautiful under the water, swimming peacefully and gracefully the entire time. It seems like the 'big boys' of the group are in charge (when are they not?) because not long after they arrived, the smaller ones left the spot! They were around our location for 3/4 hours during our snorkel, which was amazing because they provided us with some really nice footage and photos.

Nurse sharks sometimes get a bad wrap for not being as 'exciting' or 'cool' as the other species,

but we were very excited by their presence and we find them extremely cool!

We then went to another location; deep reef. We waited patiently for an offshore deep sea shark and were happily surprised by what joined us, the tiniest baby Reef Shark any of us had ever seen! While we waited for other sharks to turn up we saw some other amazing animals and some in particular being Sunfish! Incredible!

As mentioned earlier, the trip served two purposes, and the final one was to establish a partnership between Shark Aid International and Keys Shark Diving. Be on the lookout for unique and tailored shark trips to reefs with Nurse sharks and offshore trips with Bull, Tiger, Hammerhead sharks and more! We will be working together to show you sharks in their natural habitat, whilst educating those who are new to them and maybe helping already shark enthusiasts learn some more about each species and get them out with these incredible animals! We are currently in the process of working out the details to make sure each trip is exciting, fun, informative and educational. For more information links are provided below.

See you in the water!

Written by Susana - US Coordinator, Shark Aid International

For more information and booking please email us at: sharkaidintl@live.com

Be sure to visit Keys Shark Diving's website too! www.keyssharkdiving.com

Great White Shark saved from entanglement! Shark Aid International and Marine Dynamics EXCLUSIVE!

Our good friends and biologists from Marine Dynamics provide regional protection for great white sharks through cage diving tourism, tagging projects and a watchful eye over them in their area. Due to the abundance of fish and marine life in South Africa, fishing is popular (amongst some). Because of this, sharks and other animals get caught up and entangled in nets and fishing lines and can be severely harmed and possibly killed. This blog entry is to show you just one of the accounts where Marine Dynamics free a shark from a fishing line, saving its life and setting it free! Shark Aid International covers this exclusively providing a summary and analysis of the situation.

The coast of Gansbaai, South Africa; a thriving marine ecosystem. Seals, whales, African penguins, and home to the ever impressive Great White Shark. With the abundance of white sharks in the area, there is a huge cage diving tourism attraction. One can get the chance to go out on a vessel with a professional team, experience seeing the amazing animal from the boat and underwater in the cage. An incredible experience for all! Shark lover or not!

     Marine Dynamics, part of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust aren't just a cage diving business. They actively contribute to the protection and sustaining of shark life. The cage diving gives people a chance to see white sharks up close and personal, providing a platform to educate the public and shark enthusiasts about the animal, its status and what needs to be done to help them.

Abandoned fishing gear like nets and lines cause great harm to the animals and the surrounding environment. As you can see from this video:

The Marine Dynamics crew free a Great White Shark from a fishing line

So as you would have just seen, together with a good team of people who care for the wildlife, the right tools and materials to carry out operations such as this, the great white shark and other animals can be saved. But unfortunately this is only one success. Many sharks face this same peril everyday and not all can be saved. Through learning more about these sharks, understanding their behaviours and movements we can share the knowledge and effectively increase awareness of what is happening to this incredible species and provide better protections.

Both Marine Dynamics and Shark Aid International work closely together to help raise awareness of what is happening to great white sharks and to provide a community in South Africa, of shark enthusiasts from both organisations.


Please join us at our websites:

Marine Dynamics - (http://www.sharkwatchsa.com/)
Shark Aid International - (http://sharkaidinternational.org)

Petitions Galore...

As promised, here is a list of current petitions for you shark lovers to sign and share amongst your friends. I've tried to gather ones to cover a wide variety of shark-related issues, and also many regions of the world. However, knowing there are endless petitions out there I haven’t included every one made. Also, petitions are complex, and need to be written well to ensure the intended level of protection is considered, or the right issues addressed, have correct background information and also aimed at the right people to ‘sort it out’. So I've tried to include ones I feel meet this ‘criteria’.

As well as banning shark fin imports, you can ban exports, the practice of shark finning in the first place, the sale, or the possession of shark fin. Almost all of these petitions in different areas are written differently. Obviously, to ban all shark products, and remove all man-made threats to sharks would be ideal too, but there are other petitions for that! We need to show that we care about these issues though, so maybe when some sorts of regulations are put in place that those are properly enforced, and have a better chance of not being ‘lifted’, or taken out of effect. The more pressure we put on governments the better, in my opinion. And after each failed attempt, we can only keep trying to relive the pressure currently crushing shark populations worldwide.

An example of a recent success, Project Aware petitioned for EU vessels, operating anywhere in the world, have to land sharks with their fins naturally attached. This means we know what species, how many were caught, and reduces the amount of sharks able to be exploited for their fins. However, vessels from other countries, will abide by their own laws, and illegal activities by certain EU vessels, unfortunately, is not guaranteed to not take place. Still, no doubt an achievement to be proud of and a hop, skip and a jump in the right direction! But let's keep going..

Fin Free/ Finning Practices

Let’s start with a big one. For a worldwide shark fin ban- 120,000+ and still going, let’s keep this up (there’s over 7 billion of us that *could* make a difference..

For a ban on the sale, possession and distribution of shark fins in the UK & EU (Shark Aid UK)

For a ban on the sale and trade of shark fin in New York (Shark Angels)

Ask major worldwide hotel chain, Hilton Hotels, to stop serving shark fin soup- everywhere! (Stop Finning)

Ask Muji, Japan to stop selling shark fin soup- Japan is an area to focus on, and this young activist definitely deserves a fins up!

For a ban on the sale, possession  distribution and consumption of shark fins in Calgary- By, Hannah, a passionate teenage activist (worth a follow on twitter @Bushbabey)

Shark Meat & By-products

Tell eBay to stop selling shark cartilage and other Shark related products (Cyber Whale Warriors)

Tell eBay (again!? Tut tut...) to stop selling the teeth of the endangered Great White Shark (The Nautical Tribe)

(Tried to get some on shark meat but most are now closed, if you have any you’d like to share, please do!)

Hunting/ Culling of Sharks

Stop the West Australian government’s plans to cull sharks that dare swim along its beaches

A petition to remove shark nets in South Africa

I think I have the main ones, but there are many others and if you are looking for something area or issue specific, I suggest you Google away! Many are closed too. If any major ones spring to mind, I will add them in! If anyone has any they’d specifically like to share, please do so in the comments.

Finally.. If you were thinking of creating your own petition for your own cause (whatever it may be!), then I direct you to this blog post all about how not to write a petition. As I’ve said before, it should be well planned for the best possible effects! So, be my guest, change the world in your own little ways! 

Doing Your 'Bit'

Hello again shark lovers! I return once again to give you some ‘food for thought’.. I recently gave a talk at an Animal Aid meeting in Bournemouth, and the rather enthusiastic bunch were quite keen to hear how they could get involved. So, whilst we continue to work toward a few other (hopefully) upcoming projects, I thought I’d share a few things that you can easily do to ‘do your bit’ in saving sharks. So here goes..

First and foremost, signing petitions, including ours is a simple way of saving sharks whilst sitting comfortably on your bottom! These CAN be effective, if written well and presented to the right people in the right departments, and so on. They can range from stopping shark finning and the sale of shark meat, lobbying against culls and the use of shark exclusion nets, and probably almost all of the threats I listed in one of my previous posts. I will, as it seems apt, shortly be constructing a blog post with a series of petitions you can sign & share, and point you in the right direction of information on how best to create a petition, if you wish to do so!

Secondly, going ‘Fin Free’ seems to be a big thing at the moment and there are several initiatives in the UK coming up to get people (and counties/ cities) involved in this movement.  This kind of project requires a lot of effort and attention to detail, so I will hopefully be able to focus yet another blog post on this in the future and also personally be a part of pushing for one of these projects close to my home. So with this one, please watch this space!!
     In the meantime, shark fin and shark meat is sold in restaurants and markets all over the world. If you shark fin soup available, you can always put your thoughts forward about getting it removed from the menu- just make sure, again, you have a few facts to back yourself up. An unaggressive approach will most likely work best!
     Similarly, with shark meat, it is worth asking the fishermen/seller where they got it from, how it was caught, what species it is etc. Again, not to be offensive, as this will only cause conflict. If there is cause for concern, try to take the issue further and contact the appropriate legislative body. You’re probably not going to make the fishermen change his mind on the spot after all. The important thing is to always gather your research before making a proposal, and if you can, gather as much support as possible. Sharing your concerns with us, we can hopefully get other shark lovers to write the same/ similar email/ letter to the same people to put more pressure on the issue. It’s well worth a go.

Newspapers are the shark lovers’ worst enemy. Most of them are all over ‘attacks’, little or big as they may be, and make sharks out to be the enemy. An unforgiving force of nature whose only aim is to consume the entire human race. Very often, they miss out or pay little attention to the fact that, as previously stated, these incidents are rare and require more research. They can also advocate the mistreatment of sharks, or potentially showcase such things as okay (depending on the views and impressionability of the reader).
     Now, to stop moaning about them and encourage you to ‘be the change’. Inform the newspaper (via email, or comment on the online article) that you are unhappy about the language used, the lack of correct information (always try to provide a source to back yourself up!), or whatever it is about the content that could affect the perception of sharks. If you’re lucky, they could take it down from the website or think twice about their next shark article. It’s a long shot with media folk, but worth a go, and as always the more voices, the better! It’s quite evident that conservation topics or animals in general needs much work in the media department.

The main lesson of the day is that every action counts, and we need to flag up all the little issues that are building up to this huge conservation problem. If you see something you do not like, then try to change it as best you can. Take the time to make a well thought out action plan in order to get the best results. If you fail, then keep trying! We are here if you need our help, and please email sharkaiduk@live.co.uk if you want any advice or assistance. We will always try to do our best!

     Please, if you will, share past, present or pending future experiences on this blog post, with regards to making a stand for what you believe in. Additional advice or information is always welcome, and most definitely as is inspiration from other projects or campaigns.  

Learn. Understand. Share.

Now I have explained why sharks need help and are important, the next thing I wanted to bring to the table is our current main objective. With regards to conservation topics it is well known that ‘education is key’. No word of a lie. It really is! If people don’t know about the issue, then it will continue to go un-noticed, and that probably means that it will worsen or created bigger issues. We try to educate through different means, as often as possible. Our social media sites keep supporters up to date with the latest shark news and research, whilst inspiring debate, and sharing thought provoking images. Of course these are our main source of advertisement for our personal events, projects and campaigns. Which brings me to my next three points..

We have attended & plan to attend all kinds of events. Bearing in mind most of these are funded out of our own pockets, and therefore we are limited somewhat. But when we run an event, we like to target the general public where we have a chance to introduce new facts which we can only hope stick in their minds and spread by word of mouth. I’ve personally only done a couple but its great interacting with the public and actually witnessing the learning process take place. It’s amazing! And for them to then want to shake your hand or ask to get involved gives you a sense that you have made a little bit of a difference! And that’s a good thing, isn’t it?.. You can stay aware of our up and coming events on Facebook, Twitter & our website.

One of our educational projects, we wish to continue & expand upon (Photo credit: 'So What?')

Now, projects! We plan to do many, but this is a case study we are particularly proud of. If you haven’t heard of ‘So What?’ you should have! Currently based in Manchester (wanting to spread further!), they run after school clubs about conservation topics- sharks included! Recently, we got in contact with them to see about helping each other out! We have a series of fact sheets on our downloads page on our website, and they happily used these in one of their clubs and the kids made the fantastic posters seen above! One pupil even went home and made a sculpture of a shark based on our anatomy fact sheet! See our Facebook album for more examples. Neither of us are teachers, and so being unable to teach ourselves, we are more than grateful to Matthew Payne for allowing us to contribute to his educational programme, and we plan to continue to support ‘So What?’ in any future projects concerning sharks. A real pleasure! Please take a few moments to visit the ‘So What?’ website, Facebook and Twitter and see what other fantastic things they do!

So we started out with a petition to campaign against the sale and harvest of shark fins in the UK & EU, which if you haven’t, please sign it here! Sharks and the oceans need a lot more of this kind of attention and we have various campaigns coming up. We don’t like to give away too much, but we will make you aware in due course. Again, please keep an eye out on our social media sites, and I will be posting on here too!

We hope to do as much 'educating' as we can, as we know the impact it can have, especially when concerning the next generation, as with ‘So What?’! The wonderful thing is (and this is where my inner geek comes out to play!) we never really stop learning, unless we want to. There are always new things to discover and share, and I hope this blog will be another means to do just that. 

I’m going to finish with a quote I picked up in a paper I used for my final project, which I believe to be very apt for the occasion and is a personal favorite  "..for in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught"- Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist and poet. 

Why Sharks? (Part 3 of 3)

Now, after my recent posts I feel I need to persuade (some of..) you somewhat. There is a reason people make such a fuss about sharks, because they serve an important role in the ecosystem, and actually, in all of our lives. Let me at least try to explain :)

Sharks are known as ‘keystone species’ because if they are removed, this can cause an ecosystem collapse with very damaging consequences. This applies to all species. Many predatory sharks sit at the top of the food chain, effectively managing ecosystems by helping to maintain the population numbers of species they feed on, in particular secondary predators, such as tuna. This is because unlike sharks, they have the potential to repopulate quickly. In the absence of shark predation, there are more animals that need food, and prey species populations decline quickly. In effect, these secondary predators then starve, leaving the ocean relatively empty.

Filter feeding sharks such as the basking shark, feed on small organisms called plankton. These can be either animal (zooplankton) or plant (phytoplankton). Swimming with their mouths agape, they filter small organisms from the water through their gills.  Detrivores such as the cookie cutter shark feed exclusively on dead matter and waste that sinks to the ocean floor, and play a vital role in recycling nutrients so nothing is wasted. For more information about their roles, please visit our ‘Roles in Ecosystems’ Shark File. Again, all animals fill a certain niche within an ecosystem, but as keystone species within the most vital ecosystem on this planet, it must be said, we NEED sharks.

Copyright Rob Allen Photography: A whale shark, one of the filter feeding sharks, also a good choice for eco-tourism dives (keep reading!)

Now if you think about it we might rely on the same fish that live in the sharks environment, and so we rely on them to maintain populations, that is if we haven’t already over-exploited them ourselves already. Particularly in coastal communities, if the fish disappear, fishermen lose their jobs, people begin to starve, recreational divers don’t want to pay to go see an empty ocean, tour companies then lose out etc., you get the picture..

And tourism is an important factor worth highlighting. It is believed that because of what has been dubbed ‘eco tourism’, so for example snorkeling with whale sharks or cage diving with great whites (as long as it actually aims to benefit the conservation efforts for the species in question, which sadly, it often doesn't), sharks can be worth more alive than dead! This incentive could potentially be used to turn the whole shark finning industry around, if done properly.

Back to our dependence on the ocean.. You may not realize especially if you live inland, that you rely on the ocean so much, but even if you eat farmed animals they are mainly fed on fish. Ice cream is made with a type of seaweed and probably most of the toiletries you use in everyday life have ingredients derived from the ocean. We are more dependent on it than we can probably ever imagine.. And sharks are essential to the oceans health. Sorry to have to go all hippie-fied, but we are still part of the ‘web of life’ and our actions can quite easily tear large, unnecessary holes in it.

The sad fact is we are currently a sharks worst enemy, but they NEED us too. On a brighter note it is possible for us to turn the tables and become their best friends! If we concentrate on what we could gain from having sharks around; without causing them harm, ruining the oceans and inevitably putting our own livelihoods at risk; then we could save them. For the benefit of us all! 

Why Sharks? (Part 2 of 3)

The second thing I feel compelled to share is why sharks need our help. I’d hate to regurgitate facts used by Shark Aid UK before through our social media sites, and by others, but I want to try and accommodate for everyone, so will state their threats here. Hopefully there is something fresh in here for you somewhere!

‘Shark finning’ is thought to be the biggest threat to sharks. It concerns all species, and happens globally, and there is now a global demand for the infamous shark fin soup, which this particular practice is carried out to supply for. For anyone looking for more information see our finning fact sheet here with 10 quick facts on the issue.

Over-fishing causes several problems. Methods such as long lining and trawling mean that not only ‘target fish’ are caught, but so are thousands of sharks (as well as dolphins, turtles, seabirds and more!). Furthermore, some of the sharks prey species are reduced meaning they have to adapt feeding behavior find new territory, or starve. The gear used for these methods is very damaging to ocean habitats and inhabitants. Sharks can get entangled in lines and nets (which either drowns them or embeds in their skin leading to infection), and trawlers pick up sediment and rip corals which support all life in the ocean, including sharks.

As a direct consequence of their bad perception, they are often caught in shark nets and drum lines set up off the coast Australia and South Africa originally to reduce the amounts of attacks! The effectiveness of these is questionable. Also, there are often threats from governments, particularly in Australia, to cull them as a form of ‘pest control’ (please refer to my last post as to why this idea is so utterly ridiculous, should you need reminding!). Furthermore there are active shark hunters in some parts that kill the biggest & most ‘threatening’ of sharks to ‘save the public’, and trophy hunting of sharks, particularly Great whites is a big business.

Copyright Rob Allen Photography: As seen here, sharks and divers can swim together quite happily ..

To add to the list further (and I know, its long, but all the more reason to care) their teeth, contrary to popular believe, are often taken from dead sharks as opposed to the many that they shed throughout their lifetime. So please, avoid this type of jewellery item at all costs. Also shark liver oil is used in some Chinese and western medicines so be wary of these. Here is an article on this issue, shared by Shark Aid UK some time ago. I also recently saw some pictures on the Sharks Need Love page, which is run by the lovely Annie Anderson (worth a follow on twitter) showing dead baby sharks being sold in jars of fluid as ornaments in Miami (See here).

Phew.. I think that’s everything. It’s hard because it literally seems that the list of threats to sharks is never ending. Now the natural history of sharks, as a whole, indicates they are slow reproducing. This means that any vast population declines are a struggle for them to recover from. We don’t exactly know the population trends of sharks, some estimates have been as bad as 90% in 50 years as a whole, some regional populations having disappeared entirely, and obviously this varies between species. If you want to delve into the details check out this blog.

In doing my dissertation last year I found some worrying figures. Of approximately 350 sharks listed, there are currently 68 species of threatened sharks (classed as vulnerable or worse on the IUCN Red List), but what is perhaps more frightening, is that 210 species are data deficient. This just highlights that sharks really do need our help to better assess how we can help them. Yet we’re letting them slip through our fingers. Only 7 are protected under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). I found out by doing a species search here). However, this convention offers varying degrees of protection dependent on species and country, and is somewhat flawed, which I will probably try to explain at a later date. A further 7 species are protected under the CMS (Convention on Migratory Species), as shown here, but as with CITES, these laws and regulations are barely enforced.

For now, I’m sorry for depressing you all, but if we close our eyes to these issues they will continue to worsen. We need to give our beloved sharks a much needed helping fin! I have tried to provide up-to-date information, but as always, if anyone has different information please share and I will update if necessary!