A recent report in the Gulf News sheds light on the major role that the UAE plays in the global shark fin trade. With exports of shark fins from the Gulf apparently rising at an alarming rate, the Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF is currently working to establish catch rates & export numbers, alongside gathering biodiversity estimates for the still extant shark species.
As those in marine conservation well know, it often a lack of basic baseline information that allows unsustainable practices to thrive for so long and as a consequence, we look forward to any new research that can help to illuminate the over exploitation of shark species in the Gulf.
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My very first dive on Shark Reef in 2003 immediately got me hooked! Six species of sharks on a single dive including a very good number of decent sized bull sharks and the beautiful silvertip shark! It was clear from the very beginning that one day Shark Reef would host the Bull Shark Tagging Programme. That day came in 2004 and ever since, Shark Reef Marine Reserve is home to the Bull Shark Tagging Programme Fiji.
Shark Reef is a small reef patch located on the fringing reef off the coast of Viti Levu, Fiji. Because of its locally long-known shark abundance and convenient accessibility, a local dive operator started developing a tourist shark dive on Shark Reef in 1998. Up to eight different shark species can be encountered on a single dive including bull, silvertip, sicklefin lemon and tiger sharks. The Shark Reef Marine Reserve project that started to develop in 2002 aimed at declaring parts of Shark Reef as a no-take zone and the use of this area as a self-sustaining diving site by using a participatory business planning approach to MPA management, in which the dive operator focuses on the ability of the MPA to provide ecological goods and services to its target users over the long term and ensures that local stakeholders become the beneficiaries of tourism development, but also are fully integrated into the relevant planning and management processes. In other words, the basic concept of the Shark Reef Marine Reserve was to “buy” the fishing rights from the local villages that traditionally own the fishing rights on Shark Reef and designate it as a closed area. An extended fishing moratorium on a reef is, in effect, a marine protected area.
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SOSF will be at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona from the 4th to the 11th October.
If you will be one of the expected 8000 delegates please come and meet us. Chris Clarke (SOSF Director), Rupert Ormond(SOSF Chief Scientist), Mauvis Gore (Research Scientist), Cheryl-Samantha Owen (SOSF Environmental Journalist/ public awareness), and other team members will be taking part in the discussions.
We will be hosting an exhibition booth (numbers 001/002) and will be presenting a ‘Learning Opportunities Workshop’ on Tuesday 7th October from 9am to 1pm titled: Three Dimensional Virtual World – Global Communication Opportunities for Conservation Education & Awareness. In addition we will be reporting back from the Congress with a dedicated marine issues blog.
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No we weren’t referring to the arrival of the Chris Clarke and Dan Beecham of SOSF, although that would probably be fitting as well, but the return of several whale sharks we had seen in previous years!
Thanks to the wonders of I3S, the spot-matching computer programme that has revolutionised whale shark identification, we are being able to be far more productive in assessing the sharks seen around Seychelles. So far this year we have had a total of 16 sharks re-sighted from previous years and in September of 14 sharks identified to date 7 had been photographed in previous years.
Of these seven resightings, one shark had been seen in 2005, 2006 and 2007; four sharks had been seen in both 2006 and 2007; one in 2005 and 2006, and the last shark had been previously identified in 2003…..
So it seems that although the season is being somewhat slow compared to previous years, we are getting a lot of site-faithful sharks coming back… lets hope we can find a few compliant ones for Chris and Dan!
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We just wanted to share a lovely letter of thanks from one of the schools that came to visit the Shark Centre.
We really appreciate it, and hoped you had a wonderful day!
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