A very good read in the Vancouver Sun this week, in a five-part series about sharks in Canadian waters. Several years back, researchers were surprised to find a ‘hot-spot’ of over 10,000 sharks off the Queen Charlottes. According to researchers, many of the sharks were blue sharks, and over 28 different species of sharks swim Canadian waters, including blue sharks, salmon sharks, and of course my personal favourite, the great white (very rare in BC). That’s the cool news. The downer is that sharks are generally few and far between, not just in Canada, but world-wide, with some species decimated by over 90 per cent in the past 20 years. That sucks. Check out the series, and Sharktruth.com, for the issues facing the ocean’s top predators, and why losing sharks is devestating to the planet, and to humanity.

I guess you can tell that I like sharks?

Want proof that surfers aren’t on your typical great white’s diet? California paddler Chuck Patterson was paddle surfing recently off San Onofre State Park in California when he happened upon two great white sharks circling his board. He went out the next day, same time, same place, with an underwater camera, hoping his fishy friends would show. Sure enough, within five minutes, two juvenile great whites returned, and put on a little show for 15 minutes. The best action starts a minute into the video.  Very cool!

Shark Diver CEO Patric Douglas is rarely without words when it comes to anything shark-related, particularly shark porn, or the demonization of sharks, to get viewers.  Last year was a low point for us shark lovers, commercial divers and eco-related documentary film-makers, as Discovery Channel’s annual summer ritual, Shark Week, pretty much went back to JAWS, circa 1975, with shark porn a-plenty in an effort to score with audiences.  The good news?  No shark porn this year.  Audiences and critics lambasted Discovery Channel’s Shark Week programming in 2009, straight out of the arena, to the point that a mass exodus of media execs took place at the network after the programming aired.  This year, it’s back to the basics – sharks 101, sharks and conservation, neato facts, you know, Discovery Channel stuff.  That’s the word anyway.  As Patric says, the real start to Shark Week 2010 begins here:

Relax, they’re not great whites.  Even if they were, you’d have a greater chance of witnessing the Vancouver Canucks hoist the Stanley Cup in your lifetime than be attacked by a shark (I’m a Canucks fan, albeit a jaded and disillusioned one, I guess it shows huh?).  These are salmon sharks, and they’re not uncommon off the coast of British Columbia.

This video shows a juvenile salmon shark stranded on Chesterman Beach.  Surfers and beachcombers have reported the little guys beach themselves in Pacific Rim National Park sometimes.  While it remains unclear why this happens, this video has a happy ending.  A kind-hearted couple happened upon the little shark and took her (it appears to be a female) to another side of the beach.  After trying to revive her in the water for 15 minutes, the shark came to, and slowly came back to life in the bay, before (hopefully!) swimming back to sea.  The video is over seven minutes long, but it’s really heart-warming to see the little shark come back to life after certain death.  Anyone who knows me personally knows that I’m a huge shark freak.  I learned of this encounter at the BC Shark and Skate Reports blog.  Very cool indeed!

There’s a time and place for everything, but who wants to spend a week sitting on the beach drinking pina coladas when they’re so many other cool things you can do for a vacation?  Guysim’s Seven Vacations That Might Get You Killed comes from the school of thought that, if it isn’t hardcore, it’s not worth doin’.  God bless’em!  I don’t agree with hunting, but you have to admit that this list looks pretty darn awesome.  I’d tip-toe around the issue of health insurance with your travel agent on this one.

Sharks smile too. The Telegraph posted this picture in November, taken at Guadalupe, which is where I did my great white shark diving in 2007. What a happy guy!

Just got back from Oahu, where I went shark diving off the north shore.  This was a totally different  experience than diving off a tuna boat with great whites for five days.  The operation was Hawaii Shark Encounters, based in Haleiwa…home of some of the most monster waves on the planet.  In fact, I had originally booked my shark dive on Monday, January 11th, but had to postpone it until Friday that week because of a ridiculous swell on the north shore…as in forty foot waves, truly a surfer’s wet dream!  But I digress.  We went out on the Friday, about three miles off shore to an awaiting cage, where several sandbar and a seven foot galapagos shark awaited us.  We were in the cage for about twenty minutes.  The sharks were pretty curious about us, swimming up to the cage and circling about two feet from us.  In total I’d say about ten sharks showed up.  A fun morning for sure.  Our divemaster, Cole, says that they regularly see tiger sharks in September and October, and that they’re so common at that time that they pretty much guarantee a sighting.  He also said that despite their scary reputation they’re really afraid of humans, and that they’ll immediately swim away if approached by a diver.  Considering people kill 100 million sharks annually, compared to fifteen humans killed by sharks each year, I’d have to agree that sharks have a lot more reason to fear us  than we do them.  If I can accomplish one thing from this blog, I want to clarify that sharks are so important to the survival of our oceans, and that responsible shark tourism brings people together with these amazing creatures.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Aside from being kidnapped in Cambodia and chased by an Elk in Banff (ps don’t pet then during mating season), this was my first true adventure travel experience.  I went cage diving with great white sharks at Guadalupe Island in October 2007 for five days with Shark Diver, a San Diego-based company that gives divers with enough cajones the chance to dive with Jaws and his buddies.  Truth be told, the sharks were nothing like Jaws.  Most of them were pretty mellow.  They’d usually pop by the cages shortly after we put them in the water and made sporadic appearances throughout the day.  They’re very intelligent creatures – nothing at all like you’d expect after watching Jaws and the shark porn portrayed on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week in 2009.  Great white sharks are magnificent creatures that are vital to the health of our oceans.  Unfortunately, their less-than-cuddly image has made them a target for killing, as with most other shark species.  Patric Douglas, Luke Tipple and their collaborators at Shark Diver have done an admirable job of raising these issues in the media.  They also offer what is truly a once in a lifetime experience to dive with these amazing creatures

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]