2005 Volumevolume 14,14, No.No

Shark Research Institute Global Headquarters P.O. Box 40•Princeton, NJ 08540•USA•Phone: 609609----9 2 1 --- 3 5 2 2 SLAUGHTER IN PARADISE: J’ACCUSE ! BY W OLFGANG L EANDER Charles Darwin visited the back into the ocean to face an agonizing death, is Galapagos Islands as a brutal. young man on a voyage in The “International Galapagos Tour Operators 1835. His keen observation of Association” (IGTOA) fears the worst. In their the island flora and fauna January 2005 bulletin they came to the sobering found nowhere else on earth conclusion that they are “slowly but surely losing the led him directly toward his fight to preserve the Galapagos Islands.” And: “With theory of the evolution of neither government understanding nor support, and species. Not much later, corruption from top to bottom, the future is bleak.” Herman Melville sailed to the Finning is a relapse into bad practice that was Galapagos as a whaler and already outlawed. Shark fishing and the export of called the volcanic archipelago “Las Encantadas”, shark fins was banned in September 2004 after a the “Enchanted Islands”. long battle between militant local fishermen and the Ecuador claimed the “Encantadas” in 1832 from government, which had to give in to massive Spain. At that time they seemed to be of no value to pressure from international conservationist any imperial power. In 1978, the UNESCO declared organizations. However, the illegal practice of shark the Galapagos a World Heritage Site. Today, the finning carried out with the tacit approval of the islands are Ecuador’s top tourist destination, Ecuadorian Navy and local law enforcement officers generating over USD 150 million per year in never diminished. revenues. Nature lovers consider the islands a There is simply no political will to end the chaotic paradise. situation in the Galapagos National Park. Eleven Yet, this paradise is in deep trouble. Park Directors, probably none of them with the There is growing concern among local and slightest commitment to their duties, have come and international scientists and conservationists that gone in the past 24 months. The fact eloquently massive tourism, illegal immigration, pollution, over- speaks for itself. fishing, and political meddling seriously threaten the Under these deplorable circumstances the islands. “aleteros” (i.e., shark finning fishermen) feel quite Headlines of articles on the Galapagos typically uninhibited to operate within the boundaries of the read as follows: “Conservation on the Brink”; “World Marine Reserve. Experts estimate the number of Heritage in Danger”; “Longline Fishing to be allowed sharks killed in the Galapagos solely for their fins to in the Galapagos”; “Chaos reigns in the Galapagos amount to as many as 600,000-700,000 per year. National Park”. “El Comercio”, the leading That represents some 80 percent of all the sharks Ecuadorian daily newspaper, published an caught in Ecuador, the fishing port of Manta being alarmingly realistic article on shark finning in the the principal “killing center” on the mainland. Galapagos on March 15, 2005, under the heading: The politics behind it would completely astound “The massacre of Sharks in the Galapagos naïve international observers. On March 5, 2005, the continues at an accelerated rate”. president of Ecuador, Lucio Gutierrez, visited the ‘Finning’, slicing off the fins of sharks, often from Galapagos and held extensive meetings with live animals, then dumping the helpless creatures representatives of the local fishing community. Page 2 Field Notes Field Expeditions All expedition volunteers pay their own From our Director expenses, some of which are deductible from The year for me started slowly with routine work at US Federal Income taxes. Since we all come the Shark Research Center including lab from different areas, costs do not include airfare. renovation, planning the next phase of the False Bay white shark research project with my graduate Volunteers must be certified divers (with the student Alison Kock, an interview by the BBC exception of Holbox)

Natural History Unit on 'Shark Attack', and a talk on Cocos Island July 17-27, 2005 'Sharks: research and education' to the Royal Society of South Africa (to which I was elected a Expedition Leader: Alex Antoniou, Ph.D. fellow). Objective: Population survey of sharks The pace accelerated with a whirlwind trip to $3350 per diver, 2 spaces remaining England between March 4 and March 23, in which I first attended the official launch of the Harper- Holbox, Mexico July 5-11 & 11-17, 2005 Collins version of the shark guide and worked with Expedition Leader: Joan David people from the UK Shark Trust at the London Objective: Photo catalogue of whale sharks International Dive Show at the Excel conference $1550 per person, per week center in Docklands, London. I then visited the Natural History Museum in South Kensington to Guadalupe Island Oct 21 - 21, 2005 see the new Darwin Center, talked with the fish Expedition Leader: Dean Fessler curation staff, and worked on a guitarfish holotype. Objective: Document behavior of white sharks I subsequently met with members of the Save our $2450 per diver Seas Foundation in a hotel near Hyde Park to discuss research and educational funding and other matters. I traveled by train to Plymouth in SRI Field Researchers will be onsite at the Cornwall to visit Marc and Julie Dando, the following locations. Volunteers are encouraged producers of the shark guide, to discuss future to participate in the field research for a week or book work and to visit the nearby Eden Project. I longer. also visited the Shark Trust offices in Plymouth (and was nominated as a patron of the Trust), and La Paz, Mexico Cost per week $1200 the nearby Marine Biological Association of the June 4-11, September 10-17; September 24- United Kingdom and the National Aquarium to October 1; October 1-8; October 8-15; October discuss cooperative research. From there, I 15-22; October 22-29; October 29-November 5 journeyed to Newbury for an expert meeting of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group to determine the Tanzania , with Suzy Quashnichka, SRI-UK conservation status of various cartilaginous fishes Objective: Video catalogue whale sharks for an upgrade of the IUCN Red List. This was Cost per week $2800 more than a bit hectic, coupled with a cold and October 27-November 3; November 3-10; laryngitis exacerbated by the English winter and too much talking, and required a bit of rest after I November 10-17; November 17-24; returned. The trip inspired numerous thoughts on November 24-December 1; December 1-8; future growth of SRI, particularly after visiting the December 8-15; December 15-22, 2005 Eden Project. LJV Compagno Utila, Honduras February 11-18, 2006

SRI-LaPaz Field Station, Mexico: Aerial Survey: Expedition Leader: Matt Potenski Whale sharks are still being spotted in the Bay of Objective: Tag whale sharks LaPaz, long past the time that they normally depart Cost: $1350 per diver the area. Whether this is due to an unusual amount of nutrients washed into the bay is not known. Palau February 17-25, 2006, continued on page 5 Estimated cost $1900, plus accommodations Expedition Leader: Dean Fessler Volume 14, No. 1 Page 3

Slaughter in Paradize: J’Accuse—continued from page 1 Exactly one week later, Mr. Gutierrez signed a finning to the business of drug trafficking where decree to re-allow the export of shark fins as long everything is about big, big money and thus next to as sharks are being caught as “by-catch”, impossible to control. The analogy may not be far- effectively annulling the September 2004 fetched. prohibition to export shark fins. However, there is a significant difference: drug This is outrageous as the new decree opens the consumption is a socio-pathological problem that door to indiscriminate, totally uncontrolled shark will not throw the world out of balance. But the finning. The Galapagos fishermen, some of whom unrelenting demand for shark fins to be processed are known as an aggressive lot of criminal thugs, into a broth of alleged aphrodisiac value to cater to will concentrate on fishing sharks and innocently an ever growing number of mindless shark fin soup declare their catch as being “accidental”. consumers in East Asia will inexorably lead to the In 1998, Transparency International in Berlin extinction of sharks. ranked Ecuador among the most corrupt countries This is what WildAid, a US based conservation in the world. Two years later the Andean nation agency working in the Galapagos, has to say in was awarded the dubious distinction of being the this context: most corrupt country in Latin America. “The indiscriminate slaughter of sharks to satisfy Corruption in this small banana-exporting country this growing market is causing drastic and is indeed all-pervasive. Hardly anything works in irreversible changes to Galapagos biodiversity. Ecuador unless appropriately “lubricated”. Why? Sharks help maintain healthy, balanced Lucio Gutierrez, a formerly obscure army colonel populations of fish, birds and marine animals who staged an ill-fated coup d’etat early in 2000, preying upon the weak, diseased and injured. promised to relentlessly fight corruption during the Additionally, countless species of cleaner fish electoral campaign – a pious obligation every depend on sharks to provide them with Ecuadorian presidential candidate routinely vows sustenance. The removal of the sharks from this to comply with in order to win votes. complex ecological equation would be After only a few months in power, Mr. Gutierrez’ catastrophic.” popularity began plummeting to pitifully low levels. Hence the urgency of stopping shark slaughter Most Ecuadorians consider him corrupt and NOW, not just in Ecuador but world-wide. incompetent. He is said to openly serve his However insignificant and largely unnoticed, there clientele with little regard to public opinion. His are some encouraging signs of positive action sometimes intimidating attacks on critical amid the gloomy scenario worth to be recorded. journalists bespeak an almost anti-democratic, Mathias Espinosa, an ecologically minded authoritarian government style. German-Ecuadorian diver and owner of The fish begins to stink at the head, as we say in Scubaiguana, the best-run dive operator in the Germany. What can thus be expected from lower Galapagos, is doing what he considers his modest ranking politicians? Not much, really. That is the share in trying to make a difference. bitter truth. Unfortunately, the IGTOA are In order to motivate his fellow “galapaguenos” to absolutely right in their somber appreciation of the love their islands, instead of exploiting them, realities in the Galapagos. Mathias introduces shark fishermen to the I talked with many islanders recently: Dive undersea world, awakening in them the sense of operators, licensed guides, hotel and restaurant appreciation of the marvels that surround them owners. People who deeply care about their while swimming underwater. islands and who are completely appalled at what Seemingly senseless butchers thus learn to see they are witnessing first hand. Some are perhaps sharks not as a sought after commodity but as too afraid to speak out, others feel completely irreplaceable marine creatures that need to be powerless before the tightly knit web of complicity protected from human greed and ignorance. among fishermen, politicians, members of the Mathias’ blue eyes glow as he recounts how good Navy personnel, and the international shark fin he felt when he began to train several shark dealer mafia. fishermen to become enthusiastic professional dive Most of the young people I spoke to believe they masters and fully committed conservationists way can do little about it. They compare illicit shark back in the nineties. One of them, Juan Carlos Page 4

Slaughter in Paradize: J’Accuse—continued from page 3 Moncayo or “Macarron” as he is commonly known in environmental terrorists which include corrupt Puerto Ayora, has become a free-lance dive government officials; instructor who passes on his passion for the ocean 2) The donor countries should cut foreign aid to and its creatures to the next generation of Ecuador as long as the laws to protect the Islands, professional dive guides. which would have to include a strict control on Several countries and island states such as the immigration from the mainland, are being largely Bahamas have successfully developed extremely ignored by the authorities; lucrative eco-tourism industries based on diving with 3) International tourism to Ecuador, not just to the sharks. With dedicated people like Mathias Espinosa Galapagos, should be boycotted even though this and many others resident divers, the Galapagos would temporarily hurt innocent people. Islands could be one of those places were it not These measures would amount to declaring war on being wasted by the short-sightedness of ignorant, corruption in Ecuador. Unconditional war on greedy and careless individuals. corruption and ecological predation is the only way On a personal note I wish to state that I have to win the fight if there is still a chance to preserve painfully witnessed what it really means when one what is left of the islands for humanity and the rest of reads or hears of ‘decimating’ the shark population the biosphere. Cochabamba / Bolivia in a given place. I have been visiting, and diving, the Galapagos for seven consecutive years since 1999. Editors Note: As we go to press, a United Nations Even though I am not a scuba diver, “just” a free- Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization diving underwater photographer, I could see for (UNESCO) delegation is en-route to tell the myself how sharks, especially Scalloped Ecuadoran president: "Protect the Hammerhead sharks and Galapagos sharks, were islands or risk having them getting scarcer every year I came back. reclassified." If expert studies If you care to take a look at my website determine illegal fishing has www.oceanicdreams.com you will see many caused substantial damage to photographs of Galapagos sharks. Virtually all of ecosystems, UNESCO could list these pictures were taken while free-diving at a the islands as an Endangered small island next to Floreana, called Enderby Island. World Heritage Site, strip them of all Heritage I would normally see at least 10-15 Galapagos classifications, or issue a schedule for sharks every single time I dove there. This year I improvements. Any form of reclassification would be saw not even one. bad news for Ecuador, which earns around $200 million US annually from tourists who visit the As I was later told, shark fishermen had islands because of their supposed pristine condition “discovered” Enderby Island sometime in mid-July and wide variety of plant and animal species. By 2004 and managed to clean the area within a few contrast, the archipelago's fishing industry earns weeks. Some dive masters confirmed to me that only $6 million US a year for the Ecuadoran they saw the mutilated shark carcasses lying at the economy. "If the world body that oversees the bottom of the sea. I was depressed beyond hope. I quality of these sites says it no longer meets the felt as if I had lost good friends ….Yes, when it required standards, people might think twice before comes to sharks I get quite emotional… going to Galapagos," said Marc Patry from Paris, It has been established that diplomacy or appealing headquarters of UNESCO. The archipelago's World to common sense simply does not work to solve the Heritage status will be reviewed by UNESCO's 21- grave problems in the Galapagos. Therefore, only country World Heritage Committee at its annual the most drastic measures will force the Ecuadorian meeting in July. authorities to finally put an end to the irresponsible Breaking news : Gutierrez was just tossed out of killing of sharks, and other environmental crimes office. Alfredo Palacio has assumed the presidency being committed in the Galapagos Marine Reserve of Ecuador with backing of the military. To follow the and elsewhere in the region: situation, sign up for alerts on our website. 1) The UNESCO should withdraw the status, and funding, of the Galapagos as World Heritage Site, and publicly denounce Ecuador for not effectively Time to renew your membership in SRI? safe-guarding this unique sanctuary from If so, take advantage of some special promotions. Visit the ‘Membership’ page on the SRI website. Volume 14, No. 1 Page 5 Big Animals — SRI Tsunami Relief GLOBAL SHARK ATTACK FILE

SRI member, Amos Nachoum SRI maintains the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF) as a (www.biganimals.com ), one of the resource for researchers, physicians and the media who require accurate information about these incidents. world’s premier underwater photographers, spearheaded a joint AUSTRALIA: Victoria: On January 14, a dinghy fundraising effort with SRI to aid attempting to drive a 2 to 3-metre bronze whaler victims of the December 26, 2004 shark away from a sailing regatta was holed by tsunami. In addition to a generous the shark. Queensland: On February 26, Nathan personal donation, Amos’ images were sold to his Shaxson was swimming in the Brisbane River customers and others were auctioned by SRI on when his finger was bitten by a bull shark. eBay. 100% of the funds went to UNICEF’s Western Australia: On March 19, Geoffrey tsunami relief. Well done Amos! Brazier was killed by a 20’ shark while snorkeling in the Abrohos Islands THANK YOU!! CUBA: On January 20, Hurdenis Jerez was swimming at Uvero when his foot was severed by SRI Gratefully Thanks and Acknowledges the a three-metre shark. Generosity and Support of the following individuals NEW ZEALAND On February 8, Paul Morris was who helped make the December Fund Drive a fishing from a kayak that was bumped repeatedly huge success: Paul Anes, Kal Attie, M.D., Owen by a white shark. He was not injured. On March 9 Babcock, Diana M. Baca, Stephanie Baccarella, at Waiapu River Mouth, a netted shark dragged Peter Benchley, D.W. Bennett, Walter Brenner, three fishermen 350 metres out to sea; none of Angus Campbell, Gen Connor, Kathryne Jobin, the men were injured. Carolyn G. Dickie, Robert & Deena Ferrara, Jill & SOUTH AFRICA: On March 28, surfer Chris David Glassco, Barbara R. Greenberg, The Sullivan was at Noordhoek Beach when he Hernandez Family, Lauren Hutton, James & Donna sustained a laceration on his calf and puncture Johnston, Jeff Kelly, Kandy Kendall, Joseph Lein, wounds on his foot from a four-metre shark . Joseph & Lillian Loftus, J. Arch McNamara, M.D., USA: Florida: On February 13, A spearfisherman Amos Nachoum, Steve Nagiewicz, Stephen was bitten on the hand by a Caribbean reef O’Leary, Maurice L. Rosenthal, Christine Saar, shark. Hawaii: On February 16, Surfer Greg Long Shawn Gould & Dick Spencer, Dana Lee Sterbens, was knocked off his board by an 8’ tiger shark, John & Wincy Thorpe, Peter Turino, Thomas & the surfer was not injured . New Mexico: On Diane Tyrrell, Roger Veteto, Kathrin Winkler, March 12, Ken Pitts was diving in an aquarium Richard Woodbridge and John Yavorsky display tank when a sandtiger shark collided with him, resulting in two puncture wounds on his Field Notes ...continued from Page 2 forearm.

SRI-Seychelles: Whale Shark Sightings January Thank you to our Supporters to March 2005: 74 reported sightings, 43 in-water encounters, one shark identified, 16 sharks sexed SRI is very grateful for the continued (nine males and one female), and one shark re- encouragement and support of: sighted from last season. Aerial Sightings, three • San Diego Shark Diving flights, two hours flying time, four sharks sighted, • Freeman Foundation maximum of three sharks seen on a single flight. • IGTOA Utila, Honduras: Expedition Leader Matt Potenski • JBL Enterprises Inc. reports during February, of the 14 whale sharks • Microwave Telemetry, Inc. encountered, his team tagged nine sharks and • The Kathy & Tom Miller Family Foundation tissue samples were retrieved for DNA analysis. • Project AWARE Foundation Two of the sharks have remained in the area and • The Philanthropic Group re-sightings of these sharks have been reported • The Rohauer Collection Foundation to SRI. Thanks are due to all volunteers who • Underwater Video Images assisted in this research. • Westcliff Foundation Shark Research Institute P.O. Box 40 Non-Profit Organization Princeton, NJ08540 U . S . A . POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 390 Princeton, NJ 08540

W E ’ RE ON THE WE B W WW . SHARKS . ORG

Reviews — Hits & a Miss

Sharks of the World , by SRI Sharks And Their Kin, by Marty Director, Leonard J.V. Snyderman. This is hands-down Compagno, Ph.D., published the finest educational DVD about by Princeton University sharks we’ve ever seen (and Press. A field guide to all the we’ve seen every DVD available known sharks of the world, it on the subject). Also contains a is a must-have for all good section on how to film members, all shark sharks $25 plus S&H from SRI researchers, and anyone website. with an interest in sharks. The Seasons of the $30 plus S& H. Sharks , by Italian filmmaker Available October Osvaldo Ballabio. Superb 2005! Sea Salt , Memoirs footage and graphics of and Manuscripts of Stan sharks and mantas Waterman , president of encountered along the coast SRI. The book, published of East Africa. DVD narration by New World in English and Italian. This Publications, contains all production has already won of Stan’s Ocean Realm awards and no doubt will win essays, plus biographical many more. memories and nearly 100 images spanning Stan’s diving career. 300 pp. In 2003, artist Damien Hirst $30 reportedly purchased a 14-foot dead tiger shark in Australia for An independent film by $11,000, placed in a tank of Ziggy Livnat, narrated by formaldehyde and sold it for $92,000 to Charles Martin Sheen. This Saatchi, one of Britain’s foremost collectors of delightful film, shot in the contemporary art and owner of the Saatchi Red Sea and Caribbean, Gallery in London. Saatchi was recently offered illustrates the beauty and $11.5 million for the shark. When we think of what fragility of the coral reef $92,000 could have done for shark conservation ecosystem and features its — let alone $11.5 million — we are saddened by seldom-seen inhabitants. the priorities of all parties involved.