25 replies to this topic

[shawnh]

Mary Lynn,
Just watched your podcast....great stuff! I am of course very sad to hear about the shark situation. Unfortunately this is the same story the world over Your video does a good job of really documenting the massive changes in the last 50 years. Keep it up.
shawn

[Mary Lynn]

Thank you for the good feedback, Shawn. One of the many reasons I did this video was because of having come across all the "baseline" info on the sharks at Clipperton in the Connie Limbaugh collection at the Scripps Archives. When we went to Clipperton last month we were hoping to come across numbers of sharks. We even had a cage in case it was needed. I mean, even in 1980, Jacques Cousteau described the waters as having too many aggressive sharks to safely dive there. So when we kept diving and diving and not seeing many sharks, and all that old longline, it became clear that this was a particularly gripping instance of what we're seeing all over the world.

Anyway, I've got a couple more interviews to do for the Part Two video before really getting into the editing of that. But something I really want to do is encourage folks who are out there diving and getting images to tell the stories of what's happening out there, what they're seeing, and what they're not seeing. Showing beautiful images of marine life and undersea-scapes is important so people can experience that beauty. And telling the stories of what is happening out there is also vitally important if we are to have a chance to save it. People protect what they love and what they value. Thank you again for the encouragement, Shawn!

Mary Lynn

[shawnh]

You know it Mary Lynn.I have gathered some more 'compelling' content recently and i will be building a story folks will want to see. this time i hope it will actually result in some action being taken. more to come....

[clippo]

Hi Mary Lynn - fantastic pics! - glad to see that the expedition went well. I'm still struggling to get to the Island... have a few plans on the go... kind regards, John

[wuestehu]

The sharks have been literally looted by Japanese floating factories (cannot even call them fishing boats) .
They used to come and poach for fins until fined and pushed away by the French Navy.
It looks like after that they just went to the limit s of the international waters and paid smallerl south american fishing boats to do their bad deeds.
According to what I heard, only the price of fuel has been keeping them away and the shark population could be on the rebound, thus all the juveniles.
Problem lies on Mexico too.
France granted permits without quotas to Mexican fishing boats...scary sight...they have onboard helicopters that can track tunas. Once the loot has been spotted from the air, ships move in and take everything. With the food supply, the food chain disrupted...would the big sharks go away?
Finally, the Clipperton waters are supposed to be the last refuge of the 400 pounder tunas sports fishermen long for. Long range fishing is the last "plague".

Edited by wuestehu, 26 April 2011 - 02:58 PM.

[wuestehu]

Limbaugh 1958 is a good reference for the assessment of the shark population.

President Roosevelt was obsessed by the atoll too and used to take his guest fishing there before WW2...in his yatch and US Navy warship. The game was to bring the catch onboard before the sharks had it...and most of the time, it was reported they won!

Sharks were also very numerous -but not agressive- when Cousteau went there in 76 or 80.
Since that last video documentary, the shark population has visibly been shrinking according to the various scientific surveys (2001, 2005).