Alison Kock presenting her white shark research to a sold out audience at Mote Photo: Morne Hardenberg

On 15 February Alison Kock, Project Leader of the Save Our Seas funded White Shark Research Programme in Cape Town, gave a presentation to a sold out audience of over 300 people in Sarasota, USA. Mote has been a leader in marine research since it was founded in 1955 by legendary shark researcher Dr. Eugenie Clark. Today it has evolved into seven research centres, is home to more than 230 staff members, including about 40 Ph.D. scientists who lead their respective fields. Public outreach has also become a key part of their mission.

Eugenie, Shark Lady, Clarke and Alison Kock at Mote Photo: Morne Hardenberg

Alison’s talk entitled “Great White Shark: Advancing our knowledge of the world’s greatest predatory fish” covered her current research activities in South Africa such as tagging, tracking and attaching of animal-bourne cameras to the sharks, as well as the pioneering efforts of Cape Town and the Shark Spotters helping people co-exist safely with white sharks. Alison also got to meet Dr. Eugenie Clarke and the other esteemed shark researchers and educators, like the President of Mote, Dr. Kumar Mahadevan, Research Director Robert Heuter and Vice-president of Education, Jim Wharton. Finally, Alison was treated to a behind the scenes look at their cutting edge shark research and seahorse research projects.

“As surfers we are literally on the frontline of global warming and the effect it is having on the ocean environment. I believe every surfer has a role to play in this most pressing issue,” says Bertish. “The board of ice is a simple metaphor for what is a happening right now to all the world’s glaciers and ice caps. As this board melts so do our glaciers and million year old ice caps. So we each need to take stock of how our actions are affecting the increase in Global Warming. The board is a simple graphic reminder of this.”

The ice-board was sculpted over two days by Bertish with Ice Art in an ice-preparation / sculpting fridge in Cape Town, before being transported in two pieces to Depasco Café where it was displayed to the public as part of the Wavescapes Surf Art Exhibition which raised $23,000 for ocean conservation.

Welcome to the new IMPACT online exhibition, a project exploring the internet as a venue for insightful photographic work. In an effort to remind viewers of the important role photographers play around the world, we invited an array of imagemakers to share galleries on their blogs (like this one) that comprise 12 images representing an experience when they had an impact on or were impacted. By clicking on the links below the IMPACT logo, you can move through the exhibition, viewing other galleries by different photographers. You can also click the IMPACT logo to be taken to a post on the liveBooks RESOLVE Blog where you can see an index of all participating photographers. We hope that by linking different photographic visions of our first topic, “Outside Looking In,” we can provide a multifaceted view of the topic as well as the IMPACT individuals can have on the world around us.

Scientists estimate that worldwide up to 73 million sharks are killed every year and as a result 50 species are listed as vulnerable or in danger of extinction. Vast fishing fleets comb our oceans catching sharks primarily for their fins, a sought after commodity used in shark fin soup. One of the greatest challenges in marine conservation today is to instill in people a sense of wonder in the ocean that will not only awaken a feeling of ownership but also foster responsibility towards its inhabitants, especially sharks.

The legendary conservationist George Schaller wrote: ‘Pen and Camera are weapons against oblivion, they can create awareness for that which may soon be lost forever’.  As Chief Photographer of the Save our Seas Foundation I spend an average 8 months a year on assignment documenting shark conservation projects all over the world. Schaller’s words are my mantra and especially in times when all hope seems lost they inspire me never to give up. Photographs are one of the most powerful weapons in the marine conservation arsenal and it has become my life’s work to create images of sharks that will inspire people to go out of their way to help protect and save them from extinction.

For me the biggest reward comes when my photographs achieve real world marine conservation successes. Over the years I have had the immense privilege to have my images play a role in the proclamation of marine reserves and achieve changes in fisheries legislation. However the greatest joy and satisfaction comes in the form of the e-mails I receive from people whose lives were touched by my photographs and in turn created their own conservation projects in form of   grass roots activities, petition sites or facebook cause groups.

The Senegalese philosopher Baba Dioum said ‘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.’ Every person who gains an understanding of and love for sharks will bring us one step closer to putting a permanent end to the destructive activities of the shark nets, long-liners and trawlers that are collectively killing millions of sharks and ultimately destroying two thirds of our planet in the process. The ocean is our planet’s switch of life and in more ways then we care to acknowledge, we too, just like sharks depend on a healthy marine realm for our own survival.

Thomas P. Peschak Chief Photographer Save our Seas Foundation

Vast fleets from major shark fishing nations such as Japan, China, Taiwan and Spain comb the worlds’ oceans for profit. Armed with long-lines and gill nets there are frighteningly few places left on our planet were sharks are not being unsustainably exploited.

An estimated 73 million sharks are killed every year around the world and as a result 50 species are listed as vulnerable or in danger of extinction. Mako, tresher and hammerhead sharks have been hardest hit, the latter declining up to 90% in some parts of its range.

Sharks are primarily caught for their fins, a sought after commodity for use in shark fin soup. Fins can fetch more than 300 US$ per pound and are often sliced off while the shark is still alive, the rest of the body is then wastefully dumped at sea.

Shark meat is only regularly consumed in a dozen or so countries, many of which suffer from great poverty and food insecurity. Shark meat in fact regularly contains high levels of toxins such as mercury and lead, making it dangerous to eat.

Sharks are the glue that holds many of our planet’s marine ecosystems together, without sharks for example coral reefs would be shadows of their diverse riotous selves, become smothered by algae and eventually turn into lifeless rubble.

The fear of sharks permeates all levels of society, from young to old and from rich to poor. From building “shark attack” sandcastles (see photo above) to refusing to dip ones toes into a swimming pool, much of the modern wave of shark bite hysteria can be traced directly to Steven Spielberg’s 1971 film JAWS.

Probably less than 99.99 percent of interactions between sharks and people result in someone being bitten. Statistically, the risk is tiny – in 2008, with the world population soaring to 6.7 billion people, there were only 58 shark bites, of which just four were fatal. In comparison, 253 000 people died from drowning and every year in New York alone around 1600 people are said to be bitten by fellow New Yorkers.

Despite the incredible low risk of a shark bite occurring, South Africa continuous to be one of the few countries that systemically exterminate sharks under the guise of protecting bathers and other ocean users. A 44 km long installation of gill nets that entangle, suffocate and kill sharks has been positioned off the KwaZulu Natal coast since the early 1960s. In addition to catching so called "dangerous sharks", most of the catch is in fact made up of species harmless to humans or other marine animals such as rays, dolphins and turtles.

A credible alternative to shark nets is the use of shark spotters employed to scan the ocean from high vantage points for any approaching sharks. The system has been successfully used in Cape Town since 2004 and whenever a shark is spotted a white flag with shark motive is hoisted and siren sounded to get people out of the water.

Research is currently underway to develop novel chemical shark repellents, both to reduce the risk of bites to ocean users, but also to reduce the number of sharks being caught by tuna and swordfish fisheries.

Diving with sharks has dramatically grown in popularity in recent years and today one can observe in excess of 20 species in two dozen or so countries around the world. In marine eco-tourism one live shark can earn as much as 30 000 US$ per year, while dead that same shark might only fetch a once off payment of less than 50US$.

In spite of their public notoriety we actually know very little about the ecology and behavior of most shark species. In fact every day dedicated scientists are racing the clock to try and discover as much as they can, all the while sharks are becoming more and more elusive due to overfishing.

To find out more about South Africa’s Shark Nets click here or download my Africa Geographic article as a PDF here.

To make your voice heard go to:  www.removethenets.com

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The first few fishing attempts were not successful and all we caught was an eel. We asked the locals what would be the best time for fishing for sharks in the river (low tide, high tide, night, day etc.) and slowly improved our techniques. Switching from rod and reel to a small longline finally resulted in catching two bull sharks a few days ago. The site where we caught the two sharks is still relatively close to the mouth of the river. We were able to take tissue samples for Mahmood and release the sharks in good condition.

Thanks to Eroni and Victor! We will continue our fishing efforts in the coming weeks and work our way slowly upriver.

The shark research team with the Hon. Larry Cartwright, Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources.

One of the most unique and rewarding parts of running a research program at the Cape Eleuthera Institute is the role most of us play at our sister organisation, The Island School.  Twice a year, 48 high school students from all over the US and The Bahamas take part in a three month semester program and one of their keystone experiences relates to the primary research undertaken at the Cape Eleuthera Institute.  Every semester the Shark Research and Conservation Program takes 6-8 Island School students and guides them through the scientific process, from posing a question, gathering the data to answer that question, analysing the results and finally communicating their findings to collaborating scientists and Bahamian policy makers at the bi-annual Island School Research Symposium.

Last semester, as part of the SOSF funded research, the students undertook a study looking at the distribution and abundance of juvenile tiger sharks around Cape Eleuthera.  The Fall 2009 semester was especially privileged to have the Hon. Larry Cartwright, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, present at the research symposium.  This allowed the Island School research team to discuss the the findings of their project, and about shark conservation as a whole with the minister directly responsible for generating marine and fisheries policy.  The poster of their results can be downloaded directly from here, and all the other Island School research programs from the last two years can be found here, kindly hosted by the Fisheries Conservation Foundation.

Island School student and B.E.S.S. scholar, Chrissy Darville discussing the results of the tiger shark project with the Hon. Larry Cartwright

Fall 2009 Island School Shark Research Symposium Booth.

To achieve this the government plans to collaborate with researchers and the tourism industry, including the Shark Legacy Project based in Roatan, who championed the cause to DIGIPESCA – the Honduras Fisheries Department. The idea is to establish the tangible worth of Honduras’ coastal shark populations to the local economy such that the viability of shark tourism as a source of income over shark fishing can be determined.

The Shark Legacy Project highlights that not only does shark tourism generate revenue directly through people willing to pay high fees to dive with sharks, but the visitors also pay for accommodation and public transport, eat and drink in restaurants, shop for souvenirs and go on other excursions whilst on holiday, often travelling in groups with family or friends.

In this way the shark tourism industry has incredible potential to provide a substantial source of revenue that could herald a more sustainable way of exploiting sharks in Honduran waters that benefits the ecosystem as well as the livelihood of the community.

With the Maldives, Palau and now Honduras leading by example, this could be the start of a most welcome positive trend in shark conservation.

A Caribbean reef shark in a mild form of tonic immobility whilst being blood sampled by the CEI shark team.

One of the biggest problems facing anyone interested in the physiology fish is how to generate a baseline level of blood chemistry.  What does the blood chemistry of a fish look like if it hasn’t been captured, handled, poked and prodded all in the name of science?  What are the normal levels of lactate, glucose, carbon dioxide etc., to which we can compare our “stressed” samples to?

For small fish this is relatively easy.  Take the recent work on bonefish by the Flats Ecology and Conservation Program here at Cape Eleuthera Institute.  Bonefish were housed in darkened holding chambers with a steady supply of fresh seawater for 36 hours upon which they were rapidly removed and blood sampled before the blood chemistry could change.  However, it is a tricky proposition to try and apply this technique to a 6ft Caribbean reef shark!

To try and generate a baseline level of blood chemistry for stress physiology work described in the previous post, the shark research team travelled from Eleuthera to Stuart Cove, a well known dive operator in Nassau.  Stuart Cove have been conducting regular shark dives for the last thirty years and the Caribbean reef sharks they deal with are very used to human presence in the water.  The more experienced handlers can gently halt the motion of the shark through the water by gently rubbing a chain mail shrouded hand on the nose of the shark where ultra sensitive electro-reception pores are situated.  This action appears to initiate a response similar to tonic immobility, a reversible coma-like stasis, which is usually triggered by inverting the shark.  The response initiated by the handlers is not as strong as true tonic immobility, but it was hoped that it was strong enough for a diver to quickly draw some blood, thus gathering a sample from a shark that had not been captured or interfered with in any way – a baseline.

For the most part it worked – taking blood in full SCUBA gear, laying on you back under the tail of a shark with your hands clad in chain mail was a tricky thing to do.  And although the sharks were in a mild form of tonic immobility they did not appreciate a clumsy human prodding them with needles, so unless the needle was put in the right place at the first try, they tended to swim off.  Two and a half days of diving provided us with numerous dulled and bent needles, frustrations and thankfully three blood samples.  The blood chemistry values derived from the three samples were vastly different to even the shortest longline hooking durations and represent the first true baseline blood samples taken from a large free swimming shark.

Special thanks must got to Stuart Cove himself whose generosity with his staff and boats were unparalleled.

A Caribbean reef shark blood sampled underwater.

Stuart Cove Shark Dive

Despite this general fascination with shark attacks, there has been no convention for the classification of how severe injuries sustained from a shark attack really are, with most available information simply stating whether or not they were fatal. Now, however, researchers at the University of Florida have formulated a five point scale to grade the severity of shark bites, similar to that used for categorising burns. The scale, termed the Shark-Induced Trauma (SIT) Scale, has been established after reviewing 96 cases that had complete medical records and it assigns scores to clinical findings (such as blood pressure, location and depth of injury, damage to the organs and death) in order to designate a value between 1 and 5.

In this manner higher values on the scale are assigned to more severe bite injuries. Lead researcher Dr. Ashley Lentz clarifies that, for instance, an abrasion to an extremity would simply score a 1 on the SIT scale, whilst a large bite to the thigh that severs the femoral artery and is subsequently life threatening would score a 5. From the study Dr. Lentz was able to show that the majority of attack victims only sustained very minor injuries:

A graph to show the proportion of shark attacks worldwide assigned to each level of the Shark-Induced Trauma (SIT) scale. (Diagram produced from data in Lentz et al. 2010)

The designation of 41.7% of shark attacks as level 1 on the SIT scale, with only 8.3% scoring 5, clearly shows that the majority of shark induced injuries are not at all severe. For example in Florida, dubbed by press as the ’shark attack capital of the world’, shark attacks that only result in small lacerations account for more than 90% of injuries. The findings of Dr. Lentz et al. support and build upon general data records that show only a small proportion of shark attacks prove fatal: between 2002 and 2007 there was an annual average of 63.1 attacks, of which 3.8 per year were fatal.

Researchers have welcomed the scale saying that it will help medical personnel to better assess patient risk and administer the most appropriate treatment. In addition it will also allow the evaluation of trends in attack severity, and make it easier to communicate to the public how severe an attack actually was.

Understandably we have a predisposition to fear the unseen and potentially dangerous, but hopefully the research by Dr. Lentz and her team will help put the frequency and severity of attacks on people by sharks into an objective perspective.

If you’re interested in learning more about shark attacks and what might cause them, be sure to read Sam’s article ‘Why do white sharks bite people?‘.

Drawing Blood from a mature male Caribbean reef shark.

Small scale longline surveys are the predominant method for investigating shark populations, and when longlines are implemented on a much larger scale, are responsible for the widespread commercial harvest of sharks all over the world. Any capture event, including longline capture, unleashes series of physiological and physical disturbances, the issue is that very little is know about how this physiological stress impacts the behaviour of an animal post release, or if indeed the animal survives.

This year’s project took a two stage approach to begin to investigate the effects of longline capture on the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi).  Firstly, blood samples were taken from sharks that were captured during our longline surveys, using hook timers to accurately determine the amount of time the shark had been on the line.  Blood was taken from the shark and portable blood analysers were used to quantify various blood chemistry parameters which in turn indicate the level of physiological stress the shark was under for a given duration of hooking.  Secondly, a subset of fifteen sharks were equipped with acoustic transmitters which emit an ultrasonic series of pings every 45 seconds which can be detected by an array of underwater hydrophones.  These transmitters had a three-dimensional accelerometer incorporated into the tag which measured the activity level of the shark every 20 seconds post release, the data for which was in turn transmitted and stored on the seabed hydrophones.  The hydrophone array itself consisted of 32 receivers covering approximately 14 square kilometres of seabed in prime reef shark habitat.  The use of these transmitters allowed us to quantify the activity level, depth association and movement patterns of the Caribbean reef sharks post release and begin to understand how capture events might impact their behaviour.

The project officially drew to a close in November 2009 after taking blood from over forty Caribbean reef sharks and collecting approximately 33,500 detections  from the accelerometers attached to them.  The shark research team is currently collating the results which will be presented at the annual American Elasmobranch Society meeting in Rhode Island in July 2010.  The team will take part in a special symposium entitled The Physiological Stress Responses in Elasmobranch Fishes organised by Dr. Greg Skomal of Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and Dr. John Mandelman of the New England Aquarium.

An accelerometer attached to the dorsal fin of a Caribbean reef shark

An accelerometer equipped Caribbean reef shark just prior to release.

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