Oceans the Movie on Earth Day

I celebrated Earth Day by going to see Oceans the new release from Disney Nature. 

This 90 minute documentary is incredible. Directed by Jacques Perrin and Jaques Cluzaud the film takes you around the globe from pole to pole. I personally recognized many of the shooting locations in the film such as Cocos, Galapagos and of course Isla Guadalupe. However I also realized that some of the footage was shot in an aquarium. (Lionfish, Manta shrimp vs. Crab sequence). But that is cool. I think they more than made up for that with some really epic open water sequences.

So I will have to give it a score of 8.5 for its amazing footage and the positive message that is brought into the story albeit a little late in the film. Any "Save Our Oceans" message is welcome and needed, hopefully our society will take notice. 

I would have to say the the cetacean footage definitely surpassed any that I have ever seen on the BIG screen. With the Humpback whales in perfect visibility and one literally soaring across the sandy bottom of some beautiful spot in Tonga. That was simply stunning. Magic! The Blue whale footage was really impressive as well  with some eye-popping close ups in a cloud of krill. That cameraman must have some serious cajones getting in there with a 100' Blue whale in a cloud of krill/food. That scene was pretty impressive.

Now as for the great white shark footage I would say they did an OK job. They certainly did not vilify the sharks, in fact they attempted to show the animals as quite docile and almost friendly. The diver swimming along side a rather large female (could be either Gill Raker or Kimmmel) is sure to impress the masses. I noticed her gaping and signaling that she really did not like the little french dude getting that close. Obviously she tolerated the whole situation and cooperated with them long enough to give the world an awesome glimpse of what Isla Guadalupe is all about.

There are some other very impressive scenes such as a million Spider Crabs massing together stacked 3 deep as far as you could see. The Cuttle fish scenes were staged and there was definitely some feeding going on here and there. The editing was actually pretty rough and the film losses continuity several times. They did a great job and I know that it is very difficult to take 5 or 6 years of hard work and cram it into 90 minutes. It is a great film for school aged kids as well as the whole family.

So go out and see it! Write us back and tell us what you think!

Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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Welcome to Our Shark Diving International Team Blog

Happy Earth Day to All

Well, here we go! Our first post.

We have purposely chosen to start this blog on Earth Day April 22, 2010 to celebrate our successes over the last decade and to share a new and promising decade with all of our friends from around the world.

Currently our Team is scattered to the four winds:

Heidi Derosa
Heidi is stuck in London this week due to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption. She was returning from her Red Sea diving expedition and was grounded there by the complete commercial aviation shutdown in Europe. We wish her all the luck in getting home safely and soon. Hiedi will have some good stories from this trip I am sure.

Andy Casagrande
Andy is currently on assignment in the Bahamas on a documentary film shoot.

Erick Higuera
Erick is on the Solmar V diving at the Revillagigedos Islands. His season dive report will be coming soon.

Bobby McNerney
Bob is back home in San Pedro, CA and just returned from a trip to Tiger Beach on the Shearwater with Jimmy Abernethy. Bobby will be heading back out very soon for a Oceanic White tip trip with Jimmy in early May. 

James Moskito
James is back at SDIHQ "West" in the SF Bay area after a very successful Nor Cal coast dive trip. Save us some Abalone Dude!

Mary O'Malley
Mary has been super busy working on Shark Safe campaigns since her recent trip to Indonesia last month. Mary has been working diligently writing letters and emails in support of The Hawaii SB 2169 bill to ban sale, possession, distribution of shark fins and all shark harvest in Hawaii.

SB 2169 passed the Conference session with a unanimous YES vote on Tuesday 4/21. Without a doubt, this bill would have never got off the ground without the Herculean efforts of Stephanie Brendal who has been on the forefront of shark conservation in Hawaii. Our friend Steph is also the founder Shark Allies around the globe.

Lawrence Groth am currently at SDIHQ "East" preparing for my annual migration back to the west coast. I will be driving across the USA in early May to arrive in time for the Long Beach Scuba Show May 15 &16 at the Long Beach Convention Center. On May 24th I will be departing for Cabo San Lucas to join Erick and all my amigos on the Solmar V for a 9 day trip to the Revillagigedos Islands. Upon my return from that trip I will be embarking on a massive 3 year filming project, documenting the natural history of White Sharks. I will be spending a great deal of time diving and filming in southern California prior to the start of the 2010 Isla Guadalupe white shark season. I will be posting regular reports along the way to keep you all up to date on this epic project. I am sorry that I cannot say very much else about the project at the moment due to nondisclosure agreements.

So just stay tuned for some very exciting posts and incredible adventure stories from The Team!

A personal note:
This blog has been a long time coming. I personally have been turned off of blogging by certain persons who have no scruples and that think they can just put anything up on the internet without any sense of honesty or morality. This unethical "BLOOSER" (My own word :) has been left on their own for far too long. They have taken advantage of the fact that most people believe everything they read on their blog. Most ethical people would not write anything but the truth and thus their readers automatically believe that whatever they read must be true, because it is posted on a blog and viewed by everyone. We have had enough of this BS! Beware little man....

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