It is the end of the world!

Forget your 2012 Mayan Prophesies this is actual "cats and dog living together" kind of doom as researchers have discovered Cesium-137 and Cesium-134 in Bluefin Tuna off the coast of San Diego.

Yes, that's radiation people, and not the good kind either.

Apparently the stuff has come from Japan and the Fukushima power plant disaster of last year. The media is having a field day and as we speak Tuna NGO's the planet over are rubbing their hands together to capitalize on Radioactive Bluefin story lines.

But wait, hold on a sec, take a deep breath and go get a cup of coffee because this is not as toxic as you might think.

Let's start by examining your coffee and that deep breath you just took.

Did you know that most American homes contain over 1000 toxic airborne chemicals that you inhale every single day?

• Toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than air pollution. (EPA)


• Most homes have airborne concentrations of hazardous chemicals that are three to 70 times higher indoors than outdoors. (EPA)


• Women who work at home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who work outside of the home. The higher death rate is believed to be due to daily exposure to chemicals found in ordinary household products. (Toronto Indoor Air Commission)


• In the past 14 years, there has been a 75% increase in asthma; 29% for men; 71% for women. The higher rate for women is believed to be due to women’s longer exposure times to household chemicals. (Center for Disease Control)

And then there's your coffee. Most coffee for purchase contains at least four pretty nasty chemical compounds put there by the grower to ensure your coffee is free from the wild things that like coffee as well.

Not to mention any home in America built after 1986 using PVC piping instead of copper. PVC is how water is transported into your coffee machine and PVC leaches some pretty interesting stuff into your cuppa Joe each day.

So back to those Tuna. In terms of radioactivity, it's more of a science experiment then actual doom, sorry for the scare. The trace amounts of Cesium-137 are far less than the 149 topside nukes launched on American soil during the 50's-60's when towns downwind were bathed in radiation levels that would make health and welfare folks today fall over dead.

At least the folks back then had copper piping.

Back in 2009 we had the distinct pleasure of meeting Dr Dení Ramírez at the Socorro islands in Mexico.

She was on an exploratory trip to the islands studying the elusive Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus).

Dr Ramírez latest focus is on Holbox, well known to shark fans the world over as perhaps one of the best places to interact with and see large groupings of these magnificent critters. She has recently publish a new paper on her findings in the Journal of Fish Biology.

Sadly there's growing evidence of vessel strikes on these animals that may be attributed to commercial shark tourism in the region.

Patterns in composition, abundance and scarring of whale sharks Rhincodon typus near Holbox Island, Mexico

Photo-identification and conventional tagging were used to estimate population size and structure of the whale shark Rhincodon typus near Holbox Island, Mexico. From 2005 to 2008, photographs of spot patterns behind the last gill slit and in a lateral view on the left side of each animal were used to identify individuals. Additionally, 578 R. typus were tagged using conventional marker tags. Of these and the 350 R. typus that were identified from 1184 photographs, 65% were male; 27%, female and 8%, indeterminate sex. Photographed R. typus ranged in size from 2·5 to 9·5 m total length. Size was bimodal with a large peak at 6 m and a smaller peak at 7 m. Photo-identification showed that there was considerable loss of marker tags. Few of these remained on the animals for more than a year, so that interannual re-sights using tagging could not be used in population modelling. Forty six interannual re-sightings were found in the photographic library; the interval between these re-sightings was typically 1 year. It was estimated that the R. typus aggregation near Holbox Island ranged from 521 to 809 individuals, based on mark-recapture models. From 13 to 33% of R. typus photographed had scars that were attributable to boat strikes. This study provides a baseline for assessing the status of R. typus near Holbox Island. This information is useful to understand drivers of local population size and distribution and potential concerns about increasing effects of tourism on R. typus in this area and for designing better management programmes for R. typus conservation.
 
Paper here.

Back in the spring of 2008 when word surfaced of not one, but two breeding aged Tigers caught and killed at a local marina in the Bahamas I was, like everyone in the region, shocked.


The Tigers that had been killed were most likely from an area that we run commercial shark diving operations in, a place called Tiger Beach.

It was this singular event that put us into motion as a commercial shark diving company to develop the master plan for what became the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative.

SFMI became a way to bypass local governments, enacting metrics based shark conservation with the help of local marinas who would demand that their sport fishermen do not come back to their marinas with dead sharks.


In the hands of Luke Tipple a marine biologist the SFMI became a living breathing entity that quickly partnered with the Humane Society, Guy Harvey and PADI, who provided this NGO with the broad based funding and backing it needed to grow and prosper.


Today the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative continues to grow, celebrating another 70+ marinas last week. Saving sharks and educating a fishing public one marina at a time.

It must also be said of this initiative that Fiji's role was absolutely critical in getting the SFMI off the ground and into a broader acceptance. Fiji is home to a 73 million dollar shark diving industry and is a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation thanks in part to a small, discreet, and very powerful group within Fiji who have been mapping out this transformation for the past decade.

Additionally the help of two members of the shark dive/film community in the Bahamas must be recognized as well. Duncan Brake and Jillian Morris (recently married) helped bring the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative to their home waters signing up the first Bahamian marinas.

The push to bring the SFMI to life was not limited to just these people and organizations, bloggers, divers, photographers, and Facebook friends all contributed and all helped in ways that brought an idea to life. They laid the groundwork.

The Shark-Free Marinas Initiative truly came to being when the very best of our industry came together to grow and foster a conservation idea that was born from our own industry and actual disaster.

Metrics based conservation initiatives always start with an idea, some action, and some help from the wider community.

Looking back at the past four years of activity and growth I am proud to see what this effort has become. Back in 2008 we were at a complete loss, we had no idea how to stop the slaughter we just knew that something had to be done. Fortunately others saw the vision we put forward and together we're pushing back against the tide, one marina at a time.

More from RTSea Blog here.

Cheers,

Patric Douglas CEO
www.sharkdiver.com
www.sharkdivers.com
415.235.9410