I Adopted A Shark!!!

For my recent 43rd birthday that happened on the 15th, I wanted to do something different for myself and I have ALWAYS wanted to adopt a shark.

The Bimini Shark Labs is a shark conservation project that is unprecedented in it's work with sharks.  It most notably works with the sharks of the Caribbean around the Bahamas.  They work with almost no budget and rely exclusively on public donations.

I urge you visit their page www.biminisharklab.com and donate, even if its $20.  Sharks are the apex predator for oceanic ecosystems and help regulate the ecosystem and keep it in balance.  Yes, we may be scared of them, but they are vital to healthy oceans.

When you adopt a shark through Bimini Shark Lab you get to nominate both a male and female name for your shark.  Of course, I couldn't help but nominate Spock for a boy and Amanda (Spock's human wife in the TOS series and movies) for a girl.

Ladies and Gents - here is Amanda, my adopted shark! (Click to read.  Please note, that this was written by someone for whom English is a second language and I ask you to be respectful of that.)

Interesting Statistics.....

Recently we had another shark attack here in Australia. 
Whilst it's a tragedy when ANYONE dies, these attacks usually take place away from patrolled areas in isolated beaches at dawn and dusk when sharks hunt.

Also, the most recent attack was on a poor guy who was a spear-fisherman whose catch no doubt brought in the shark.  But now of course it is "kill the shark kill the shark".

Here are some things that are more likely to kill you than a Shark.....

25 shocking things more likely to kill you than a shark

 

Cows are 40 times more likely to kill you than a shark. Photo: clipart.com

    

You don’t have to see the movie Jaws to know that sharks are terrifying, deadly creatures, but how dangerous are they really? On average, there is less than one shark-attack death every two years in the United States, according to records.
In honor of Shark Week, check out 25 things that are much more likely to kill you.

#1 – Stoplight Intersections

Traffic lights are responsible for about 2,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Well, we assume from people running through them, not the lights themselves.

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#2 – Coconuts

Falling coconuts cause about 150 deaths annually. You know, while you were keeping an eye on the sharks.

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#3 – Mosquitoes

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes kill about 800,000 people every year.

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#4 – High School/College Football

High school and college football injuries claim an average of 12 lives annually.

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#5 – Champagne Corks

Believe it or not, champagne corks kill almost 24 people each year. Don’t be a show off. Safety first.

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#6 – Tripping

Almost 6,000 die from tripping and falling at home each year.

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#7 – Lunch

Choking on food is the cause of about 3.000 deaths each year.

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#8 – Raw Meat

Approximately 5,000 people die each year in the U.S. alone as a result of consuming uncooked, contaminated food.

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#9 – Cows

Cows cause the death of about 20 Americans each year, mostly from blunt-force trauma. Think about that the next time you enjoy a glass of milk.

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#10 – Wind

104 people were killed in wind related incidents including hurricanes, and tornadoes claimed 70 lives in the U.S. in 2012.

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#11 – Bees

Bee stings kill about 100 people in the U.S. every year.

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#12 – Horses

Horses kill about 20 people annually in the U.S. alone.

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#13 – The Cold

About 600 people are killed in the U.S. each year from excessively cold weather.

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#14 – Ladders

Falls from ladders cause about 355 deaths annually in the U.S. Another reason not to walk under them.

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#15 – Hot Tap Water

In the U.S., about 100 people die annually from being scalded by hot tap water. Patience people, patience!

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#16 – Ants

Ants kill up to 50 people every year. If you get bit by one fire ant, you’d better run.

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#17 – Dogs

About 30 U.S. deaths are caused by dogs. Not these dogs, but you get the idea.

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#18 – Icicles

Falling icicles kill about 15 people in the U.S. each year. Chance of being injured increases with the use of a Red Ryder BB Gun.

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#19 – Autoerotic Asphyxiation

As many as 1,000 people die annually by asphyxiating themselves in this way.

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#20 – Hippos

Hippos claim the lives of 2,900 people around the world each year. You’ll never play Hungry Hungry Hippos the same way again.

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#21 – Being Left-Handed

Some claim that 2,500 deaths are caused every year when left-handed people attempt to use products designed for right-handed people. While we can’t confirm that statistic it is true that left-handed people are five times more likely than right-handers to die in accidents.

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#22 – Lightning

24,000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year.

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#23 – Vending Machines

37 people were killed trying to get a snack from a vending machine from 1978 to 1995. That’s an average of 2.18 deaths a year, making this cause of death WAY more likely than shark attacks.

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#24 – Jellyfish

Jellyfish can claim the lives of up to 40 people each year.

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#25 – Beds

450 people die falling out of beds in the United States each year. A real life nightmare.

Two Sharks Caught Just Hours After Baited Drumlines Are Set Off Metropolitan Perth ...

The Australian State of Western Australia continues it's abhorrent culling policy.
Let me say it is a tragedy when anybody dies.  Let us just remember that a dozen or more people died on Western Australian Roads yesterday.

Read the article and then feel free to send the Premier of Western Australia your disgust via the following email address.    wa-government@dpc.wa.gov.au

***update to my blogger friends - please post a link to this post or copy and paste it to your blog please***


The first was a 1m tiger shark caught off Cottesloe, which was released by Fisheries Department officers because it was below the 3m catch limit. The second shark, a 2.6m tiger shark, was caught about 11.30am.
Richard Branson lashes WA shark killing

The second of the two sharks caught this morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger that later returned to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

 

Surf Life Saving WA has advised swimmers at Cottesloe to exercise caution after the second shark was released 1km from shore by Fisheries officers.
This afternoon, the Department of Fisheries issued a statement, saying undersize and non-target species sharks would be released further out to sea.

Fisheries officers pull up a shark from the baited hooks off a Perth beach. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

It read: "The Department of Fisheries has advised that where practicable, it will release any non-targeted species that is still alive further out to sea, having due regard to not compromising the survival of the shark and of remaining within state waters."
Fisheries officers set out from Fremantle early this morning to begin deploying drum lines and baited hooks 1km from shore.
Protesters including the "marine response unit" - a team of activists who say they are determined to stop the drum line operation - are now considering how they will respond.

The second shark catch of the morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger, later returned to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

 

Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren said the dropping of drum lines off popular Perth beaches this morning "goes completely against what the community wants and will be met with continuing resistance".

Fisherman sets WA's shark catch and kill drumlines

The second shark catch of the morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger, later returned to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

 

Activists have footage of stingrays hooked on drumlines
Pro-shark activists remove bail from South West drumlines
Barnett ministers bombarded with protest emails

The second shark catch of the morning off Cottesloe in Perth, reportedly a 2.6m tiger, later returned to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

Catch-and-kill fisherman earns $5705 a day

Set to speak at the 5000 strong anti-shark cull rally tomorrow, Ms MacLaren said: "The Premier seems to have made this decision all by himself while disregarding overwhelming science and constituent concern.
Mr Barnett will still be able to hear the protests of 5000 Western Australians from Africa, where he has conveniently disappeared to while the metropolitan drum-lines are dropped."
"I wonder how safe South Fremantle beachgoers will feel knowing that there is a meat curtain in the form of baited hooks hanging 1km from their favourite beach, with a fisher waiting with a rifle," she said.
"From South Fremantle to Scarborough, Leighton Beach, Cottesloe and Scarborough we now have to witness the killing of an apex predator that maintains the balance of our oceans, the world is watching and this is an embarrassment to Western Australia".
It comes as an email bombardment began targeting every local MP in WA with no shark cull messages as the Conservation Council urges West Australians to "ramp up the pressure on their local Members of Parliament".
Since the introduction of the shark mitigation program earlier this month in the South-West, only one shark is known to have been caught and shot dead off Old Dunsborough.


To balance - here is a piece from Discovery re the risks of Shark Attack.  Completely at odds with the WA Governments shark attack propoganda.

Guest commentator Debbie Salamone is Communications Manager at the Pew Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast.

There’s nothing like a good shark attack story. I should know. I was a journalist for 21 years near Volusia County, Florida — the shark bite capital of the world. I even made sure someone phoned my newspaper to report my own shark attack as I was pumped full of morphine and wheeled into the operating room.

Sharks always seem to be taking the rap as man-eating villains –- in the media, movies and books. So let’s get a little perspective. Your chances of being attacked by a shark are just one in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.

On average, there are about 65 shark attacks worldwide each year; a handful are fatal. You are more likely to be killed by a dog, snake or in a car collision with a deer. You’re also 30 times more likely to be killed by lightning and three times more likely to drown at the beach than die from a shark attack, according to ISAF.
Even digging a sand hole is more dangerous…

The New England Journal of Medicine reported that from 1990 to 2006, 16 people died by digging until the sand collapsed and smothered them. ISAF counted a dozen U.S. shark deaths in the same period. Clearly, you’d be safer in the water, with the sharks.

Still not convinced? Consider another ISAF statistic: In one year in the U.S., sharks injured just 13 people while nearly 200,000 were hurt in accidents involving ladders, toilets and chainsaws.

And in an older, but memorable study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, researchers tracked vending machine deaths from 1977 to 1995. Thirty-seven people were killed when they toppled a vending machine to get a reluctant quarter or cola — an average of about two per year, or twice the number killed by sharks in the US. Just when you thought it was safe to get a Dr. Pepper…

You get the picture.

Even when they do happen, most shark attacks are “hit and run” — the shark takes a bite, realises it made a mistake and moves on to something more delicious. That’s what happened to me. Devastating injuries and brutal attacks are much more unusual.

Sharks may not appear as the most cuddly creatures on Earth, but they are worth saving for the health of the entire ocean ecosystem. Learn more about the threats to sharks and the importance of preserving them at www.pewsharks.org. And if you’re still afraid to go back in the water, more comforting statistics on the risk of shark attacks are available at ISAF.

Sir David Would Not Approve....

I hope these people are found and prosecuted to the very limits of the law.  Disgusting.

Shark found strung up after being slashed

Date

July 30, 2013 - 12:36PM

Megan Levy

 

Strung up shark horrifies divers

 

Dive photographer Robbert Westerdyk and a group of friends made the gruesome discovery of a tied up mako shark at the HMAS Adelaide wreck on the NSW central coast.

A dead two-metre shark that was found strung up by its tail and slashed across the torso in waters off the NSW central coast was probably still alive when it was targeted, according to a diver who discovered the "horrifying" scene.
Robbert Westerdyk, a member of the Terrigal Underwater Group, had just finished a dive at the HMAS Adelaide shipwreck off Avoca Beach on Saturday morning when he and a group of fellow divers saw a large shadow in the water as they prepared to leave.

"I think it still must have had a bit of life and it was still maybe trying to fight"

The divers swam over to investigate, and were confronted with a shocking scene: a two-metre, 120-kilogram mako shark suspended on a mooring rope near the shipwreck's bow.

 The shark was found near Avoca Beach. Photo: Robbert Westerdyk

The dead shark appeared to have been deliberately tied up, and also had been stabbed on its torso.

"It was strung around the tail, probably 9, 10, 11, 12 times," Mr Westerdyk said.
"It was really strung up tight by the tail, and then there was a big gash right across the torso of the shark.

The shark was discovered near the wreck of HMAS Adelaide. Photo: Robbert Westerdyk

"We were trying to think of what could have done this. It certainly didn't happen by itself. It's certainly had intervention there by some means.
"It was just a horrifying thing to see.
"I don't even think the shark was fully dead at the time because of the way it was quite gnarled and twisted. I think it still must have had a bit of life and it was still maybe trying to fight."

Mystery: it is not known why this shark was killed and tied up. Photo: Robbert Westerdyk

Mr Westerdyk, who is a keen underwater photographer, took some images of the shark and forwarded them to the NSW Department of Primary Industries, which is investigating the incident.
The divers then cut the shark free and it floated away.
Mr Westerdyk said while it was not illegal to fish for mako sharks, the shark was found within the 200-metre exclusion zone around the HMAS Adelaide.

The shark was slashed and then tied up in the water. Photo: Robbert Westerdyk

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/animals/shark-found-strung-up-after-being-slashed-20130730-2qw3n.html#ixzz2aXKVYMbS

Shark Attacks VS.........

Worried about sharks??..... (Data is for USA).....

Annual Risk Of Death During One's Lifetime

Disease and Accidental Causes of Deaths	Annual Deaths	Death Risk During One's Lifetime
Heart disease	652,486	1 in 5
Cancer	553,888	1 in 7
Stroke	150,074	1 in 24
Hospital Infections	99,000	1 in 38
Flu	59,664	1 in 63
Car accidents	44,757	1 in 84
Suicide	31,484	1 in 119
Accidental poisoning	19,456	1 in 193
MRSA (resistant bacteria)	19,000	1 in 197
Falls	17,229	1 in 218
Drowning	3,306	1 in 1,134
Bike accident	762	1 in 4,919
Air/space accident	742	1 in 5,051
Excessive cold	620	1 in 6,045
Sun/heat exposure	273	1 in 13,729
Lightning	47	1 in 79,746
Train crash	24	1 in 156,169
Fireworks	11	1 in 340,733
Shark attack	1	1 in 3,748,067

Sources: All accidental death information from National Safety Council. Disease death information from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shark fatality data provided by the International Shark Attack File.

Lifetime risk is calculated by dividing 2003 population (290,850,005) by the number of deaths, divided by 77.6, the life expectancy of a person born in 2003.

......2 Stoopid........ Our Legacy For One Of The Great Species Of The Oceans.......

.............The species above is actually a Mako - they rarely get to half this size now............




........Most sharks take many years - some over a decade - before they are sexually mature and able to reproduce.......

....Without these animals, commercial fishing will come to a halt due to the lack of control over mid-level predators like seals............

........And yes you SHOULD care - the loss of an apex predator in an ecosystem can often lead to the loss of the ENTIRE ecosystem.....

...Thank you Mr Spielberg............... when I eventually meet you.............I'm hitting you in the mouth.............. hard..........
.

....2 Brisbane..... What Do You Have In Your River?... In Ours We Have Sharks.......

............bull sharks to be exact..... known man-eaters...... highly aggressive.... and the river that is just across the road from me is where they like to breed, birth and hunt..........how's that for wildlife?




.....oh and we have dolphins too.............



.

.....2 Good ........ Good News Story..............

Shark bite victims unite to save sharks

They've lost arms, legs and ankle parts but nine survivors of encounters with sharks, including Australian navy diver Paul de Gelder, say that the oceans' greatest predator - not man - should fear the water.

The survivors gathered at the United Nations in New York on Monday to tell the world that their attackers, like the great white, desperately need protecting.

De Gelder, whose right hand and lower right leg were torn off last year in Sydney Harbour, said he wanted to "speak out for an animal that can't speak for itself".

Rampant overfishing is driving some species to the brink of extinction, with 73 million sharks killed annually just to feed Asia's demand for shark fin soup.

"We're decimating the population of sharks just for a bowl of soup," de Gelder said.

Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based organisation that brought the survivors to the UN, says 30 per cent of shark species are threatened or near-threatened with extinction, while the status of 47 per cent is not properly known.

Scientists say that wiping out sharks, which are at the top of the ocean food chain, creates a destructive ripple effect throughout the marine eco-system.

For example, sharks eat seabirds, so that a reduction in shark numbers leads to more seabirds, which then eat up the bait fish needed by tuna, another endangered big fish.

Another example is the gradual collapse of life on coral reefs once the primary predator is removed from the balance.

"The ramifications on the ocean eco-system are vast," said Matt Rand, director of shark conservation at Pew.

Pew is lobbying for an end to finning, whereby fishermen simply slice off shark fins and throw the mortally wounded creatures back into the sea, and for strict catch limits to be imposed worldwide.

Currently "in the open ocean there are no limits on how many sharks can be caught," Rand said.

The survivors said the fear inspired by sharks, most famously in the massively popular film Jaws, is hugely distorted.

Fewer than 70 people are recorded as being bitten annually worldwide, although the number does not include incidents in countries where statistics are not kept. Of those, just a handful die, making fatal shark attacks less likely than lightning strikes.

Debbie Salamone, who went to work for Pew after a shark severed her Achilles tendon in 2004 in Florida, said that at first "I was really not a big fan of sharks. I wanted to plot my revenge and was planning to eat shark steaks."

She said that she came to understand that, instead, she should go the other way and help the fearsome, but vulnerable fish.

"I decided I needed to find some sort of reason," she said.

"I decided this was a test, a test of my commitment to environmental conservation."

AFP

.

...Good News Story... But With Sad Ending.....

IT TAKES a brave soul to race to the rescue of a stranded great white shark.
There are those teeth for one thing - large and sharp enough to take off a man's helping hand, even out of the water.

But Andrew Eckersley didn't think twice last Friday morning when he spotted one of the fearsome predators washed up on a beach on the Mid-North Coast in New South Wales.
Mr Eckersley and a lone surfer rushed to the 3m shark's aid, treating it with the kind of care and compassion usually reserved for beached whales.

"It was pretty scary at first. This guy in a wetsuit was sort of baling water on to its back by hand and digging out a hole for it on the ocean side," Mr Eckersley said yesterday.

"It was pretty big. I wouldn't have been able to put my fingers together if I was giving it a cuddle."




Using logs they found on the beach, the pair tried levering the shark out of the sand to get it into deeper water.

"There was the thought while we were getting the logs under it that I might pinch it or something and it would lunge at me," he said.
Thankfully, it didn't, but the logs failed to free it from the sand, so the pair tried gently pulling the beast out to sea, "inch-by-inch".

"We got it out to about mid-thigh depth and it was starting to perk up again, which was exciting," Mr Eckersley said.
"I think the other guy started to get his confidence up a bit when he realised it wasn't going to bite our legs off, so he took it out a bit further."

Photographer Ruth Fahey, who captured the remarkable rescue on Hungry Head beach, said she first thought the maneater was a stranded dolphin. "Then I got closer and saw it was this huge shark and just thought, 'Holy crap!'," she said.

Once it got to deeper water the shark slowly started to recover and disappeared beneath the breakers, heading out to sea. But sadly, it was discovered dead on the same beach the following day.

Its jaws had been hacked out by someone as a souvenir, an illegal practice in NSW.

Sydney Aquarium aquatic biologist Sebastian Schmid said it was "very unusual" for a live great white to wash up on a beach and suggested it was already sick when it first came ashore.

reprinted from here.. http://www.news.com.au/great-white-shark-rescue-anyone-here-know-mouth-to-mouth/story-e6frfkor-1225901349878

Shalom

Damien

....................................I've Had Enough !!!! .....................................................................

........................I am so sick of Shark Porn!!!

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I am a COMPLETE and UTTER documentary whore.

I love my doco's - I love me some Sir David Attenborough........ I love some Jeff Corwin ......... Steve Leonard ...........Dave Salmoni ............. Jamie Crawford .............. Nick Baker ............... the people who make GOOD, CONSTRUCTIVE and SANE wildlife documentaries.

I could not stand the Crikey Guy aka The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin - he did not get "attacked" by a stingray - he was once again molesting yet another poor animal he had his beady little eyes on and this one decided to fight back - as many people said one eventually would.  I am sorry he died - certainly for any one who departs this earth prematurely - but if you bug an animal eventually it will push back.

For the same reason I can not stand that idiot Austin Stevens.

*NOW* one of my favorite TV channels has now sunk to the same level of sensationalism that it seems the media has to sink to these days to get the "suits" to okay their show.

Shark Week on the Discovery Channel has always been one of my favourite times of the year as the shark is one of my favourite animals to see profiled in a documentary.

But the last couple of years, Shark Week has quickly morphed into Shark Victim Week - AKA Shark Porn.

Now - we no longer have Sir David or one of the other sane wildlife presenters hosting / narrating a documentary that shows you something interesting about sharks i.e. their importance in the food chain which also contributes to the security of commercial fish stocks etc. - now we just see show after show of how this person got attacked and survived and then a show about THAT great white shark that took this person accompanied by lingering shots of the victims family sobbing on TV and blaming that "rogue shark".

Now, don't think for a second I am not sympathetic to these poor people.  Losing a loved one is one of the most horrifying things that one can experience.  The grief is overwhelming and the emptiness of their loss is never filled and you are left with a gaping wound that never heals.  My heart aches for these families.

And yet, can someone please tell me how bloody, graphic doco's of these attacks somehow help the family?  Does it help them heal?  Does it help them fill the void in their life?  No..... all it does is serve as a rallying cry for those morons who believe the only good shark is a dead shark.

Any loss of human life is one too many, but the reality is that sharks kill perhaps 10 people a year - we kill 80 million sharks a year.

Hippos in Africa kill a thousand people a year - shall we kill all of them?

Bees kill several thousand people a year - same question...

How about Lions - those cute cats shown in the Africa profiles - they kill some 400 people in Africa every year -  if someone went on television suggesting that we should wipe them out to preserve our safety could you imagine the outcry?

Now don't think for a minute that I am a naturalist who has the psychology of PETA - those freaks wouldn't know real conservation if it bit them on their metropolitan designer clad arses.

The truth of the matter is - we have moved from profiling an animal - to glorifying the unfortunate byproduct of humans entering it's environment.  

I won't be watching Shark Week this year - and I've emailed them my thoughts - but I guarantee it won't matter - why?.............. because our fear overrides our common sense .............. and fear apparently makes for really good TV.

Sir David can not be happy.

.