Shark destination gossip

I wonder if my Wetpixel friends can help me piece some information together for a feature I am working on.

I'm looking for shark gossip on various destinations to inform a feature which is going to be published later this year. I'd be very interested in hearing – in brief – about trips to the following destinations and if the general shark yield was good, bad, indifferent or whatever. No need to PM or email me - this sort of pool of information will probably be of interest to everyone. The destinations are:

South Africa: Have the Great Whites been showing up at chumming at Dyer Island recently? Is the tiger dive at Aliwal still good?

Cocos: How's the hammerhead action? Has Silverado been coming up with the goods recently? Are night dives still banned due to the Tigers?

Philippines: How reliable is that Thresher dive at Malapascua these days?

Maldives: The manta action is off the chart, but where are people seeing greys and hammerheads these days?

Djibouti: Did the whale sharks turn up in numbers this winter? Are people seeing them year-round in the Bay of Tadjourah?

Any gossip, anecdotes, opinions etc will be of great help. Thanks to all in advance. Oh, and here's a shark pic for the hell of it!

Simon

I am sure your intentions are good, Simon, but the problem is that those who are looking to fin sharks probably read Wetpixel as well, thus posting "shark gossip" may not be the best idea...at least for the sharks. This is the problem:

AMW – While I respect your standpoint, I am only asking for a few generalised observations from those who care to share their diving experiences. Sadly, there is a wealth of more directly useful material available online and elsewhere for shark finners.

As a caveat, I would urge anyone replying here to avoid posting any information that they feel would compromise shark conservation. As Jim Abernethy once told me, it's important that the world knows that Tiger Beach exists, but there's no need to say exactly where it is.

However, if the consensus is that such a thread could cause problems, I'll bow to the Wetpixel moderators on this one.

Simon, while my feelings on this are based 1st hand knowledge of a site located by commercial fishermen based on internet reports, I have to add that your questions are about "known" shark areas, some of which are being plundered regardless (the Eastern Pacific islands in particular.) So I don't think your questions are going to be endangering sharks anymore than they are already endangered. Just don't ask for secret shark spots

A. Because there are hardly anymore left

B. And even if there were, I'm not telling you where they are

Plus mods only remove posts with flames, spam and Mike V praises.

You didn't ask. but I saw lots of hamerheads at San Benidicto and Roca Partida. Slikies and Galapagos were way down though.

Pretty much the same in Cocos a year ago. Also had some nice silvertips in both places.

no sharks in Lembeh

Drew, no wonder i don't see any posts like that then!

This is where I jump in to defend my rival!

In 1992 I wrote a story about a secret wreck a few of us were diving. It was called the Thistlegorm. Since then a zillion divers have visited this time capsule from WW2 and it has been trashed. A couple of years ago I wrote about the wreck of a British destroyer in the Red Sea with much the same result. People blamed me for this but what to do? Should magazines publish information about diving? At best it only encourages more people to dive and at worst it gives information to criminals and other bad people who want to trash the planet. I blame it on information technology and now, even more so, the Internet.

I believe that these things are driven by demand. If you didn't smoke dope the dope smugglers would not be in business. Stop buying Chinese made products. There are 1.3 billion Chinese people who want to eat shark fin soup.

Do you believe in democracy? Well, the handful of divers in the world just got out-voted! I got fired from the Shark Trust for saying that it was us that were responsible for the demise of sharks. It's out demand for cheap goods. The alternative is to embark on an education programme in China (not very likely). I am not being anti-Chinese, I am just being realistic. If we want sharks we will simply have to pay a lot more for products made elsewhere.

I'm off now in my Toyota Prius. Can't stop!

...'cos the 'king brakes were made in China!

I'm off now in my Toyota Prius. Can't stop!

 

...'cos the 'king brakes were made in China!

JB

That IS funny, I've just bust a rib laughing

Nige Wade

Now let's all be nice to Simon and not go off topic. He's asking for information on known shark dive sites.

Now let's all be nice to Simon and not go off topic. He's asking for information on known shark dive sites.

Sorry Drew and Simon, couldn't help myself

Nige

Hi Simon,

I was in Cocos Island and Malpelo in April 2009 - Hammers were there ok but very few in number and off into the blue - scattered. Water was warm though and I think it was just too warm for them. I've a feeling that Cocos is best on Sep - Nov timeframe. I'm going back there in Sep 2011 for one last shot at it. I was last there in Sep 1999 and the hammerhead action was off the scale, with Hammers in very big numbers on every dive, even the coal garden, so was Silverado where at one stage we had 8 Silvertips around us for over half an hour.

We had two nice Silvertips at Silverado, this time but nothing like it was. We saw one tiger very briefly and not close and we did a couple of night dives on Manualita but I read here that this has stopped since. Here's a couple of shots from the 2009 trip - the only Hammerhead wallpaper shot I got at Punta Maria and a Silvertip at Silverado.

And here is a shot from 10 years ago at Maualita - magical moment for me but how did we ever manage on Film ?!

No doubt in my mid that Cocos is suffering, we saw lots of illegal fishing boats in the week we were there. We visited Malpelo on the same trip and saw long line on several of the dives and we recovered a huge net off one of the outer reefs too - pics on the website www.nigelmotyer.com That said I would hold judgement untill I get back there in the wet season with slightly cooler water. Cocos is one of those places you have to get at the right time.

As an aside I was in the Galapagos Islands in Nov 07 and again the Hammer action in Darwin and Wolf was fantastic. A friend of mine went there the following year at the same time and saw very little action. So with the right conditions you still need good luck. Wasn't it Gary Player who said I'd rather be lucky than good, and the harder I try the luckier I get !

I'll be interested in the reports on the other places.

In the Maldives there was a good hammerhead dive called hammerhead point or Big Blue on the Rasdhoo atoll.

Dove there 9 years ago had a great early morning dive with about 20 hammers.

Not sure if the action is still the same today...