Ocean News

Having just published the previous post, I am grieved to learn that on August 31st a large female white shark (4.37m) weighing 900kg was caught in a shark net off Zinkwazi beach on the KwaZulu Natal coast of South Africa. Only two days later a second female white shark (3.95m)…

One of the more significant pieces of news over the past few days is that a potential ban on bluefin tuna fishing in Europe is seeming significantly more likely than it has in the past few years. Bluefin tuna have been subject to incredibly intense fishing pressure, leaving many with…

Shark Lullaby Click on this arrow to hear The Shark Lullaby, the first recorded song for our upcoming Riddle Solvers episode: The Shark Riddle. We are very excited about working on a program about sharks with the Save Our Seas Foundation. And we plan to make a shark program like…

According to a recent study led by Rosamond Naylor of Stanford University, cultured fish now make up half of the fish and shellfish consumed globally. In other words, half the fish we eat now come from farms as opposed to being caught wild in the sea – in excess of…

One of the main goals of the Bull Shark Tagging Programme has been to locate the nursery grounds of the bull sharks encountered at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve in Fiji. From visual observations made over the years it became obvious that the sharks leave Shark Reef in September/October each…

Well, by all accounts, the most exciting news of all is that this weekend I saw my first ever basking shark! Three in fact, cruising lazily in the evening sun just beneath the cliffs of Gwennap Head in Cornwall for over an hour. Absolutely delightful, although I must point out…

We had the OneShow film team for their yearly update on Scottish basking sharks with us last week and they are great to work with. They had the most amazing luck as the weather forecast was for force 7 at times, yet we not only found a number of basking…

The Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna has begun a worldwide study on the behaviour and migratory patterns of the newly-described giant manta ray (Manta birostris). Initial observations suggest that this species may be more migratory and oceanic than its smaller relative, the reef manta (Manta alfredi), which is typically resident to…

Seasonal reports of giant manta rays from the small island of Laje de Santos off Brazil have led to an annual migration of scuba divers to the area to view these amazing creatures. There are no regular sightings of this species from anywhere else along the long Brazilian coastline, which leads to some…

Have you ever wondered how a manta ray spends it days? Scientists and divers only get a glimpse into these elusive animal’s lives when they encounter them at cleaning stations on shallow reefs. Despite increased research efforts in the last decade, scientists still know very little about the habits or…

My seaplane touched down at last light on August 14th 2009 settling on the choppy waters of Baa Atoll during a welcome lull in successive monsoon squalls. I can’t really think of a better birthday gift then returning to one of my favorite places on earth. Just over a year…

This is the official poster of the Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project, Fiji’s very own contribution to the International Year of the Shark. The International Year of the Shark was inspired by the finding that at the current rate, common shark species will be extinct in 10 to 15…

One of the highlights in the last few months was that I was invited to present our white shark research programme to the esteemed scientists and educators of the CoML International Scientific Steering Committee of this groundbreaking global initiative. The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers…

His hallmark is his yellow hood he always wears when diving at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve. He knows more about sharks than anybody I know. Maybe not the hard scientific facts, but he spent his entire life diving in Beqa Lagoon off Fiji spending thousands of hours in the…

SOSF chief photographer, Thomas Peschak takes us behind the scenes in the Maldives photographing manta rays.