David Shiffman

Frequently asked questions about Rosie O’Donnell killing an endangered shark for fun

July 13, 2014July 13, 2014 David Shiffman

Science

On Friday afternoon, Slate published an article I wrote about Rosie O’Donnell killing an endangered hammerhead shark. Since that time, there has been an active discussion about the article and the surrounding issues on twitter (follow me here) and Facebook (like my page here). Some of the same questions keep coming up, so I decided to gather these questions, and their answers, in one place.

1) Why are you writing an article about this instead of going to the police / isn’t this illegal?

Since January 1, 2012, it has been illegal to kill great, smooth or scalloped hammerhead sharks in Florida state waters. They must be “immediately released, free alive and unharmed.” Rosie killed this hammerhead before 2012, so it was not illegal at the time. I never said it was illegal.

2) If it wasn’t illegal, what’s the problem?

“Not illegal” is not synonymous with “there are no negative consequences to this action, and it is above reproach.” There are lots of things you can do that are legal but bad. There are some things that are illegal but are not bad. “Legal” and “ethically acceptable” are different thing. I do not think that it is ethically acceptable to kill an endangered species for fun and then yell at conservationists and scientists who criticize this action. Also, if the best you can say about an action is “it wasn’t technically against the law when I did it,” you may want to reconsider the ethics of your hobbies.

Can the world’s luxury yacht owners help reduce ocean scientists’ biggest expense: ship time?

July 7, 2014 David Shiffman 1 Comment

Blogging, Science

The International SeaKeepers Society is offering yachts for marine science expeditions, free of charge.

Marine scientists perform research ranging in scope from global food security to threatened species conservation to climate change, research that is critical to a healthy environment. As with other scientific disciplines, however, funding cuts threaten the future of this research. A recent Joint Ocean Commission Imitative report gave the United States government a D minus on funding for ocean sciences, and one of the primary funding programs for ocean exploration has been proposed for termination.

Even as funding is reduced, costs associated with ocean science research are rising. In particular, the fuel costs for research vessels, of which there are fewer and fewer each year, are increasing. Ship time often costs tens of thousands of dollars each day. This huge expense is critical, as researchers have to get to their study area before they can begin to study it. The International SeaKeepers Society, a non-profit founded by a group of luxury yacht owners, wants to help reduce or eliminate this cost by hosting marine science expeditions on private yachts. “By providing scientists in need of a research platform at sea with the opportunity to work off a privately owned vessel at little to no cost, SeaKeepers helps remove one of the most costly aspects of data collection: access to the water,” says Brittany Stockman, Director of Programs and Policies for the International SeaKeepers Society.

Absurd headlines about sharks, adjusted for accuracy

June 11, 2014June 11, 2014 David Shiffman 1 Comment

Blogging

The mainstream media doesn’t always have the greatest reputation for accuracy when it comes to reporting stories about sharks. Inspired by this brilliant campaign, I decided to “adjust” the headlines of some particularly absurd recent news stories about sharks.

This story about a shark that may have been eaten by another shark.

Selected conference tweets from Sharks International #Sharks14

June 9, 2014June 9, 2014 David Shiffman

Conservation, Science

I’ve just returned from the second Sharks International, a scientific conference for shark and ray researchers, which was held in South Africa. With nearly 300 researchers and conservationists from more than 38 countries in attendance, the conference was a fantastic learning and networking experience, and a huge success.

In addition to countless talks focusing on cool discoveries about amazing animals and important conservation issues from all over the world, I don’t think I ate one meal at a table with fewer than 4 countries represented. Our lab, the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program at the University of Miami, gave 3 scientific presentations, including my own, which was well-received and resulted in some fascinating discussions. The “social media for scientific outreach” workshop I gave had more than 50 people attend, resulting in a couple of dozen scientists newly joining twitter.

Speaking of twitter, more than 7,000 tweets (including re-tweets) were shared using the conference hashtag #Sharks14 ! Below are links to 8 Storify stories I made: 4 plenary sessions and 4 days of scientific presentations. * Scientists, if any of the tweets about your talk are incorrect, please alert me in the comments and I’ll edit or delete them immediately. *

Dawn take you all: Bilbo Baggins’ approach is better than “don’t feed the trolls”

May 21, 2014 David Shiffman 4 Comments

Blogging, Science

“Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!”For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches. William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone, unless the birds perch on them; for trolls, as you probably know, must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again. – “The Hobbit,” J.R.R. Tolkien. (Yes, it really says twitter in this section of text. This is the only place in “The Hobbit” or any of the Lord of the Rings books where the word twitter appears.)

Trolls at the world premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". Creative Commons license from Flickr user Kewl — Trolls at the world premiere of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. Creative Commons license from Flickr user Kewl

Though I have largely enjoyed my experiences with online outreach, there are, to put it mildly, lots of unpleasant people on the internet. An extremist opinion and an anonymous forum for expressing it can be a recipe for some particularly nasty conversations. Some people seem to take pleasure in disrupting a conversation even when they have no particular stake in it, and these people are commonly referred to as “trolls.” There are various strategies for dealing with them (for example, here’s an explanation of this blog’s comment policy). In general, “don’t feed the trolls” is a common piece of advice for those engaged in online discussions. “Don’t feed the trolls” means that if someone is behaving in an inflammatory manner, you should simply not respond. While it’s certainly true that many internet trolls enjoy a combative discussion and that engagement may give an extremist idea more exposure than it would otherwise receive, I’ve never liked the idea of “don’t feed the trolls.”

24 species of sharks that have killed fewer people than Jack Bauer on 24

May 6, 2014May 7, 2014 David Shiffman 6 Comments

Uncategorized

Promotional photo for "24: Live Another Day" from the 24 Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/24fox — Promotional photo for “24: Live Another Day” from https://www.facebook.com/24fox

After four long years of being cancelled, Fox finally brought back ’24’ this week! Star Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, a counter-terrorism agent and general badass. Jack has had to kill in the line of duty many times. In fact, as of this past Monday’s premiere of “24: Live Another Day,” Jack Bauer has killed 273 people. How does this record stack up to a cause of death that so many people fear, death by shark bite?

Here are 24 species of shark that have killed fewer people than Jack Bauer has killed on ’24,’ according to the International Shark Attack File. All fatalities reference the time period 1580-2013, and encompass the whole world. Only fatalities where the shark species has been identified are included here

Announcing a F1000 research collection on shark biology and conservation

May 6, 2014May 6, 2014 David Shiffman

Blogging, Science

An announcement from Cesar Berrios-Otero, Outreach Director at Faculty of 1000:

f1000-research Shark Week is fast approaching and with it the potential for misinformation (re Megalodon special 2013) as well as an excellent opportunity for public education and outreach. Furthermore, with 25% of all sharks and their relatives in danger of extinction due to over fishing, at F1000Research (a new open science journal launched in 2013) we believe this is the ideal opportunity to raise awareness of elasmobranch biology and conservation efforts. In order to support these efforts we are planning the release of an article collection to coincide with this event. We are encouraging authors to contribute their work in order to highlight the importance of these indispensable apex predators.

We are looking for passionate shark biologists who would like to publish articles in the following areas:

Policy, regulations and laws regarding shark conservation.
Migration, feeding, ecology and behavior of sharks.
Profiles of shark fisheries and future needs.

Florida fisherman catches an 18 foot goblin shark, the second ever caught in the Gulf of Mexico

May 2, 2014May 2, 2014 David Shiffman 5 Comments

Blogging, Science

Last week, commercial fisherman Carl Moore was fishing for royal red shrimp off the coast of Key West Florida. When he pulled up a net from more than 2,000 feet, Moore had caught something other than just shrimp. In his net was an unusual looking enormous fish—a goblin shark more than 18 feet long. As … Read More “Florida fisherman catches an 18 foot goblin shark, the second ever caught in the Gulf of Mexico” »

How much shark fin soup could you make from an adult megalodon?

April 26, 2014 David Shiffman

Blogging

Carcharocles megalodon, commonly known as the megalodon, was likely the largest shark that ever lived. I say “was”, because despite claims by certain Discovery Channel “documentaries”, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the megalodon is extinct and has been for millions of years.

It isn’t surprising, though, that the largest shark that ever lived has such an impact on pop culture. Recently, we watched the latest in the spectacular “mega shark vs.” science fiction series, one of my favorite movie series based on extinct giant sharks coming back to life and wreaking havoc on the modern world. The Southern Fried Scientist, who recently calculated how much Old Bay seasoning you’d need to properly cook the latest Aquaman villain, asked me how much shark fin soup you could get from an adult megalodon.

Based on my calculations, the answer is about 70,000 bowls of shark fin soup, more than enough for everyone who lives in Greenland to have a bowl. Explaining where this number comes from can tell us a lot abTTout one of the most important ocean conservation issues facing the world today.

It’s illegal for anglers to land hammerheads in Florida. It’s time that media coverage pointed that out.

April 24, 2014May 5, 2014 David Shiffman 18 Comments

Conservation, Science

On January 1st, 2012, new Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regulations came into effect, making it illegal for fishermen to land great, smooth, or scalloped hammerhead sharks in Florida waters. The legal term “land” is clearly defined in the Florida Code:

“Land,” when used in connection with the harvest of marine organisms, means the physical act of bringing the harvested organism ashore”

“Harvest” means the catching or taking of a marine organism by any means whatsoever, followed by a reduction of such organism to possession. Marine organisms that are caught but immediately returned to the water free, alive, and unharmed are not harvested”

Florida code section 68B-44 (emphasis mine)

In other words, if a fish is brought out of the water, it is “landed”. If anglers stop the act of releasing a fish to measure it or take a photo, it is not “immediately released.” If a fish isn’t “immediately returned alive and unharmed” (and if the extremely physiologically stressful act of bringing a hammerhead out of the water results in it dying after release, it was not released “unharmed,”) it is harvested. If you drag the shark out of the water and leave it there until it stops moving long enough that you feel safe to approach it, that is not an “immediately released” animal, and it isn’t an animal that is “released unharmed.” Landing and/or harvesting hammerhead sharks is illegal. This is clear under the law, and has been confirmed by numerous consultations with an FWC Law Enforcement official.