Shark Projects

September 25th 2009

Now that the shark tour is officially over, I am back on Vancouver Island formulating a game plan for next year. My fall schedule is looking a bit grim regarding actual time in the water with sharks but there are so many exciting projects that need my attention that I’ll be too busy to go diving anyway. Here are a few of the things that I am working on:

Predators in Peril

An exhibition featuring a selection of dynamic shark and ray images designed to draw attention to the critical position of critically endangered elasmobranch species. This will initially start locally but if it is well received I will try to turn it into a traveling exhibition. It is a great opportunity for me to get on my soap box in a friendly setting to reinforce the message that shark stocks are in decline and need to be protected at a global level.

There are a lot of obstacles holding the project back such as: set up, printing, framing, venue hire and advertising expenses but we have high hopes for pulling this together by the spring of next year.

Shark-Shop.com

A retail website affiliated with Elasmodiver that will ultimately become our portal for marketing limited edition prints and other elasmodiver goodies. This is not that big a project but its way beyond my web savvy so if anyone wants to lend a hand…

The Shark Dive Operator Initiative

The original mandate of Elasmodiver was to create an exhaustive shark and ray field guide on the internet where divers could look up a particular species that they were interested in and immediately find out where they could dive with it. Well, eight years later I’m nowhere near finished but I think that I’ve made a pretty good start.

One of the factors holding the project up is that I still don’t know where each and every elasmobranch is hiding and when dive operators are talking about their dive sites on the internet, they don’t usually bother saying that stingray species A is sometimes found swimming around at dive site B. Consequently, I’ve decided to approach the problem from another angle.

The Shark Dive Operator Initiative (I’m still working on the name) is an email campaign to get every dive shop or dive operator that we can find on the internet (not just those that run organized shark dives) to fill out a quick survey answering which shark and ray species they see in their neighborhood.

Once we get the results, their contact info and a brief outline of what you might encounter with them will get added to the Dive Operator Directory. I’m guessing that most dive operators will be pretty happy to have a link from one of the largest shark diving resources on the internet so the survey should get a good response. In return, we’ll get priceless information for our database and maybe even some location ideas for upcoming shark tours. It is a mammoth project. Why any sane person would attempt it I don’t know…

Elasmodiver Expanded

No surprises here. I’m swamped with new shark and ray images from the 2009 tour and it is going to take me months to add them all onto Elasmodiver. There are at least 6 new species profiles to be added to the Field Guide (like the Atlantic Guitarfish shown here) as well as location pics, some new ‘shark diving hot spot’ features and lots more that I don’t even want to think about right now.

Shark Diver Magazine Issue 21

Some of you may have heard that Eli was so inspired by the North American Shark Diving Tour that he decided to dedicate the next issue of the mag almost exclusively to our adventures. That was a nice gesture on his part but the reality is that after I agreed in principle, I soon realized that I would have to rewrite and expand upon my entire road trip blog so that it would read well in a magazine. And, sort, clean and edit lots and lots of pics so that Eli can cherry pick his favorites. It is very time consuming but its kinda fun reliving all the high points and writing about them from a more retrospective point of view.

From what I’ve seen so far, the mag is going to look awesome. Here are a couple of screen shots that Eli sent me. That’s Claire surrounded by silky sharks on the cover:

Elasmodiver on Facebook

Elasmodiver now has a Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elasmodivercom/130919737853

A month or two ago a friend of mine started an Andy Murch Shark Photographer Group on Facebook. That was going well but I couldn’t figure out how to keep everyone updated unless they actually visited the group to see what had changed. So now there is a simple page that anyone can join. Once you join Elasmodiver (or become a fan of it) on Facebook you’ll get all my website updates zapped straight to your Facebook status updates page – much easier for me to manage.

Speaking of Facebook,

Lately it has seemed like there are so many shark group postings and worthy causes that its difficult to know which ones to support. I am sure that they are probably all worthy causes. The Shark Safe Network is trying to get likeminded organizations to work together. In their own words:

The Shark Safe Network provides a framework to combine and focus the efforts of committed individuals and shark conservation groups towards specific shark conservation campaigns. If you have a passion to protect sharks, Shark Safe Network helps you to get involved and make a difference – by participating in a current campaign or by launching your own campaign in your community.

Shark Safe Network provides the information, tools, raw materials and support. You provide the passion!!

The goal of every Shark Safe Network campaign is to reduce and ultimately eliminate wasteful and unsustainable activities and products that threaten sharks’ survival. Shark Safe Network invites and welcomes participation from any and all organizations and individuals, provided that all campaigns are conducted according the Shark Safe Network campaign principles.

And we always keep in mind that helping sharks = helping people. When you consider any of the issues that threaten sharks today, there is also a corresponding negative impact on humans and the planet.

Shark Safe Network is all about getting involved and doing something that counts. Join the Shark Safe Network and you will make a difference!

Many organizations have already endorsed the initiative so if you’re looking for an effective way to make a difference, take a closer look at what the SharkSafeNetwork is trying to do.

DEMA
There are lots more projects that I would like to start at some point but these will keep me busy for a while.

I am planning to go to DEMA in November so if you see me wandering around in an Elasmodiver T-shirt please come up and say hello. It’ll be a busy weekend but there is always time to talk shark.

For the Sharks,

Andy Murch