hi there you guys, long time no see – we know, we know! well, today i improved some parts of our website and fooled around here a bit. i still want to make a better photo page and some changes in the design, maybe next week. at least i finally upgraded our wordpress-version! we all four have lots of work and school these days before christmas, but maybe in our holidays we can work out something together.

and i also made a checklist for our next holidays (malpelo!) because usually packing looks like this:

actually we have been using these kind of checklists for our trips for a couple of years now and we try to make them better after every use. i uploaded them for you, as well, but until now we only have them in german (maybe we will work out an english version too!).

• checklist1_1
• checklist2_1

so, tell me what you think of it and if anything is missing? we will keep our list updated.

our next destination is malpelo which is an island off colombia’s pacific coast and we wanted to aks our dear readers if anybody has been there already and could give us some advice? we would like to know more about the diving spots, which gear we need and what we could see over there. thanks very much in advance!

by the way: if anybody is interested in more information about the destinations we have been, feel free to aks us either by email or comment!

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.

ilse & gerhard went to Tahiti in march 2007. their destinations were:

• Rangiroa
• Fakarava +2 days Toau
• Bora-Bora
• Moorea

flight: Air France -> Paris – Los Angeles – Papeete – Rangiroa
here are some short but useful descriptions about each island:

Rangiroa

accomodation:
Les Relais de Josephine – directly at the Passe de Tiputa, “where dolphins dance in the waves”!
dive center:
Raie Manta club – you can reach the base by foot if you stay at Josephine’s. rangiroa which is a giant atoll is the home of hammerheads, grey sharks, mantas, dolphins, silver tip sharks and a lot more interesting underwaterworld creatures. However, as always, to be able to experience this amazing scenery you have to cope with some difficulties. Firstly you have to be aware of that all dives are deep ones and secondly, there are mostly strong currents through the lagoon passes, which make it sometimes to dive at all.

Fakarava

accomodation:
Pension Tokerau - tokerauvillage@mail.pf
dive center:
diving fakarava te ava nui – again a giant atoll. It is extremely necessary to dive both passes: The southpass is Tatamanu, the southpass is called Tetamanu. There are middle-heavy currents in both passes. In this area is the ‘Shark- Highway’!

Bora- Bora

accomodation:
Village Temanuata
dive center:
lemon sharks and plenty of eagle rays but a very poor view!

Moorea

accomodation:
hotel hibiskus
dive center:
moorea fun dive – you can see lemon sharks and the stingray-city there but the view is not always good. It’s in contrast to Rangiroa an island with hills.

ilse & gerhard liked rangiroa and fakarava best.

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: