I arrived in Palau earlier today and my first thought was the realisation that apart from water there is nothing else around me. It’s a bit of scary thought. Yet as I’ve been discovering more about the island and it’s truly exotic culture this feeling of isolation is quickly replaced by fascination.
In Palau, the ocean plays a very important role and there are dozens of legends that tell about the creation of turtles, mermaids and of course, sharks. I also learn that Palauans are true conservation pioneers, who created their first marine protected area in the 1950s.
Palau, the world's first shark sanctuary. Photo: Save Our Seas Foundation
Tova Bornovski, SOSF project leader and owner of local dive shop, Fish ’n Fins, is the organiser of Palau Shark Week. She explains, “We created the Micronesian Shark Foundation and Palau Shark Week because we wanted answers to our questions. We need to protect the sharks but there is still so much about them we don’t know.”
Save Our Seas Foundation Chief Scientist, Dr Rupert Ormond will be attending the CITES 15th Conference of the Parties (CoP15) that will consider 4 proposals to protect 8 shark species. The conference takes place from 13 – 25 March 2010 in Doha, Qatar.
Four proposals to list shark species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have been offered for consideration. The proposals aim to add eight species – spiny dogfish, porbeagle, oceanic whitetip, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, dusky and sandbar sharks – to CITES Appendix II.
All eight of these shark species are:
Subject to persistent demand that drives targeted fisheries and retention of bycatch
Traded internationally in substantial quantities
Included in the lowest productivity category (intrinsic rate of population increase <0.14) under criteria developed by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) for CITES listing of commercially exploited aquatic species
Inadequately managed by most countries, and
Not subject to fishing limits under any regional fisheries management organization (RFMO).
Listing these shark species under CITES Appendix II is:
Essential for ensuring that international trade is held to sustainable levels
Complementary to fisheries management efforts
Key to improving data on the nature and extent of fisheries and trade
Supported by the CITES Secretarial, TRAFFIC and IUCN, and
Consistent with the FAO International Plan of Action for Sharks
The shark proposals include solid justification that the species meet the CITES criteria for listing. The proponents have agreed to delay the effect of these listings by 18 months to enable Parties to resolve related technical and administrative issues.
Recommendation: Support all shark proposals (15,16, 17 & 18) at CITES CoP15.
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.
Well folks, what do toasters have to do with gardening? And what do toasters have to do with sharks? And where can you get a shark microphone? If you are wondering about any of these questions, I suggest you watch this short, shark-related piece. When I was visiting the Sanibel Sea School to film children at a shark camp for The Riddle Solvers shark episode, I conducted some behind-the-scenes interviews for fun, in the blazing hot Florida sun, and this is what happened. And I should mention that you’ll see some stunning HD footage of sharks, from the Save Our Seas Foundation’s amazing footage library.
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!
The Save Our Seas Foundation is committed to preserving our marine environment for future generations. With your help we can and will make a difference. Find out how you can support our work.
