tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1500630830405346475.post8755126376784550105..comments2023-12-19T04:55:46.401-08:00Comments on Norbert Wu Blogs About Photography, Diving, Travel, and Stuff: Great Hammerhead Shark Video Clip, Bimini, BahamasNorbert Wuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14468652308632454334noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1500630830405346475.post-20177748693107974142015-03-04T10:22:53.260-08:002015-03-04T10:22:53.260-08:00.The Bimini Sharklab also offers tours to the publ....The Bimini Sharklab also offers tours to the public and not only give an overview of the 25 years of research they have been doing along with answering any of your questions, but also gives a hammerhead research lecture to the diving tourists who are interested. It's obvious that in the past few years, Great Hammerhead diving in Bimini has become a major attraction. It is important to both the sharks and the islands of Bimini that tourists support local businesses from travel, to lodging, to food, to diving. You see, if tourists coming to do hammerhead dives use a Florida operated dive charter and either never or barely set foot on Bimini, then the island has no way of showing the Bahamian government that this tourism is vital to their economy. Better yet, if there is no link of tourists travelling to Bimini to dive, especially for the sharks, the Bahamian government has no incentive to protect these sharks or this tourism, so in the end everyone would lose out. I have been to Bimini on several occasions and not once have I felt threatened and I would even go as far as saying you are better off walking down the streets of Bimini by yourself than any other major city in the United States. It's hard enough for scientists these days to jump through the hoops of permits, funding, etc. without the added burden of the public interfering with their research. It is also hard enough for the small developing island of Bimini to get a steady income from tourists without Florida businesses coming in, providing competition and taking away from locals' means of making a living. It is imperative that we support the science and the locals because, as you can hopefully now see, the end result should be something that is adding to the longevity of marine ecosystems, the sharks that inhabit them, and the tourism that revolves around them. I think it is also important to remember that if it wasn't for science, or the tagging of sharks we wouldn't know anything about these creatures, their migration, behavior, habitats, importance in the ecosystem, etc. so the shark diving community would be highly lacking without the scientific evidence that supports your hobby.Janenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1500630830405346475.post-71143886641397458722015-03-03T18:38:43.609-08:002015-03-03T18:38:43.609-08:00Your blog post seems to have made its way around, ...Your blog post seems to have made its way around, and unfortunately not for the better. I'd like to make a few comments. Bimini is like most of the other Bahamian Out Islands. It can be frustrating coming and going at times but those of us used to traveling here have very few issues. It isn't like traveling to Nassau (as you've mentioned) or Freeport. They don't land 747s here and I think that is a great thing. The real Bahamas are places like Bimini, Cat Island, Andros, etc. Not exactly remote, but not exactly urban centers either. Bimini is easy to travel to, situated just 48 miles from Miami and 52 miles from Fort Lauderdale, you can come over by boat in a few hrs with good weather. Something you can't easily do in Nassau. Besides Florida, you can also catch flights daily from Nassau on Western Air or Sky Bahamas. I highly recommend this option. With a 9am flight and a 4pm flight on Western you can often travel from home to Bimini in the same day. Flamingo Air makes daily trips from Freeport making it another travel option. In reality Bimini is one of the easier islands to come and go from, by boat or plane. You just have to know where to look or have guides that actually know the islands.<br /><br />In terms of Mike Black, I personally don't know him, however I can tell you his conspiracy theories are out to lunch. I believe he's removed all those postings and issued an apology. He'll be lucky if he doesn't face legal issues for his online rant. I think the really monstrous, vile and shocking actions were on his part for bashing the island and other operators here. <br /><br />You mentioned that you were in a PhD program. I would expect someone with your education to research something before posting utter nonsense. I hate to say this but many of us got a good chuckle out of your comment. We all know exactly the shark you are talking about, or at least a couple that fit your description. The holes you are referring to are clearly bite marks from other sharks. They have been well documented this year and there are many pictures of them in various stages of healing. There are no tags being placed by "researchers" that are being glued on their backs. The actual tags have been placed by the Bimini Biological Field Station (SharkLab), who are the ones responsible for discovering this amazing site. They do this in the water, free diving, so as to not have to physically catch these relatively delicate animals. They have been placing tags on these animals long before any commercial dive boat came to Bimini. Thankfully many of the boats and divers support the research efforts. A number of them donate to the lab and have even purchased tags. One dive boat provides all the dive gear for the Shark Lab to deploy and collect the array of underwater receivers that is listening for and recording the presence of these animals.<br /><br />The PEW Trust and BNT were both driving forces behind creating the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary and both support the Shark Lab. PEW just held an important shark meeting at the Big Game Club, because of the Shark Lab's role here in Bimini. It involved other Caribbean nation governments in the initial stages of a push to widen the protection of sharks from the Bahamas to a larger Caribbean wide area. International agreements like CITES, which we all hailed as a success with their recent additions, including hammerheads, rely heavily on scientific information and stock assessments. Without this information species listings are doomed to fail. It would be nice to see more people like you support the research efforts, especially in this case as you are diving in an established research site. I understand that the tags are often unsightly and I can respect that as an amateur underwater enthusiast myself, but there are bigger issues out there then your own personal images. I have no issue photoshopping out tags (and sometimes I do) so I would think someone of your reputation would be vastly better than I.<br />Seannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1500630830405346475.post-53837495355530705072015-02-25T08:40:28.017-08:002015-02-25T08:40:28.017-08:00This is a comment from a shark researcher at the S...This is a comment from a shark researcher at the Shark Lab in Bimini: <br /><br />"the shark he is talking about is an animal we have known for a year it has a nasty patch on his back. This animal was only tagged with a Casey external national marine fisheries service tag. That would never have produced such a mark. My guess is prop scar turned bad due to shark suckers. I guess this guy had no idea great hammers are endangered and the station founded the (dive) site."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02130175213720134192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1500630830405346475.post-54355457113415056672015-02-21T10:38:01.846-08:002015-02-21T10:38:01.846-08:00Thanks for your post, Norb. Very enlightening...
...Thanks for your post, Norb. Very enlightening...<br />~MicheleMichelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08878514825214582968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1500630830405346475.post-72171153832917201322015-02-21T06:01:32.698-08:002015-02-21T06:01:32.698-08:00Great Clip, Norbert! Great Clip, Norbert! Steve Welchnoreply@blogger.com