if you can’t play the video, click here: Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world

The main tank called the “Kuroshio Sea” holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

dear diving buddies & everybody else who likes to know more about sharks,

in austria we are in very good contact with the people who run ‘sharkproject‘.  the goal of the project is to give everybody information about the sharks and their behaviour. the divingfamily thinks that they are doing a good job because they show people how much in danger the sharks are nowadays. check out the behaviour patterns & shark myths at their website.

sarah also did a psa for shark project for an university project, you can check it out here.

a friend of mine told me about a new movie that is currently in our cinemas. i just copy & paste a summary which i found at wikipedia:

Sharkwater is a 2007 Canadian film written and directed by Rob Stewart, who also plays the lead role. The documentary covers the lives of sharks, how the media portrays them, and how they are treated today.

Stewart debunks historical myths and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in high definition video, Sharkwater explores the densest shark populations in the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world’s shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
Stewart teams up with Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and reports on his mission of protecting sharks. The documentary shows the conflicts between the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing Stewart and Watson to flee for their lives. Later Stewart miraculously recovers from a flesh-eating disease.

Stewart discovers that sharks have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth’s history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years.

The film has been attacked by the sharking industry, including on this wikipedia entry. They claim that it is “full of misinformation and effectively silences the first world sharking industry who abide by strict government laws and maintain perfectly legal and sustainable businesses.” Although it is true that sharking is handled much better in some countries than in others, sharks remain under threat in all areas where they live and practices such as finning (cutting off the shark’s and throwing it back in to bleed to death) are still legal in many “first world” area, including the United States.

and here is the trailer:

i just read at tauchen.de that there will be a new IMAX flick in the cinemas soon! it’s already released in some cinemas in the US & will come to germany (& hopefully austria, as well) in march 2008. according to some reviews i read online it’s “an up-close look so realistic you might actually duck to avoid a passing tail fin”. i’m really looking forward to it!

dive into a new immersive and highly emotional adventure with jean-michel cousteau’s DOLPHINS AND WHALES 3D, which will take you from the dazzling coral reefs of the bahamas to the warm depths of the waters of the exotic kingdom of tonga for a close encounter with the surviving tribes of the ocean. stunning images captured for the very first time in 3D will allow you to discover their lives and habitats as never-before-seen. an unforgettable voyage with these graceful, majestic yet endangered sea creatures, narrated by daryl hannah.
director : jean-jacques mantello
writer : dr. elisabeth mantello
IMDB : link
runtime : 42 min
trailer:

so here’s a new short video! it’s from ilgesa’s (yes, without the second -sa) trip to the galapagos islands in ecuador in october 2006.

their dive guide took it and sent it to us a few days ago. there’s another (better) one, as well but we don’t have it – for now. he promised to send it, too.