Sea Monster

Tag: shark fishing

  • Demon Fish gets the Book Hook treatment

    To launch Seamonster’s brand spanking new Book Hook, I chat with journalist, author, and shark enthusiast Juliet Eilperin about her recent book Demon Fish. In it she explores the world of sharks, the fishers who catch them for food and for fun, the campaigners trying to persuade people to kick the shark-fin habit, and the scientists…

  • Blue shark wins Ocean in Focus contest

    Grand-Prize winner of this year’s Marine Photobank’s Ocean in Focus conservation photo contest is Terry Goss with this image of a blue shark snagged on a longline hook in waters off Rhode Island, US. In an interview with Marine Photobank, Terry said: When I started shooting underwater, it was immediately apparent that every shark image…

  • Perth shark attacks drive Western Australian politicians to call for idiotic shark cull

    Shark conservation expert David Shiffman has been covering this news here and here; in brief, three people have been killed recently by sharks. This is obviously sad. But calling for legislation to legalize a currently illegal “shark cull” is idiotic. Primarily because it is very unlikely to affect shark attacks on people (as David explains)…

  • Good news and bad news

    Every day in marine conservation, you hear both. How about the bad news first. The Guardian is reporting another shark masacure in the Malpelo sanctuary off Columbia (but note I have not heard independent confirmation about this and the Guardian botched part of the article by suggesting whale sharks had been harvested for their fins). Like Scott…

  • Shark fins banned in world’s 2nd largest market — California

    Yes, America, the California market for shark-fin soup is the largest outside Asia. Which means that much of the carnage John has documented in previous SeaMonster posts (see here, here, and here) is washing up right here in your backyard. Read it and weep. But the sun also rises. The California legislature passed the shark-fin…

  • California approves fin ban: what next for shark celebrities?

    Sharks fin soup is on the way out in America’s Golden State. Today the California State Senate voted 25-9 to pass a bill that will ban the sale, trade, and possession of shark fins. In a few days it’ll be signed by the governor and effectively put an end to one of the largest, legal…

  • Graphic arts depiction of shark fin fishing

    From photographic artist Chris Jordan: Depicts 270,000 fossilized shark teeth, equal to the estimated number of sharks of all species killed around the world every day for their fins. Zoom in and you see more; 

  • Following up on the Galapagos Shark massacre

    Deep Sea News has been publishing so many must read stories I can’t keep up!  For example, See Rick M’s great follow up on the Galapagos shark saga; The truly unfortunate fact is that this news is neither new nor uncommon. And it is global Designation of any parcel of ocean “as protected”, formally or informally, is no guarantee…

  • Anatomy of a shark heist

    Below is a guest post by Lindsey Carr, a PhD student in my lab at UNC. Lindsey is doing her dissertation research on the dynamics of shallow subtidal communities across the Galapagos archipelago. Her post is excerpted from a report she wrote for the Galapagos National Park about the catch found on the illegal vessel.…

  • What a marine massacre looks like

    Yesterday I led a team of eight scientists and students from UNC, USFQ and the Galapagos Science Center that documented the catch aboard a vessel caught illegally long lining in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. We worked alongside a great team from the Galapagos National Park and were also assisted by the Ecuadorian Coast Guard.  We identified, sexed, and measured every individual (there…