sharks

Last week's hopes for the future of bluefin tuna have essentially been dashed today as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in Morocco comes to a close.

Oceana called for a closure of the bluefin tuna fishery to allow stocks to recover, but parties instead agreed to an unsustainable Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of 22,000 metric tons for 2009. Proposals for a TAC of less than 15,000 metric tons for the eastern stock, which was in line with scientific advice, were tabled but rejected.

This week (Nov 17 - 24) the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meets in Marrakesh, Morocco to discuss the state of Atlantic tuna. Along with Greenpeace and the Blue Ocean Institute, Oceana has called on the United States to push for a complete moratorium on the catch of bluefin tuna throughout the Atlantic basin.

Since 2006, researchers from Oceana Europe have visited harbors in Europe, Africa and South America, where they talked to fishermen, scientists, processors and trade companies about the current state of European shark fisheries.

Their travels resulted in several reports and many photographs documenting the plight of sharks, a sampling of which you see here.

I recently finished Ernest Hemingway's classic, The Old Man and the Sea, which I somehow missed out on during school. Hemingway is remembered as the quintessential mid-century outdoorsman; however, a close reading of novel reveals his own confusion about the ocean and the superstitions he projected onto sea creatures, particularly the ominous sharks that star in the dramatic climax of the narrative.

The sharks are portrayed as bloodthirsty, greedy, and mindless killers, "like a pig to the trough, if a pig had a mouth so wide that you could put your head in it." As the sharks attack the old man's mythical fish, he curses and beats and stabs and kills them, narrated in language steeped in the imagery of a man fending off some barbarian horde.

This week, the International Union for Conservation of Nature began its 10-day World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. Thousands of people representing academia, NGO's, businesses and governments are attending the event in order to debate, learn and voice their opinions on the environment.

As a part of the event, Oceana's Ranger catamaran is participating in Sailing to Barcelona, which is a gathering of marine conservation vessels in the Spanish port city. Xavier Pastor, the Executive Director of Oceana Europe, joined the Director of Fundacion Biodiversidad at a press conference today where they shared the most important aspects of the Ranger's expeditions and displayed many beautiful underwater images taken by Ranger's crew.

It's Thursday, which means it's almost Friday, which means you're probably starting to think about your weekend plans. Add this to your list: After much anticipation, Smithsonian's Ocean Hall is opening this Saturday the 27th.

The hall cost $49 million and is the biggest renovation since the museum opened in 1910. Along with models and preserved remains of whales and sharks, the hall is also the only place in the world to exhibit the preserved remains of both an adult coelacanth and its pup.

Finally, the Earth's largest environment is getting its due exhibit. I hope to check it out soon and report back...

Aside from having some clever marketing people on staff, American Express is also in its second year of doing the Members Project, which gives $2.5 million to a project deemed by voters to make a difference in the world.

I just discovered that the Imaging Foundation is in the top 25 (right now it's #19) for its project about protecting Cocos Island, which is a UN World Heritage Site more than 300 miles west of Costa Rica.

It seems that Ted Danson is everywhere this week to speak out on ocean issues. The U.K. Daily Telegraph features an interview with Ted where he speaks out against overfishing of the shark species that sometimes goes into fish and chips, that favorite meal of the Brits.

One quibble, however: The article states that Ted "attacks" the dish of fish and chips. That's not quite accurate - Ted attacks overfishing, for sure, but not any one meal in particular. As long as we can source our fish responsibly and sustainably, Ted's happy - and so are the rest of us at Oceana.

The answer, according to our new report, is an overwhelming yes.

As you may have heard on NPR's Marketplace this morning, our report, Sea the Value: Quantifying the Value of Marine Life to Divers, asked scuba divers whether they would be willing to pay to help protect populations of ocean wildlife -- and a majority of divers surveyed said they would.

Oh, sharks. When will you stop being terrifying?

Late last week, police charged a man with disorderly conduct for saying he spotted two great whites off the beach of Martha's Vineyard - the selfsame spot where movie-monster Jaws hunted humans in 1974.

Too bad the man's sighting was fabricated, and cleared the beaches for no reason. While the Jaws mythos is still going strong, your chance of being killed by a shark is one in 264 million.