JOURNAL 
PACIFIC TUNA FISHERIES TAKE RECORD CATCH
January 20, 2012
It has been estimated that more than 2.4 million tonnes of tuna have been caught in Pacific waters over 2010.
Similar numbers for 2011 will risk the sustainability of the fish.
This record take represents 83% of the total Pacific Ocean catch and 60% of the global tuna catch.
The main targets is bigeye tuna, with emerging concerns for skipjack, albacore and yellowfin tuna.
Assesments made by the Oceanic Fisheries Program, recommend that bigeye catches be reduced by 32 percent.
The large volumes of fish caught is due to the purse seine method of fishing.
Concerns have also been raised by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) that the entire Pacific region needs strong encouragement to meet acceptable standards for bycatch, mitigation, data reporting and comprehensive monitoring, in order to improve sustainability.
The 24-nation Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, managing fisheries in the Pacific, is due to meet in March.
The Cook Islands Government has signed a three-year agreement with China for the fishing of bigeye tuna and swordfish within their waters. The deal allows 20 Chinese vessels an exclusive zone, which will earn the Cook Islands around US $ 600,000 in fees for the first year, with that figure to be re-negotiated in the two subsequent years. The Marine Resources secretary said not much is known about bigeye and swordfish within their zone.
Harriet Jones
THE BEAUTY OF THE TIGER
May 13, 2011
HARRIET JONES
This species of shark has been described as tough, mean and extremely deadly. Records show it has grown up to seven metres long and has weighed almost 800kg. Its habitat of choice is tropical and warm coastal waters.
The species will wait patiently to attack. It takes its time, watches, and decides when to strike.
It has large eyes, and multiple layers of serrated jaws that cram the width of its blunt and robust head and are strong enough to bite through a large tortoise shell. It uses its prominent dorsal fin to pivot and turn quickly, and has down-swept pectoral fins that help give its body lift in the water. Its powerful tail allows, within a moment, a forceful thrust when needed.
Most likely named after its distinctive black vertical markings, which disappear as it matures into the more classical uniform grey colouring, with a white underside, the tiger shark is listed as the second most dangerous shark in the sea, after the great white.
But should this shark still be hallmarked as ‘deadly’ and ‘the dustbin of the sea’ for its habits of eating anything in its path?
I asked friend and shark conservationist,Jupp Kerckerinck, on his experiences with tiger sharks.
Where do you dive with tiger sharks?
My favourite spot to swim with tiger sharks is Tiger Beach in the Bahamas. We take a boat called "The Dolphin Dream" out of Palm Beach and stay for six days.
How do they behave when you are with them?
Sharks all have different personalities. I have never had a
tiger shark that was aggressive, but there was one who took
a curiousity ‘taste bite’ at a diver. The guy ended up with 14 holes in his dive suit, but he did not have a scratch on his body. I took a video of this event. The shark is called Emma, and she is probably the mostly photographed tiger shark in the world. I have known her for six years. I honestly believe that she recognizes people and though she comes very close she is never hostile.
So you feel safe with them?
Like most sharks, tigers are curious, but in the last two years that we have been diving with them we have found they are becoming more shy than in previous years. There must be a reason and we believe that they are being chased and hunted for their fins. We have seen two of them with injuries on their mouths, one had a hook in the side of her mouth. I read that Jim Abernathy got it out but I am not quite sure if that is true.
Most of the time on our last dive, they kept their distance,more than normally, but after a while they came closer as you can see in the photos.
I feel totally safe with them and have never had a situation where they showed an aggressive behaviour.
Are they in danger, and if so, what is their main threat?
They are in great danger. The major threat they face is from sports fishermen and commercial fishermen who kill sharks for their fins. Friends who dive with me have all written to the Bahaman Tourism Board, trying to convince them that sharks left alive are worth more to their country than dead ones. I hope that they will listen.
What makes them special to you
As far as I know, tiger sharks have a good personality. They are not as dangerous as people think they are. I find them very intelligent, sometimes even playful.
After six years of diving with tiger sharks, I have a completely different impression of them, now I have the pleasure of diving and inter-acting with them. Of course, they are wild animals with predatory skills, but they are not as dangerous to humans as many believe. They certainly are not the brainless eating machines that many people normally see.
Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Mike Ellis
Photo 3 courtesy of Paul Spielvogel
SHARK BAY
February 20, 2011
Harriet Jones
Keeping sharks in captivity is not easy. Any animal taken from the wild and placed in a controlled environment is going to need a decent amount of space, familiar natural surroundings, the temperature on the right setting, and a healthy diet that matches what it would eat in its own habitat.
In developed countries, most concrete pools have gone, that people would recall from visiting aquariums, where commerce overrode compassion, and animals plucked from the ocean would die either of mismanagement or boredom.
It is well known that certain sharks can thrive in aquariums. One is the grey nurse shark. This fierce looking but docile creature is listed as ‘critically endangered’ after years of being hunted by humans.
Other species that cope well in confinement are zebra, wobbegong and Port Jackson sharks.
But what about the ‘bad asses’?
Great whites have a history of dying in captivity, as do most oceanic sharks such as the tiger or blue shark.
However, Sea World, on the Gold Coast of Australia, has recently opened a new exhibit called Shark Bay, housing a number of four metre dusky sharks, a lemon shark, a bronze whaler and a bull. Apparently the dusky sharks are breeding exceptionally well and Sea World releases a number of babies each year back into he wild.
I met with Sea World director of Marine Sciences, Trevor Long, and as he walked me past streams of visitors arriving for the exhibits, he explained how he designed the shark enclosure.
“We wanted an aquarium that could hold larger breeds of sharks and that would also give them natural sunlight and a larger surface area”.
He explained that larger and more athletic breeds of shark need longer areas to swim and glide, so they don’t have to constantly turn, as in most aquariums that are concentrated on depth not length. The constant turning in shorter tanks wearies the shark.
When we reached the shark pools, I was immediately impressed with the natural setting. Swallow tidal pools had been imitated which housed invertebrates; this led to a lengthier reef area, with large fish and shark species; and then the main pool, where there was an assortment of beautiful fish, and the big guys, the whaler sharks and the bull, a female named Elle.
Elle came from Port Macquarie Aquarium as a 600mm long pup in 1978. She is now 3.4 metres. She was the first shark to be transported with sedation, and most likely, due to her long time in confinement in Port Macquarie, was safer kept in captivity at Sea World.
What a home it is for her retirement. Sand, rocks and palm trees encircle a wharf where there is a photographic display about shark conservation for visitors to read.
“We actually had to take down a few of the photos I had, of the effects of shark finning, as they were too confrontational for the public,” Long admits.
As we strolled on the boardwalk, Long told me his inspiration was Manly Wharf, where as a kid his stomach would tighten when he peered down and saw something swimming underneath.
When I looked in, I too was excited as a massive black hulk drifted past, followed by a bustling pod of fish, scurrying to keep up, but still staying well behind the regal shark.
Long explained; “ People have this misconception about aquariums, that we catch fish, they die in captivity, and we get new ones for the tourists. But we do release some of these sharks when they outgrow their pen, such as the tiger shark or the lemon shark we recently freed.”
Unfortunately, the lemon shark died in shark nets along the Gold Coast seven months after its release.
Long once came across a fisherman who had caught the young lemon shark and was about to put a bullet in its head. He offered the man fifty dollars for his catch and took him back to Sea World. Raised as a baby, the shark was soon extremely popular and loved by his keepers and the divers who cleaned his enclosure.
“At under two metres he was fine, but when he reached 2.5 metres, we had to tag and release him.”
Long says the staff were sad to see him go, but recalls the angst he had over revealing to them the news that the shark was later found dead from entanglement in a beach net.
“The sad thing was he was fit and healthy. He hadn’t lost his instincts to hunt and survive in the wild.”
Long shakes his head, “ Sharks have no malice toward us, what-so-ever. They just have a response to food.”
We then walked to the viewing area that displays the sharks under the surface. I was amazed at the crowds of people, many who would never have a chance to dive, or see these creatures from a boat, all gazing in wonderment at this majestic underwater world.
Long explained he designed tunnels for reef fish to escape larger predators, and showed me a group of tiny fish that were protecting their young. Breeding was going well in that tank, and I couldn’t help ask why it looked so healthy and clean.
Long explained that the pool is monitored eight hours a day by lab technicians, and divers clean and vacuum it each day. There is a vet on site and an alarm system is on continuous alert, in case anything such as the temperature or salt level Ph is out of whack.
The pool is run by a massive filtration area that is the same size as the pool itself. The water in Shark Bay turns over at 1000 litres per second through 38 pumps via a process that involves a biological filter, sand filtration, disinfection, and nitrification.
The pool must maintain a temperature of 23 to 27 degrees, even against the element of the Queensland sun, and when it rains, the salt level must not be compromised.
“We bought the last ten tonnes of salt from Rockhampton after the flood crisis hit,” Long says.
As I left the Bay, I overheard a little boy telling his sister and mother, “Mum, people are killing sharks.” Scoffed at by his sister, he stood his ground and pointed with determination at one of Long’s signs, “See, that is what the sign says, look.”
Sea World, with its appeal to the young, could be where the future of conservation is.
