2010 Trip #2 Another Awesome Expedition #140 and still 100%

Just back in from trip #2 of 14 for the 2010 season and our 140th to Guadalupe Island.

CAL RIPFIN was once again the star of the show. Cal has to be the coolest White Shark ever!
This handsome brute is the most cooperative white shark I have ever seen, and I know quite a few.
Cal just loves to hang around and pose for photos and video. He is always calm, cool and easy going.
He and 14 of his buddies (all males still) enjoyed the clear blue water and bright sunshine with us for 3 full days.

Jacque was also there the entire trip. Jacque named by our dear friend Eric Cheng is also a real player and kept the divers busy going through flash cards, video tape and batteries the entire stay at the island. However Jacque apparently had the misfortune of encountering the "Expedition Great White" (EGW) crew last winter and is now sporting a heavy SPOT tag on his dorsal fin. Poor Jacque already has had multiple PAT tags over the years and has a great deal of marine growth on the leaders left behind from those tags. I think that is a crime to put these incredible animals through this time and time again in the name of research. How many times do these same animals need to be tagged??? We also noticed that Jacque has suffered an injury to his left eye. I can't help but suspect that it most probably occurred when he was Hooked, towed for miles, and "After His Will was Broken" lifted out of the water by the EGW crew and 4 holes drilled and had the SPOT tag bolted on. WTF!! Poor Jacque......

We are heading back out shortly so I have to run. Ill be back in 5 days with the next report.

Word from ABC4, was that they have found a dead whale near KZN and will be towing it out to sea and watch what happens. Sounds pretty stinky but should be pretty cool! Good luck buddy!

Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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2010 Isla Guadalupe White Shark Season Begins

Greetings Shark Fans
Sorry for my prolonged absence as I have been litteraly on the move for the last 6 weeks.
I am currently in port in Ensenada on board the Solmar V preparing to depart for Isla Guadalupe for the second of 14 trips.

Our first trip to Guadalupe was nothing short of EPIC! We had 12 individual white sharks over the 3 days at the island. That would be a record for the first trip of the season. All males as expected and they were very active throughout the trip. The first shark arrived only 20 minutes after arriving at the island and Cal Ripfin arrived after only 2 hours. Cal did not show up until late September last year and had us all worried.

Cal looks GREAT! He is still gaining weight and appears to be in excellent condition. For those who have not had the priviledge of meeting Cal Ripfin (aka Shredder) he is one of the most famous white sharks in the world. I met Cal Ripfin back in 2002 and have seen him at the island every season for the last 9 seasons now. He is truly one of the greatest "Players" in the shark world. He hangs around the boat for hours at a time and loves to swim close to the cages and he even swings by the submersible cage and HI 5"S the dive masters. He is the Coolest Shark in the World! Sorry Emma.... (Jimmy's fav Tiger shark)

The weather was fantastic providing us with a very smooth crossing. At the island, morning clouds cleared to bright warm sunshine and we enjoyed just a slight breeze to keep us comfortable. August can be blistering hot at Isla Guadalupe. The water conditions were ideal with a temperature of 65-67 and 80' of visibility.

We were boarded twice by the Mexican Navy and all of our documentation were inspected and approved.

Never a dull moment down there!

I will be back in 5 days to bring you another Shark Action Report.

Photos by Kat Fisher

Team update:
ABC4 just arrived back in Cape Town SA. Congrats to ABC4  for scoring #5 of ALL TIME, Shark Week Show with his "Into the Shark Bite" show. He also just signed a new contract with NAT GEO! Keep it up Bro!

Mary O'Malley is currently also in S Africa finishing up a extended Sardine Run Expedition

Bobby Mc Nerney is preparing for an expedition to Tonga and will be joining us back at Guadalupe soon.

Erick Higuera is on board the Solmar V


STAY TUNED!

May the Sharks be with you!

Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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Juvenile White Shark Project Gets Underway in So Cal

The Shark is out of the bag!


We have been operating in the Los Angeles area over the past few weeks preparing for an epic film project. We are here on a mission, to film and document Juvenile White Shark behavior in the wild. 


Over the past few weeks I have been busy meeting with many local law enforcement and other government officials in preparation for this project. Getting everyone "In the Loop" and notifying the local agencies of what our plans and intentions was very important to me and indeed very fruitful. I believe that it is very important to meet face to face with the right authorities and local people and show your respect when taking on a major project such as this. I was pleasantly surprised by the reception I received and how helpful everyone was. They all appreciated the fact that I had the politeness and forethought to contact them before I started my project.


One of the contingencies for having the cooperation I asked for from these government agencies was that we kept a "low profile" and not stirred up any unwarranted attention from the media or concerns from local residents . I of course had no problem with that issue and have been publicly quiet about my project.


Well, now that the media has gone nuts over some recent sightings here and the local residents are now "warned" about the arrival and subsequent sightings of these White Sharks, we are now able to share our story with all of you.

Surfers Warned After Shark Spotted Off Malibu Coast

KTLA VIDEO HERE


From the Shark Research Committee site:

Sunset Beach  —   On June 27, 2010 Scott at SunsetSurf received the following report from Agam Singh; “Shark sighting: 7 – 8 foot White Shark fully breached about 200 yards off the point around 3:00 PM, Sunday, June 27th. At least 5 people saw it and kept surfing. I bailed!”




Our Juvenile White Shark Project has been in the planning stages since March of this year.
We arrived in LA in mid June and began staging equipment and vessels in strategic locations around Southern California. Our base of operations is located in beautiful Malibu, CA. In total we have 4 vessels and several shoreside bases. We have a great communications network set up between multiple vessels and shoreside observation posts from North to South along the coast. 


                                                We are geared up and ready for action!

We will be open water diving with our two CUDA 850 Scooter/ HD video camera rigs. These slick little units are stable, fast, quiet and maneuverable. In the above configuration we can cover large areas in a short period of time. In the event we would want to have extended range and cover huge distances we can simply add additional batteries and increase our range to over 10 miles. However I have designed and built a Twin 850 configuration that combines both scooters into one ultra fast, ultra long range machine which I call the "Super Max 1700". This very cool "one of a kind" unit is capable of over 8 knots and has a range of approximately 28 miles. Utilizing a closed circuit rebreather, I can make dives below 100 feet and stay submerged for over 3 hours. To put that into perspective, I would be able to travel submerged from one end of Catalina Island to the other or actually travel (utilizing specially designed navigation instruments) from the North end of Catalina Island to Santa Barbara Island, non stop. HOW COOL IS THAT? :)~




So stay tuned for some exciting reports from us as we embark on this latest adventure!


Enjoy the 4th of July and Ill see you next week!


Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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Hawaii Celebrating New Shark Fin Ban Legislation

The state of Hawaii is celebrating its brand new "Shark Fin Ban" legislation that took effect on July 1.

Kelly Hu

"I'm here to encourage other Asian Americans to help end the demand by talking, blogging and tweeting about this bill and encouraging their friends to support the bills in their areas prohibiting the sale and possession of shark fins as we have here," said Kelly Hu.  "The way to stop shark finning all together is to stop the demand for the product."

I would like to send out a BIG THANK YOU! to my good friend Mike Shutello for recruiting the very talented and lovely Kelly Hu to join our conservation efforts in both Hawaii and California.

Read the full story here:

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Mantas Sharks and Boobies at the Revillagegidos

                                                            Giant Pacific Manta Ray


I have just returned from an amazing trip on the Solmar V to the Revillagegidos Islands.
We spent 9 days navigating and exploring the very special archipelago consisting of Isla San Benidicto, Isla Socorro and Roca Pardida.
 Being in the best place in the world to dive with giant Manta Rays we were definitely not disappointed.
Conditions were good with 70 to 80 feet of visibility and clear sunny skies.

                                                                 Isla San Benidicto

These volcanic islands not only provide very dramatic vistas above the surface but even more incredible bottom topography with bizarre rock formations, boulder fields and deep canyons. Being located in open pelagic waters these islands are surrounded by strong currents that attract a very rich and diverse ecosystem.

   Like a pile of puppies, these White tip Reef sharks sleep on ledges in the walls of Roca Partida

Many species of sharks are found here such as Hammerheads, Silky, Black tip, White Tip, Galapagos,
Whale sharks and the occasional Tiger shark.
However the main attraction for most divers are the friendly Manta Rays.

There is a huge population of these very social and intelligent creatures with the highest concentration found at Isla San Benidicto.

Manta Rays actually seem to enjoy the company of most divers. They will approach divers and pose for photos. They are also known to enjoy a divers bubbles and position themselves right above the diver to get a belly bubble massage. It is quite common to have several Mantas soaring around and through the entire group of divers. If you are really lucky you can be in the right place to watch them feed. They will find a cloud of plankton and begin to loop around and around with their mouths wide open scooping up thousands of microscopic critters. These beautiful creatures are hands down one of the most graceful animals on this planet. They normally seem to just soar like giant birds in the sky but they can also attain great speeds in short bursts. This speed and maneuverability is there only defense against predators.

                              Manta Ray with a school of Big Eyed Jacks in tight formation.

The Revillagegidos archipelago is also a very important sea bird nesting area. The dominant bird species being the Brown Boobie. These Boobies are also very social and seem to be genuinely interested in all the "goings on" the boat and below the surface. They will line the handrails all around the boat watching all the activities topside and then they will also be floating on the surface of the water holding there heads underwater looking down at all of the subsea action. It is really funny to look up at the surface and see all of these eyes and beaks looking down at you. At one point during a safety stop I had 15 little faces looking down and intently watching me decompressing. You just have to laugh, it is really funny to be under such intense scrutiny from these expert flying/divers.

Brown Boobie

The only low point of the trip was finding an illegal fishing vessel laying out 6 miles of long line only 4 miles from Isla San Benidicto. The Solmar V owner Jose Luis Sanchez and the captain decided that we should go out and try to stop or at least document the poaching infraction. We sent the pangas out with the passenger/divers to continue normal operations and then set out to intercept the poacher vessel. We located the marker out at one end of the long line and followed all the way to the fishing vessel. When we got within a mile of the vessel the poachers dropped the line and sped away. We gave chase and caught up them after a 45 minute pursuit. Eventually we were able to contact the captain of the poacher vessel and explained to him that he was fishing in protected waters and that we were going to report his activities to the authorities (Mexican Navy). The offending captain gave us some BS story that he as hungover and had passed out and was not under command of his ship and that his crew had mistakingly set the line within the boundaries of the reserve. He then stated that he would remove the line and leave the protected area.

We decided to document the event with video and photos and allow him to remove the gear and depart.

However he refused to remove the gear until we left the area. He did not want us to film him catching any sharks apparently. We decided that it would be better to get the line out of the water than to stay there and argue with this sorry excuse for a captain.

Besides it was getting dark and we had divers still out on the pangas. So we left him to recover the gear unobserved. We could see that indeed he followed the line all the way back to the first bouy and then disappeared over the horizon. The protected area extends out only 12 miles from the islands. However this vessel was only 4 miles from the island. We have sent our photos and video of the incident to the Mexican Navy command in Cabo San Lucas. However I doubt that there will be much follow up regarding this case. But if I hear any news I will pass it along.

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CABO TODAY GONE TOMORROW

We are in Cabo San Lucas, Baja on the second leg of the BAJA INVASION TOUR.
After an amazing visit to Guadalupe Island last week, now I am off to the Revillagigedos Islands on board the Solmar V. 

Myself and a few very lucky shark fans will be enjoying 9 days of nonstop action, diving at Isla San Benedicto, Isla Socrro, and Roca Partida. Word has it that San Benedicto has a new resident, a 6.5 meter Tiger shark has been visiting the Solmar V crew lately. We will be looking forward to meeting this new "Amiga" on this trip.

Mean time we are enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the local "cultural" attractions here in Cabo.
We will be entertained this evening at The Cabo Wabo Cantina where the Waboritas shall flow endlessly and the rock music will be deafening. So don't be expecting any early morning posts from us manana! \m/


Yours in sharks,
Lorenzo :)~

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Isla Guadalupe Abulon Cooperativa Hyperbaric Chamber Project

This is such a huge story I will just try to sum it up briefly and post updates as they develop.  

Isla Guadalupe Mexico is now known as one of, if not the best place in the world to dive with white sharks.

What most people do not know is that Isla Guadalupe is also home to a small group of artisan fishermen and divers: The Isla Guadalupe Abulon Cooperativa.  The Cooperativa consists of several families of divers, their boat (panga) crews and many other support personnel that harvest and process abalone and lobster from the islands rich ocean waters. These families have been living and working on the island for generations.

Ever since my earliest trips to the island back in 2001-02 I have been developing a friendly working  relationship with these local fishermen and divers. As a commercial diver myself I had a sort of kinship with these local divers. I have become very good friends with quite a few of these characters over the years. I have spent many hours communicating with and supporting them in any way I could. 
From the very beginning they had told me of the harsh conditions that they were used to working in. 
These guys are hardcore divers.

                                    Luis Padrin, Diver and Secretary of the Abulon Cooprativa 




Even though they work in one of the sharkiest places on earth and they often observe white sharks during their daily dives, not one of them has ever been bitten or attacked by a white shark. However, all of them have a story about having a close encounter or two with white sharks. They have developed  a great respect for the white shark and they also are very aware of how important the white shark is to the ecosystem that they depend on for their livelihood.
More than fearing the sharks, they actually have greater concern about the physiological hazards of the frequent deep diving that they do to harvest abalone. 

There are approximately 8 panga crews that consist of a diver, panga operator and a tender that go out each day from mid-January until mid-June. Each panga has a sector or zone around the island that they are assigned to work. The panga crews go and dive to collect abalone from depths as deep as 90 feet.  The diver is supported by the topside crew. The tender minds the diver's hose and keeps the compressor running. The panga operator keeps the panga above the diver by following his bubbles. The diver stays down as long as an hour and sends baskets of abalone up to the panga crew. This method of harvesting has been practiced all over the world for many years.


The problem is that the divers are not using any type of dive computer and basically they "feel" their way through the decompression phase of the dive. They try to ascend slowly and they try not to stay down too long.  But sometimes they do, and then inevitably suffer from decompression sickness (DCS) or the "Bends". Some serious accidents have occurred leaving some of the divers permanently disabled and unable to provide for their families. When a diver is afflicted with DCS they must treat themselves in water which means the diver must return to the water and dive down to 160 feet and then ascend very slowly. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. In any event the in-water treatment scenario is very cold and very dangerous. These DCS events are infrequent, but when they do happen it is devastating to the victim and their families. 


I have been working on a solution to this problem for years. The Isla Guadalupe Abulon Cooperativa divers need a Hyperbaric Chamber. 


In fact, I did indeed deliver a hyperbaric chamber to the Cooperativa back in August 2006. 
I actually purchased a working chamber from Harbor Offshore Inc. in Ventura, CA. I had just completed a huge diving project for Harbor Offshore up in San Francisco Bay. I knew that Harbor Offshore had an old double lock chamber that would work perfectly for the Cooperativa. I had used this particular chamber on the Richmond San Rafael Bridge project and I knew the chamber was back in storage in Ventura. I called my friend John Ventress, the owner of Harbor Offshore, and asked him if I could purchase the chamber for the Cooperativa. He agreed and sold me the chamber for $8,000.00. 

That was the easy part. After delivering the chamber which weighs over 4000 lbs. to the Cooperativa in Ensenada the Cooperativa representatives took the chamber to the Mexican Navy base in Ensenada and asked them to transport the chamber to Guadalupe on one of the Navy boats that visits the island once a month. The Navy accepted the chamber and put it in storage awaiting a resupply mission to Guadalupe. Then the Navy claimed that the chamber was too heavy to be transported to the island.
They kept the chamber there in storage on the base for 4 years. WTF!


Last September a special ship was going to Guadalupe to remove some scrap metal from the island. 
The Cooperativa was able to recover the chamber from the Navy and put it on this scrap metal ship prior to its departure to the island. This scrap metal ship was actually a type of landing craft equipped with a ramp that could be lowered onto the beach at the shore to deploy a tractor. The ship transported the chamber to Guadalupe and delivered it onto the island.




I was recently granted a permit issued by CONAPP (the authority that governs and maintains the Isla Guadalupe Biosphere Reserve) to visit the island regularly to work with the Cooperativa on getting the chamber up and running and provide training for the divers in Hyperbaric chamber operations and diver training and safety.
This past Tuesday I flew out to Guadalupe to see the chamber and assess its condition. I was also invited  to meet with the Cooperativa divers about plans to construct a new Hyperbaric Medical facility to house the chamber and provide training for operating the chamber. 


                  The funny thing was that the flight I was on was actually a "MILK RUN" literally!

                                                                        Cessna 402

                               Forward cargo compartment filled with 12 gallons of Leche (milk)

                                                                   Fresh produce: 
25 kilos of Avocados, 25 kilos of tomatoes and another 100 kilos of various other fresh goodies.

                                 The flight was very exciting and the weather was PERFECT!

The trip from the airstrip on top of the island to the Fisherman's camp was grueling but the scenery was simply stunning. The island is absolutely beautiful this time of year and there is actually lots of green vegetation all over the island this time of year.

                              Offloading supplies at the company store at the Fisherman's Camp. 

Surprisingly Isla Guadalupe is home to approximately 150 inhabitants. 


The whole town turned up to welcome me and they were incredibly gracious and hospitable. I was given the total VIP treatment. They provided me and the pilot our own little beach house and it was really quite comfortable. Then came the fresh Abalone for lunch which was absolutely delicious! Then a guided tour of the whole town.

                                                                     Mi Casa

                                                            The view from mi casa

                              Powerhouse. (diesel generators provide electricity for the whole town).

                                                   Notice the little red satellite dishes on every house.

School grounds. (K through 8th grade)

                                                                         

                            After school most kids like to play soccer or go swimming in the ocean.

                                            The future Abalone divers of Isla Guadalupe.


I was very glad to find the chamber in reasonably good shape after languishing at the Naval base in Ensenada for 4 years and being hauled across 200 miles of ocean and then dragged up off of the beach it is actually and surprisingly in good working order. With a little cleaning and painting it will be in great shape.
The divers placed the chamber on a good sized concrete pad close to where the pangas are loaded and offloaded. The location and placement of the chamber is important so that it is easily accessible in emergencies. Where it is now is the perfect spot! 

Soon we will begin construction of a new structure to house the chamber protecting it from the harsh marine environment. We will also be installing a high pressure air compressor to charge large air cylinders to provide pressurized air for both the chamber and to fill "bailout" cylinders for the divers to wear in case they experience a loss of air supply of their surface supplied air. 


I am very glad to finally be making progress in this very important endeavor. I look forward to spending more time with my friends of the Abulon Cooperativa and spending more time on this beautiful island that I care so much about. 
Most importantly I am glad that I am able to finally provide the divers of the Cooperativa a measure of safety for there work so they can continue to provide for there families for generations to come.


STAY TUNED!


Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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