Ma'afu Marine Lecture Series
Shark Reef Marine Reserve: Conservation, Research and Shark Provisioning
Ni sa bula vinaka, Colleagues !!
Mike Neumann has kindly agreed to give this week's Ma'afu Marine Lecture, following
on from Helen Sykes' inspiring talk on Fiji's Shark Sanctuary Campaign.
Mike will be talking about the origin of Shark Reef Marine Reserve and associated tourism and research
aspects.
Many
of you will have seen a number of press releases this week, announcing
that researchers from the
University of Miami, Florida have completed the first satellite-tagging
study to find out how ecotourism impacts on tiger sharks. I copied a
summary of their paper below and attached a related paper from 2011.
More information can be found under the following
links and may provide a useful background for Mikes' lecture.
- www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17299522
- www.functionalecology.org/view/0/index.html
- www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110627143831.htm
- www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13683500.2011.585227
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/59874229/Global-shark-currency-the-distribution-frequency-and-economic-value-of-shark-ecotourism-by-Neil-Hammerschlag
Please join us :
Date: 15.03.2012
Time: 4:30 pm
Venue: Veitiri Conference Room, IUCN Office, 5 Ma'afu Street, Suva
Mike Neumann is a retired lawyer and banking executive.
He now lives in Fiji and is a full-time marine conservationist with a special interest in Sharks.
As always, please kindly share this invitation widely with friends and colleagues, we look forward to see you on
Thursday afternoon in Ma'afu street,
Vinaka Vakalevu,
Jan
--
Don't bite the hand that feeds: Assessing ecological impacts of provisioning ecotourism on an apex marine predator
Neil Hammerschlag, Austing Gallagher, Julia Wester, Jiangang Luo and Jerald Ault
Ecotourism activities that use food
to attract and concentrate wildlife for viewing have become a
controversial topic. This debate is best exemplified by the shark dive
tourism industry, a highly lucrative and booming global
market. Use of chum (fish parts and blood) or food to attract sharks to
divers has generated significant concerns, with many criticisms
focusing on the potential for ecological and behavioral impacts.
To tackle this issue, we conducted
the first satellite telemetry study to examine the long range movement
patterns of tiger sharks (the largest apex predator in tropical waters)
in response to dive tourism. We studied two
separate populations of tiger sharks: one that originated in Florida
and the other in the Bahamas. At the Bahamas site, nicknamed "Tiger
Beach," chum is regularly used to attract sharks for diving purposes. In
contrast, shark feeding for ecotourism is illegal
in Florida waters.
Satellite tracking revealed that
both groups of tiger sharks displayed similar, long distance migration
patterns into the Atlantic. Our data suggests that ecotourism activities
do not impact the long term shark movements.
Instead, this study allowed us to make several new discoveries related
to the previously unknown ecology of Atlantic tiger sharks. Tracked
sharks spent a large amount of time in the open ocean, thus challenging
conventional wisdom that tiger sharks are generally
more "coastal" than "pelagic" species. Both groups of sharks followed
the Gulf Stream north east, into areas of high productivity, suggesting
an opportunistic foraging strategy for this species. This trait, and the
relatively low percentage of daily consumption
needs estimated to be provided by chumming, may combine to make tiger
sharks less susceptible to the behavioral changes explored here. We
further speculate that the Bahamas tourism site may serve as an area for
female tiger sharks to gestate while pregnant,
before heading off to feed or birth elsewhere.
Because shark-based ecotourism
generates significant economic and conservation benefits, and further
because our data did not provide evidence of tourism impacting long-term
movements of tiger sharks, we believe that managers
should not prevent shark diving tourism unless new data were to
demonstrate otherwise.
Jan H. STEFFEN
Regional Marine Program Coordinator
IUCN Oceania Office
Private Mail Bag
5 Ma'afu Street
Suva, FIJI
Ph +679 - 331 9084
Fax +679 - 310 0128
M +679 - 938 2722
jan.steffen@iucn.org
www.iucn.org/oceania
