G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
There’s a lot of media about the health benefits of seafood in our diet. This has got me thinking about the pressure this is going to put on our largest key species of fish that are out there, those big fish that reach maturity at a later age. We often don’t think about this, nut in the case of farming on the land, we look at species of animals that reach maturity in 2 years, the reason we do this is because of profitability, we have the ability to get a return on it sooner rather than later. What it means is that we don’t farm animals that reach maturity in 8-10 years of age, so if that’s the case, why are we harvesting fish from our oceans that’s maturity is 8-20 years of age? Anything over 3 years of age is not a good idea! What this looks at is the idea of sustainability, what we can afford to consume, what the ocean can afford to give us. What it comes down to is this; a Tuna takes 8-10 years to mature, that means that if it takes over 3 generations to recover from over fishing of from a significant loss or die off, we will be looking at close to 30-40 years for recovery. If we look at the smaller species of fish such as sardines, herring, salmon, calamari, some species of crabs, prawns, which only takes 18 months-2 years to reach maturity, it’s only 6 years to recovery, so if we get it wrong, we have the ability to watch them recover and we can see their response a lot quicker. If we don’t eat lamb and beef, then I can understand why we don’t eat seafood, but we do eat lamb and beef and we should also think about our ocean in the same light. Although we don’t actually farm it we have a responsibility to look after it and make sure it’s there for the future. This idea of sustainable seafood is something you need to think about. Don’t worry about the strong taste of sardines, they’re delicious! You just need to know how to cook them
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
One thing I’ve never really understood is the industry of Shark finning, I just don’t get how we can be so wasteful. Often what happens is, these guys catch Sharks on hooks and while the Sharks are alive they butcher their fins off of them and then throw their wriggling, bleeding carcases back over the side, the vision is horrific, the Shark sinks to the bottom, it’s gasping for air, it’s trying to swim and it eventually dies a suffocating, bleeding death, it’s unbelievable. What really troubles me is the waste, the body of the Shark could have be utilized, often the nations responsible for fishing are starving, third world countries anyway. 200,000 Sharks are caught per day and disposed of, just for their fins. It’s really not ok, I think that this idea of Shark finning… what’s it even for? This soup isn’t even nourishable, it really doesn’t have any benefit to it and just about every time you buy it, it’s flavoured with chicken stock, crab or lobster. It doesn’t even taste like Shark fin soup. It used to represent some sort of prosperity and being wealthy in China in the early, early days. But it’s so readily available today that is better represents wastefulness, it represents a lack of respect for the other animals we live on this planet with, and I think you need to get involved – you can’t just say how bad it is, next time you walk into a restaurant and see Shark fin soup on the menu, scream, scream for the Shark that has no voice that’s dying in immense pain. Get on board with this, we allow Shark finning in the Northern Territory waters and every other place in Australia you can catch Sharks, you can sell the fins. This has got to stop or it’s going to get worse. The Sharks that they are finning by the way, aren’t even Great Whites or Sharks to be scared of, most of them are not bigger than 3 or 4 feet long maximum. It’s ridiculous, I don’t understand it, I just don’t understand it and I think this is an issue that I’m not the only one who feels this way. This is something that I’d really like to take further and get your opinion on, get onto our Google, Facebook, twitter, email and let us know what you think, there’s organisations around the world, there’s people we’re associated with – check out our Facebook, and join in the conversation to try and fix this.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
It’s really interesting, we often get asked when is the best time to come and see Great Whites. It usually coincides with the fur seal breeding season out at Neptune Islands, when the seal pups enter the water for the first time – there is abundant food supply of easy prey. That’s usually the best time to see the Great Whites and that’s usually during the winter months, June, July, August, September and into October. March and April are traditionally the worst months to go Shark cage diving. But of course it’s a very popular time for people to want to go. We make every effort and are completely honest and open. We’ve just been through March, where the average was 3.7 Sharks sighted per berley day and that’s about 2.7 Sharks above average for that month, which is astounding and we’ve had incredible results. We’re moving through April now where things are quiet but I still think it’s worth coming out to have a look. I say time and time again that the best chance of seeing Sharks is going to be at Neptune Islands on the back of one of our boats that it is at the Port Lincoln caravan Park. So think about that when you’re coming and booking your holidays, check through, check the details, check our website, see what’s happening, we will be seeing Sharks – if we are we’ll let you know. Usually a good sign of good Shark sightings is seeing new Sharks, they usually hang around for 2-3 weeks, look out for sightings of new Sharks (on our website) and that will let you know if it’s a good time to come, sooner rather than later.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
There has been a lot of talk in the media of late about the reduction of Shark cage diving licenses here in Port Lincoln, taking the number of current operators from 4 down to 2. I think that really warrants a comment from us. If we were asked our opinion, we’d say this is a really bad direction to take. The problem is, in the last year since we started operating, we’ve been responsible for improving and creating innovation in both advertising and marketing, the acoustic attraction, we’ve grown in the industry to nearly double the amount of jobs that there used to be and also the capital investment has increased and improved by nearly 5 times. These are all positive outcomes for the community at large. To have two operators is a legislated duopoly or monopoly. And in our opinion, that’s really not the best way for the future. What we’d like to see is a minimum of 3 operators, hopefully 4, and through that we’d end up getting a better result for the community. It may be too late for that decision, we’ve put in an application and hope to be able to operate in the future but we’d also like to think that as a consumer, you’d have a choice – choose between our environmentally friendly option, our expertise and tourism awards or the bigger and flasher boats with bigger investment and 25 years of experience. All of them have something to offer, all of them have a right to be here, and we hope the government will change their decision and see 3 operators as a minimum operating from here on in the future.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
In my opinion, the viewing of Great White Sharks, the wellbeing and welfare of these Sharks is the most important thing. I’m about to show you some distressing images to show that berleying isn’t always the best way to look after these animals. These are images that can be found on both personal Facebook sites and websites advertising Shark Cage Diving. These images show a lack of respect for the wildlife and a true understanding of their environment. It is true that scars will sometimes show up naturally as these Sharks lead an aggressive life in a fierce environment. It is common to see bite scarring in mature females which is believed to be a result of their behaviour. However, these pictures that show the presence of antifouls on the skin, parallel scrapes, scratches, bark off the nose and even in some cases, gouges out of the flesh which cause concern. I don’t feel that it’s ok to accept even a small amount of injury as a result of interaction. As an industry, we have responsibility to prevent injury at all costs without exception. All of these photos here show injury from a direct result of baiting and berleying. We also need to be aware that the licence condition states that Sharks are NOT supposed to get bait through the baiting and teasing process, where these pictures show baits hanging out their mouths it is a sure indication that the license is being breached. At Adventure Bay Charters, we don’t feed Sharks, we guarantee an awesome, jaw-dropping experience for our visitors and a safe working environment for Great White Sharks.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
The south Australian government has made a decision to reduce the number of operators in the Shark tourism industry from 4 operators to 2. This is a bad policy – currently in the industry, of the 4 operators/ licences, there are 3 viable, sustainable, profitable businesses; each of them which have up to 20 people surviving as a result of that businesses success. Just to qualify, this is an industry that observes Sharks – we don’t catch Sharks, we don’t kill Sharks, I repeat, we don’t catch or kill Sharks at all, all we do is look at them. And they’ve decided that that’s giving such a bad impact on Sharks that they have to remove 2 operators out of the industry. This decision will cripple an industry which is a major contributor to a state that struggles to find recognition in a depressed tourism market in the whole country of Australia
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
Ok, so I’ve talked a lot about acoustic attraction, just to qualify and quantify what that is, it’s the use of sound or vibrations in the water column to bring the sharks close to the boat. This is not new technology; it’s something that’s been around for a while. The difference senses pick up different scents from blood and berley it the water. These senses that respond to very low frequencies such as the sort that we are finding in rock music. I was actually talking to a guy who was the photographer who’d been out with some of the operators in Guadeloupe who had used speakers under the water as entertainment for guests while they waited for Sharks. He noted to me that he had seen certain response changes or different behaviour around different songs – Sharks showing curiosity to this type of music. We’ve since done quite a few trips in the last few months where we’ve trialled different types of music; it’s been interesting the stuff that gets a response out of them. But overall, the idea of music is better than just sound, sound vibrations become repetitive and annoying. In my mind, the way it works is that it’s the same as music appeals to us – we go through different beats and tempo all the time because one single noise at the prime frequency becomes very annoying. Its been a great idea, it was a novel advertising campaign with the ACDC but it’s certainly been good for our business and certainly better for Shark welfare and wellbeing.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
I got asked this question recently from Sillo in Western Australia: “Why is the media reporting so many Sharks close to shore? Is it just a media beat up or is it becoming more frequent? If it is increasing, is it because of scarce food sources and they’ve got to look closer to shore?” To be strict, I’m going to think about it like the fishermen think about it. El Nino means good fishing, it’s a Spanish term. La Nina, meaning feminine, is the opposite – bad fishing. The fishermen refer to these times in their years or in their seasons where there was lots of fish to be had or poor fish to be had. Now Sharks are hunters and I think of it this way, we’ve gone through the last 2 years with a very strong La Nina event, it’s a scientific fact. I’ve also seen the fishermen out here catch small fish and not a lot of them, which means the Sharks who predominantly feed on fish sources, are short on food. They spend more time on beaches chasing salmon. These are our swimming and surfing beaches and they spend more time around islands, such as the Neptune’s where there is a high colony or concentration of mammals. I hope that answers your question, there’s obviously more detail than that. There are probably people more entitled to answer you who are more scientifically minded, of course I’m a tour operator and fisherman and that’s how I see it.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
We need to educate people about the environment or it could cease to exist – dooms day stuff. More than likely what’s going to happen is it will adapt or change, faster than we can adapt to it. There was a time when we thought the resources of the planet were limitless, there was an unlimited supply of fish, of timber, of minerals and fuel, that’s a real concern; we need to be thinking about how we can deal with that and we need to make changes now. All I’m trying to do is appeal to people to make a few changes it the way that they live and I do that in a fun way by getting them out to enjoy the Sea Lions and enjoy the Tuna. I want them to go away and tell stories of this interesting, life changing experience to their children and their grandchildren so that those people can come to in the future, hopefully what we’ve looked after. I actually also want people to think about my blog next time they throw away a working item for the latest, greatest model or they waste food in laziness or throw in to the garbage what can be recycled. Out here, it’s a beautiful place, it’s an interesting place, it feels good – get out and enjoy it. But be back here, drop us a message for our next edition of Shark Bytes.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
Research may very well, in the future, prove some sort of difference between acoustic attraction and berleying for sharks and it may come up with some definitive results as to which one is better and which one isn’t. The fact is it’s irrelevant – both of these practises attract sharks. We’d like to be involved as a company to do the research but we can’t do that without a licence, we can’t do that without commitment from governments to continue to be able to operate. Without the support of the public, this won’t happen. Shark cage diving is one of the greatest, thrill-seeking, wildlife adventures you can have in your life. The whole point here is that we attract sharks for people to view them, it shouldn’t matter how we do it, as long as it’s best for the sharks welfare, it’s best for the concerns of the local community, in that we look after the animals and have respect for the other people that share this space. Get involved in our survey and let us know what you think, click the link at the bottom of this blog page. As I said yesterday, get in here – you only have a limited opportunity to let us know your opinions and how this should go in the future.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
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