Friday, July 20, 2007

Highly recommended Reading!

Have you already done The Shark Dive with us?

If so, you might have noticed that we don't talk much about the global plight of Sharks and the desperate need to protect them.

We believe that actions speak louder than words and having successfully established the Shark Reef Marine Reserve and more recently, the Fiji Shark Corridor, we leave it to our clients to make up their own mind about the subject.
Many of our customers are quite apprehensive before taking the plunge, but once we see the total awe and exhilaration when they surface again, we just know that we've managed to create yet another batch of believers.
They've just experienced first hand that Bull Sharks are quite shy and Tigers, way cool, and that's what they'll go and tell their friends, along with showing them a trophy DVD documenting their braveness.

Out there, other people are desperately trying to counter the slaughter of Sharks by addressing the public via the media.

Sharks always seem to inflame strong emotions and the Shark conservation community at large seems to be no exception. Among them, you will find a large group of fabulous researchers with strong views and equally strong personalities, well meaning and well-funded but hopelessly idealistic NGOs, fake "research institutes" which are all about tourism dollars and zero about research, hoards of carpetbagging PhD students and of course the usual plethora of groupies, wannabees and self-declared experts.
All of that constitutes a highly explosive mix resulting in frequent vocal and public infighting, deplorable fragmentation of resources and squandering of energies.

Ever since airing the infamous "Anatomy of a Shark Bite" episode featuring a self-appointed Shark "guru" and charlatan, Discovery Channel's venerable Shark Weeks have found themselves smack in the middle of that controversy.
Discovery dishes out quite a bit of money to the Shark community and in view of the potential loss of income, most of the criticism so far has been limited to more or less surreptitious moaning and sniping.
Finally, a group of concerned and I believe, well-intentioned Shark people have mustered the courage to openly publish a letter addressing those grievances.

We applaud their initiative and hope that it will lead to open and fruitful dialogue, for the benefit of the Discovery Channel and Shark Conservation alike!

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