About Guy:Guy Harvey
I rolled into the gin clear water with video camera in hand and settled on the sandy bottom in 20 feet. Around me were two dozen very large lemon sharks attracted by crates of chum to the area. Through the throng of passing bodies I saw the unmistakable silhouette of an approaching tiger shark. I watched patiently almost oblivious of the other species closer at hand. The tiger was joined by another and then another.
Now I was really paying attention and the camera was rolling as a 14 foot tiger shark, locally known as Emma came within a foot of me. The other divers in the group were taking still shots. The big shark swam between us calmly without any concern, as did the other two. Another pair of tigers arrived on the scene and were milling with the rest of them. Giant bodies all around us.
Welcome to Tiger Beach! It is one of the most impressive shark interactive dive sites in the Bahamas and certainly in the world. How is it possible that we can experience all these sharks in the Bahamas and very rarely see these species in the rest of the Caribbean? Twenty years ago the government of the Bahamas placed a ban on all commercial long line fishing targeting valuable tuna and swordfish within their 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone. While conserving target species for sustainable local consumption this law also helped protect billfish and sharks. Since then shark interactive programmes have become a mainstay in the marine diving and Bahamas ecotourism business.
Then I had a nightmare. A poaching boat from Florida came over and caught all the sharks at Tiger Beach. There was still no legislated protection for sharks in the Bahamas. Anyone could come to Tiger Beach and legally catch every shark there and turn them into pet food and shark fin soup! The same for all the other sites that depend on bull sharks, hammerheads, nurse, reef, blacktip, lemons, silky and oceanic white tip sharks and many other species for these unique educational experiences. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel, just like catching groupers and snappers while they are aggregated at their spawning sites. Sounds familiar!
Research on sharks has been going on in the Bahamas for 30 years, primarily at the well known “Shark Lab” in Bimini run by Dr. Sam Gruber. The amazing life history of the lemon shark was first sketched out over 20 years of work in Bimini. Once a numerous coastal pelagic shark in the southern USA, the lemon shark has been systematically over-fished by commercial interests and has only just received protection in Florida state waters. In contrast the oceanic white tip is found only in open water between the islands of the Bahamas archipelago.
This species has been reduced to around one per cent of its pre-exploitation level by long line fishing. The Guy Harvey Research Institute has more recently conducted research on tiger sharks in the Bahamas and Bermuda. Tracking individuals for two seasons has shown the tiger sharks use the Bahamas as an overwintering area and for breeding. In the summer they migrate over huge distances in the open ocean of the North West Atlantic.
The Bahamas has a good track record in attempts to conserve its marine resources. Laws for visiting boats and anglers from the USA are also strict. Lobster, conch, snappers and groupers are the target species, but each has its closed seasons and minimum size requirements as we do here in the Cayman Islands and in the USA. The difficulty for the Bahamas is in enforcing fishery regulations over the 250,000 square mile archipelago. Poachers from the USA, Cuba and Hispaniola are constantly eroding the resources.
Last year, following the news that a Bahamian-based seafood company was applying for a permit to catch and export shark fins to Asia, the Bahamas National Trust and the PEW Environmental Group lobbied the government for protection of Bahamas sharks. Many other concerned individuals and conservation groups including the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation joined forces with the BNT and PEW in March for meetings with the Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries, Environment and Tourism. In addition the government received a petition signed by over 5,000 Bahamians to protect the Bahamas sharks. Ecologically, removing the sharks from healthy reef systems will bring about the demise of these marine systems that are the mainstay of the Bahamian economy – tourism.
If you don’t appreciate that then just do the math, it is a simple way to reach a conclusion on the right thing to do. Shark ecotourism in the Bahamas generates $70 million per year and not one shark is killed. The same income can be generated for decades to come. Shark fishing may generate a large income for a couple of years and then it comes to a halt as the sharks are all gone. The result is annihilation and the loss of the species forever with untold environmental consequences. Sharks cannot reproduce fast enough (like many bony fish) to accommodate any level of extraction. They are slow growing, long lived animals that reach maturity at a late age and have few offspring.
On 5 July 2011 it was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries that an amendment to the fisheries law now makes it illegal to target, catch, sell, import or export sharks within the Bahamas 200 mile exclusive economic zone. The Bahamas has now become a shark sanctuary. Hooray for common sense. It is amazing that we still procrastinate with the new proposed conservation law here in Cayman while other countries get their act together and have the political will do the right thing. The Bahamas joins Honduras, Palau and the Maldives in total protection for sharks. Will the Cayman Islands be next?
I have written quite a lot about sharks in recent editorials. Not only is shark research work an important part of what we do at the GHRI and GHOF, but in spite of this progress in conservation sharks are still being fished unsustainably all around the world and many species may never recover. The sharks that live in the Bahamas or pass through the reefs of that archipelago now have a chance to stick around for a while and do their thing.
It is our collective responsibility to conserve the marine environment and maintain the biodiversity of the planet. Dive safely, fish responsibly.
Guy Harvey PhD.