David Shiffman

The Snicker’s great white commerical: Harmless humor or dangerous anti-shark stereotypes?

January 21, 2011January 21, 2011 David Shiffman 17 Comments

Last year, I was extremely critical of a Nicorette commercial that featured a man so distracted by thoughts of cigarettes that he didn’t realize a shark was chewing on his arm. This led to a spirited discussion about where sharks fit in to our popular culture, and resulted in more than a few people calling me overly sensitive. One person called me a member of the “apocalyptic legion of killjoys who battle against fun and innocent symbolism all over the world” (one of my standard comebacks is “I’ve been called worse” but I’m not sure if that’s true in this case).

Snickers recently unveiled a new commercial featuring sharks:

Can marine protected areas save the oceans? Under certain circumstances, maybe.

January 20, 2011December 31, 2011 David Shiffman 4 Comments

Conservation, Science

Although marine fish face many threats, one of the greatest is large-scale modern commercial fishing. Technology makes it all too easy for so-called “factory ships” to remove enormous numbers of fish from the oceans, sometimes with devastating effects on the populations of those fish and their habitat.

Marine conservationists have proposed a variety of policies to protect fish populations around the world. Of these, the concept of the marine protected area (MPA) is arguably the most popular. Though technically a marine protected area is any area of the ocean where human activities are restricted in some way, the best known version is an area where fishing is banned with the goal of letting exploited fish stocks recover.

Biodiversity Wednesday – Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge

January 19, 2011January 19, 2011 David Shiffman

Conservation

Carr — These beaches are narrow, beautiful, and largely undeveloped

On the east coast of Florida lies a thin, 20 mile long stretch of beach. It looks a great deal like the many other beaches in Florida, but one important difference is immediately clear. It is some of the least developed beachfront real estate in the United States, which is particularly jarring considering that it is close to the city of Melbourne and right off of the major A-1-A highway. Why isn’t this beautiful and accessible stretch of beach covered in hotels and luxury apartments?

An enormous number of signs listing the things you can’t do on this beach also grabs your attention. No ATV’s, horses, dogs, or beach chairs are allowed. Feeding wildlife, including seagulls, is strictly prohibited. Under no circumstances can you build a campfire- not that you’d need to, since the public isn’t allowed on the beach at all after dark.

What is this place?

Shark Science Monday: Barry Bruce discusses great white shark behavior

January 17, 2011January 17, 2011 David Shiffman

Science

In this week’s edition of Shark Science Monday, Barry Bruce of CSIRO (the Australian government science agency) discusses great white shark behavior. If you have a question for Barry, please post it as a comment below and I’ll make sure that he gets it.

“Only One Ocean”- ocean literacy through music

January 12, 2011January 12, 2011 David Shiffman 3 Comments

At last count (which was last summer), the number of conservation/science/ocean listservs I subscribe to was over 100. It’s kind of a problem. Every once in a while, though, a real gem comes through.

Yesterday, the award-winning eco-friendly Banana Slug String Band released their 11th album. It’s called Only One Ocean, and the goal is “outrageously good music that inspires youngsters and their families to learn about and take better care of our precious oceans.”

Shark Science Monday: Geremy Cliff discusses South Africa’s “shark control” program

January 10, 2011January 12, 2011 David Shiffman 2 Comments

Conservation, Science

In this week’s edition of Shark Science Monday, Geremy Cliff of the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board discusses South Africa’s “shark control” program. If you have a question for Geremy, please leave it as a comment below and I’ll make sure that he receives it.

Turtle excluder devices: analysis of resistance to a successful conservation policy

January 7, 2011December 31, 2011 David Shiffman 9 Comments

Conservation

Conservation efforts often have an associated tradeoff, and many proposed solutions are shot down because the costs are perceived to be too high. A conservation policy that benefited a charismatic endangered species with very little cost should be popular and enthusiastically adopted. However, even though turtle excluder devices greatly reduce sea turtle mortality and have very low costs, they were vigorously opposed by shrimpers. Though many factors contributed to this opposition to turtle excluder devices, analysis of quotes from newspaper articles reveals that one of the major issues was a failure of the conservation community to educate and communicate with shrimpers.

The problem

Most species of sea turtles are either threatened or endangered. Although they face many threats, a 1990 National Academy of Sciences study reached the conclusion that “drowning in shrimp trawls kills more sea turtles than all other human activities combined”. Trawling consists of dragging a large net behind a boat to catch shrimp. This fishing method has one of the highest bycatch rates of any used today, resulting in over 11 million metric tons of bycatch a year. Sea turtles breathe at the surface, and being trapped underwater in a net can be fatal if they aren’t freed in time. Adult loggerhead turtles can hold their breath for up to 45 minutes, but trawlers often wait up to four hours before hauling in their nets. This resulted in an estimated 48,000 sea turtles caught in trawl nets each year from 1973-1984 in U.S. waters, of which 11,000 died . Gulf of Mexico shrimping was particularly hard on loggerhead and kemp’s ridley sea turtles.

Blog-cation Shark news roundup

January 6, 2011December 22, 2010 David Shiffman

Science

While we were away, a variety of interesting shark news stories were reported. Here are links to some of my favorites.

It’s been an exciting time for shark conservation.

In addition to the Shark Conservation Act passing the Senate, the Northern Mariana Islands voted to protect sharks in their waters, and the Phillipines will start protecting thresher sharks and manta rays.

The IUCN shark specialist group also came out with a study recommending a complete ban on shark finning in European Union waters.

A Brazilian NGO called the Environmental Justice Institute is suing to stop illegal shark finning in Brazil.

Beneath the Waves Film Festival- There’s still time to submit!

January 5, 2011January 5, 2011 David Shiffman 2 Comments

Uncategorized

Last November, I told you about the upcoming Beneath the Waves Film Festival. Since it takes place at a scientific conference, Beneath the Waves provides a unique forum for scientists and filmmakers to interact. It is ideal for starting filmmakers, as well grad students and scientists who make public education films. The deadline for submission … Read More “Beneath the Waves Film Festival- There’s still time to submit!” »

Thoughts on the shark attacks in Egypt

January 4, 2011January 5, 2011 David Shiffman 9 Comments

Conservation, Science

While we were away on our December blog-cation, sharks were all over the news. Specifically, a series of shark attacks in the resort town of Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, captured the attention of the media and of beachgoing news watchers worldwide. I normally don’t talk about shark attacks on the blog, but lots of readers have been asking me for my opinion on this incident. Fortunately, even though I was on blog-cation, the rest of the shark blog-o-sphere was hard at work covering this issue.

While it’s difficult to integrate a month’s worth of news stories after the fact, I’ll do my best to provide you with a complete picture of what happened. Please feel free to point out inaccuracies in the comments section.