Paddling out for the Aliwal Shoal Sharks.

Click on image to enlarge

The event had the desired result; it received excellent media coverage, and most definitely created, perhaps even underscored, awareness about the recent fatal entanglement of five tiger sharks, one great white, and a black tip in the nets. 


To recapitualte: Fourteen (!!) medium sized tigers were caught within two days in the nets of which nine could be disentangled, and released, before suffocating. These are the "official" numbers as provided by the Natal Sharks Board, responsible for the maintenance of the controversial shark nets. Who knows how many of the nine tigers that were freed survived the ordeal of having been trapped in the gill nets.


This tragedy prompted the local shark dive operators and some shark enthusiasts  to organize the "Paddle out for sharks" happening.

Lesley Rochat, a Cape Town resident who flew to Durban to support the initiative with her presence, wrote a blog which I feel conveys everything about the anti shark net ceremony. 

Unfortunately, Lesley had to witness, again, that some of the supposedly "concerned" shark advocates who were out there could not refrain from showing how guileful and little bourgeois they are.


Here is what Lesley felt compelled to include in her blog:

"It was a truly special event, filled with hope, the dead ray reinforcing our motivation to come together. It was therefore disappointing to later hear that it was dampened by someone slinging a snide remark at me while out of earshot, which was cheered on by his supporters.

Clearly I had spoken too soon - slaves to their own issues, they were unable to be gracious and put down their weapons of difference at such a significant event.

I’m an activist so it doesn’t bother me what people say about me, and I actually thought the remark was very funny: “Is that Lesley? Didn’t recognize her with her clothes on!” LOL! It’s no surprise, however, that the hundreds of ‘like’s’ and ‘shares’ on the Facebook post of our CATCHES ANYTHING, KILLS EVERYTHING poster with me naked in the nets does not include a single one of these individuals, despite it being a powerful campaign against the nets.

But what does worry me is how we will ever win this battle while another battle against each other, the ones who care about the animals, exists. As much as I dislike the Sharks Board I am willing to sit with my enemy, engage with him, and find a way to save our animals. 

By the same token I extend a challenge to recognize that while we might not all like each other, we need each other to win this mammoth battle.  The longer I am a conservationist the more I become aware that the environmental battles we fight are nothing compared to the battles against human frailty we are up against. They are very often what prevent us from achieving our conservation goals.

It is sad, but I believe that this is one of the obstacles standing in our way from making progress to save our sharks and other marine life from dying in the shark nets. I do, however, believe that Sunday’s event was blessed by Hope’s presence, and was a positive move in the right direction toward a long road that still lies ahead."

The people Lesley refers to are the same self-centered, self-righteous, arrogant, and tribal shark dive operators I had a most regrettable "issue" with two years ago. 

What is it that folks like them cannot put their egos and selfish business interests behind them when an unequivocal demonstration of public consensus about shark conservation is of the essence?


Hard to understand.... 

"Out of South Africa" - very bad news, again.

Aliwal Shoal Tiger Shark - most probably killed by now...

Photo: Wolfgang Leander (2008)

While other countries are realizing that it is important to protect the sharks, South Africa seems to be going backward.

I don't want to get into a political discussion as I will inevitably be told by my South African ex-friends that there are too many local idiosyncrasies for an outsider to know to be able to utter a balanced opinion. As if such a common place would not apply to any other country on the planet...

Today I received the news that up to some seventeen (!!) tiger sharks have been caught recently, and killed, in the infamous shark nets facing the world-famous Aliwal Shoal shark diving spot, a Marine Protected Area (MPA).

If you have a Facebook account you should be able to access this link. If not, here is what Lesley Rochat wrote:

Lesley Rochat

Been on a film shoot all morning and just got a message from Fiona Ayerst notifying me that possibly more than 10 of our Tiger sharks have been killed by the Sharks Board in the nets in KwaZulu Natal. Spoke to a good friend in the area and apparently sharks board are lying about how many they killed. Anyone with any more info please let me know. We have got to stop them from doing this and getting away with it! (This photo attached is of Wolfgang Leander with one of our tigers some time back, no doubt a dead shark by now...)

Some of you might recall that last year I had suggested that all concerned should form a solid alliance of shark activists, conservation organizations, and shark operators vis-a-vis the government to get them to follow the example of other countries to FULLY protect their sharks which, of course, would have to include taking down the sharks nets.

Except for Lesley Rochat, Fiona Ayerst, and shark operator Walter Bernardis who would have spearheaded such an initiative, there was no resonance worth mentioning within the South African shark community, at least not that I am aware of.

All those South African shark operators who claim to love sharks preferred not to expose themselves, and, as they always put it, rather work "behind the scenes", each on his / her own depending on the "contacts" they have.

As long as these business people seem to be incapable of joining forces leaving their own agendas aside, at least for once, nothing will change.

And when they find out, yet again, that the Natal Sharks Board have pulled in another batch of dead tiger sharks, they will all start screaming and whining unisono with the backing of some voices from far away places such as Toronto, and demand that "this has to stop". It's pathetic.

Already now tiger shark sightings have become a rarity in Aliwal Shoal.

Soon the truly magnificient tiger sharks of Aliwal Shoal will become extinct, thanks to the Natal Sharks Board and the lack of determination of the shark operators to launch a frontal attack on the government. After all, they will be directly affected by this particularly unfortunate development that was already foreseeable only a few years ago.

Perhaps the sad news about the killing field that is the Aliwal Shoal MPA will have the effect of a wake-up call among all those who either make a living with the tiger shark dive business or "just" care unselfishly for the well-being of these most gracious creatures.

Media Blues...

Excellent post over on the Shark Diver blog about poor messaging execution.  While people's thoughts and intentions are often in the right place - their tactics are off (and in some cases even have a negative impact on what they are trying to accomplish).

"Conservation messaging needs to be done without the "stupid pet tricks with wildlife...We can do better than we are with smarter messaging that actually translates into conservation gold."

And there have been several fails:

"This is on par with, if not as moronic as, recent media hits that were meant to convey important conservation messages such as:

1. Playing a guitar underwater while crooning to white sharks in a protected Bio Sphere Reserve. The message was, "white sharks are not dangerous." Since that video there have been 6 fatal white shark attacks and 11 non fatal predatory events on surfers and divers worldwide.

2. Holding up pizza box lids with lip stick on them to convey complex messaging about shark nets in South Africa. Since that media image over 2000+ sharks have been killed in shark nets all over the world."

Enjoy the complete post.

Shark Nets kill another innocent member of the famous Tiger Tribe in Aliwal Shoal marine protected area

Dead tiger shark killed by shark nets - Photo by Mark Addison

That is Mark Addison's Facebook update today (he also blogged about it).  Mark posted several photos on his profile of a beautiful Tiger shark killed by shark nets in South Africa.  Who exactly the nets are protecting is a mystery - all they are doing is killing marine life.

Drowned to death - Photo by  Mark Addison

As much I wish 2009 would end on a positive note - it will not...and for a year that was supposed to be for the sharks we still saw more losses than victories.  There is still a lot of work to be done - this shark is a reminder...what does it say when we cannot enforce small marine protected areas, how will we protect an entire species?

For more information on the shark nets in Aliwal Shoal and how you can help, please go to REMOVE THE NETS