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Health & Fitness

Sharkweek is over- lets go see (and save) some sharks!

I have a shark week hangover.
While Shark Week serves as an entertaining distraction and a social commentary on how we view sharks, the shark attack redux, hillbilly humor and over-adrenalized scenes saturate my senses. My antidote is to go see some sharks in the flesh.  Unlike the misidentified Salmon Shark (a much smaller cousin to the Great White Shark) swimming in our San Francisco Dolphin Club Waters last week, the Island of the Great White Shark off Guadalupe Island has the real thing.
One of the large aggregations of white sharks in the North Eastern Pacific population (the others being Ano Nuevo Island and the Farallon Islands), these large adult sharks are arriving from a migration of nearly 2000 miles. Having visited this island several times in the I have experienced an increase in attention and better shark eco-tourism practices and have helped develop best practices with operators.

Having been critical of many shark tourism practices, I believe that seeing animals in the wild in a well managed operation can win hearts and minds and help save sharks. In our petition to protect this population under the Endangered Species Act under the California Department of Fish and Wildlife we addressed threats to this population in US and Mexican waters. Its easy to point fingers at illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries impacting sharks, yet the Department of National Marine Fisheries overlooked the casualties in the Gillnet Fishery for swordfish and sharks in Southern California legally killing juvenile white sharks.
Ive been invited to join the Great White Adventures team at Guadalupe and dive with sharks, but also meet with officials and biologists to attempt to help reduce impacts on these sharks that share waters with Mexico and International waters. I hope to report back with some images and footage and some success stories on efforts being made to reduce the impacts on these incredible predators and steps being taken towards protecting and appreciating all sharks.
Want to learn more or help? Support Shark Stewards Sanctuary Campaign.
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