I´M A DIVER NETWORK: SEA SHEPHERD

August 08, 2008

SEA SHEPHERD

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was formally incorporated in the United States in 1981 in the state of Oregon. Previous to this, the idea of Sea Shepherd was formed when Captain Paul Watson founded the Earth Force Society in 1977 in Vancouver BC, Canada. The original mandate of both organizations was marine mammal protection and conservation with an immediate goal of shutting down illegal whaling and sealing operations, but Sea Shepherd later expanded its mission to include all marine wildlife.

With financial support from Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals, the society's first ship a North Atlantic sea trawler "the Westella" was purchased in Hull, England (UK) and renamed the Sea Shepherd. It's first mission was to the ice floes of eastern Canada to interfere with the annual killing of baby harp seals known as whitecoats.

In the same year, 1979, the Sea Shepherd hunted down and rammed the notorious pirate whaler the Sierra in a Portugal harbor ending its infamous career as the scourge of the seas.

The success of the seal campaign and the ramming of the Sierra was the start of Sea Shepherd's historical 160 voyages over the next 2 decades, enforcing international laws where no law enforcement existed - on the high seas.

Sea Shepherd continues to accomplish its mission by upholding and enforcing international treaties, laws and conventions of world governments.

Sea Shepherd is committed to the eradication of pirate whaling, poaching, shark finning, unlawful habitat destruction, and violations of established laws in the World's oceans.

To that end, Sea Shepherd assists national and international bodies in the enforcement of international law under authority of the United Nations World Charter for Nature.

Mission Statement

Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.

International Laws and Charters

Sea Shepherd campaigns are guided by the United Nations World Charter for Nature. Sections 21-24 of the Charter provides authority to individuals to act on behalf of and enforce international conservation laws.
Sea Shepherd cooperates fully with all international law enforcement agencies and its enforcement activities complying with standard practices of law and policing enforcement.
Sea Shepherd adheres to the utilization of non-violent principles in the course of all actions and has taken a standard against violence in the protection of the oceans.

The World Charter for Nature
U.N. Doc. A/37/51 (1982)

The International Whaling Commission (IWC)

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
March 3rd, 1973, Washington, D.C.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
December 10th, 1982, Montego Bay

The Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
November 23rd, 1972, Paris, France

The Convention of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention (NAFO)

International Convention for Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT)

The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
June 5th -16th, 1972, Stockholm, Sweden

ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
July 9th, 1985, Kuala Lumpur

The Berne Convention

Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is dedicated to working towards cooperative agreements between nations to protect species and habitats according to SSCS Mandate.

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SHARKWATER THE FILM

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth. Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas. Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives. Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed. Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of humankind.

SEA SHEPERD NEWS: Hakkasan Drops Shark Fin Soup from the Menu

Since January, 2008 the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Bite-Back have been working to have shark fin soup pulled from the menu of Hakkasan, one of the top 20 restaurants in the world.
Hakkasan has been selling shark-fin soup since 2001.

This week Hakkasan has officially removed shark-fin from their menu in recognition of the reality that sharks face extinction because of the market for shark-fin soup.
Bite-Back and Sea Shepherd have been lobbying Hakkasan since the beginning of the year.

Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said,

“This victory for the seas sends out a determined and resolute message to the restaurant world … sell shark-fin soup and be damned. The only reason shark populations are facing extinction is because of retail and consumer demand. Remove that demand and the shark fishing trade will collapse.”

Fortified by recent support from fellow marine conservation group, Sea Shepherd, Bite-Back has extended its ambition to absolve the UK from the extinction of sharks, by inspiring all traders in shark products to stop.

“If UK retailers adopt Bite-Back’s programme to halt the trade in shark products, we will have created a template for change that can be replicated across the developed world,” said Graham.

To accelerate an end to the trade, Bite-Back’s campaigns are working to devalue a dead shark. Biteback and Sea Shepherd are targeting any business that profits from the sale of jaws, cartilage, fins, teeth, meat and liver oil and encourage them to stop. Bite-Back and Sea Shepherd are planning the next peaceful protest in Chinatown on Saturday 26 July.
Also in the firing line is Holland & Barrett for its continued sale of shark cartilage capsules and non-commitment to back down. Already more than 1,000 Bite-Back supporters have emailed the health store chain, leaving the group with no other alternative then to instigate a nationwide series of peaceful protests outside the offending stores.

THE GREAT BLUE HOLE

The Blue Hole is a perfectly circular limestone sinkhole more than 300 feet across and 412 feet deep. The array of bizarre stalactites and limestone formations which mould its walls seem to become more intricate and intense the deeper one dives.
Near to The Blue Hole, one of Belize's largest protected areas, Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, encompasses 10,000 acres of the atoll and 15 square miles of surrounding waters. The diameter of the circular reef area stretches for about 1,000 feet and provides an ideal habitat for corals to attach and flourish.
The coral actually breaks the surface in many sections at low tide. Except for two narrow channels, the reef surrounds the hole. The hole itself is the opening to a system of caves and passageway that penetrate this undersea mountain. In various places, massive limestone stalactites hang down from what was once the ceiling of air-filled caves before the end of the last Ice Age.
When the ice melted the sea level rose, flooding the caves. The temperature in the Blue Hole at 130ft is about 76F with hardly any change throughout the year at that depth. For all the practical purposes the over 400-foot depth makes The Blue Hole a bottomless pit.
The walls are sheer from the surface until a depth of approximately 110 feet where you will begin to encounter stalactite formtions which actually angle back, allowing you to dive underneath monstrous overhangs. Hovering amongst the stalactites, you can't help but feel humbled by the knowledge that the massive formation before you once stood high and dry above the surface of the sea eons ago.

The feeling is enhanced by the dizzying effect of nitrogen breathed at depths. The water is motionless and the visibility often approaches 200 feet as you break a very noticeable thermocline. One can get mildly narked in back-set caves 150' down in clear, still water, filled with 25 to 50 foot long stalactites.
Guides pole the group and chum in sharks on a majority vote. Bull, Reef and Hammer Head sharks found here, that look enormous, even from behind the protection of a handy stalagmite. A rare - wonderful dive. However this is truly a techical category decompression dive, not recommended for newbys or resort dive qualified divers. ( The bottom of Blue Hole is over 400 feet down and the wall slopes back, such that one must have absolute buoyancy control rather than to depend on something to grasp if starting to plummet while descending. Likewise - ballooning is equally deadly to ones health when coming up from 150 plus feet and requires excellent buoyancy control. Decompression times are around10 to 15 minutes at 20 feet.).

The best dive guides anchor a spare tank and regulator at your 20 foot deco spot, usually at the permanent mooring anchor located around the rim of the Blue Hole, which your boat moors too. The Blue Hole is a must when in Ambergris, some people liken it to a religous experience.

Have a good trip, and

DIVE SAFE!!!

THEY EAT...

Sharks have been said to eat almost anything. License plates, tires and whole cows have been found in the stomachs of a few. But what do sharks eat, normally? And, how do they eat?

There are nearly 400 shark species swimming in oceans around the world, so the concept of answering this question in a single article is, well, impossible. Each shark has its own individual food habits and eating styles.
There are, however, some consistencies between shark types. The most obvious: All sharks are at least partly carnivorous. But each type of shark has a different hunting habit, and this helps perpetuate a survival of the fittest mode in their particular environment. What’s on the menu is a whole different story.

With close to 400 shark species floating around, you could fill volumes cataloguing their individual food habits. While cookiecutter sharks take nonlethal bites of flesh from their prey and call it a day, great white sharks may eat large sea mammals in one big gulp. And certainly the dietary customs of the 8-inch (20-centimeter) dogfish shark vary from that of the 60-foot (20-meter) whale shark, not to mention the different cousins, aunts and uncles in between.

In general, sharks prefer to eat fish, squid and crustaceans.

All sharks are at least partly carnivorous. They usually consume between 0.5 and 3.0 percent of their body weight each meal since most space their dinners out to every two or three days. Although their bodies are well equipped for catching food, they can't chew well, so they need time to properly digest.

Since sharks stand at the top of the aquatic food chain, their diets play an important role in regulating the species below them, much like lions in the jungle. For instance, if large sharks were to die out, that would increase the population of octopus, which in turn would feed on more lobsters.

In addition, shark hunting habits help to perpetuate a survival of the fittest mode in their environment. To conserve energy, sharks often target weak, immature or sickly fish or mammals.

That weeds out the more vulnerable creatures and keeps the stronger, healthier fish and animals alive.

August 08, 2008

SEA SHEPHERD

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