Isla Guadalupe Shark Diving in TROUBLE

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Sounds good. I am looking at the 7 day August 24 outing.

Dan

That one was a wee bit rich for my budget this year, although I considered it as well for the little woman & I - Looks like 8/31 for us, since on 8/30 I'll be able to catch Judas Priest/Sabbath/Motorhead up in San Bernadino before departure - Nice way to start a vacation :)
 
Hi Dan,

Regardless of what you have been told Mexico's Navy has banned chumming at the island effective 2008. CONANP the agency in charge of the bio sphere has no control over the chumming issue. All operations had to submit an Environmental Impact Statement last season addressing the use of "sanguaza" last year. It was thought at that time the Navy would allow chumming but last month in a stunning turnabout they banned it.

This was also on the heels of the Green Party's incorrect accusations about shark diving activities. We translated the news report and provided a link. So far this means all liquid chum and not hang baits, so there's some good news.

All operations are working on this latest issue. CONANP is doing their best with what they have but this one's out of their office. The bad news is the continuing wild assumptions being made by several agencies and newspapers about what we do and how we do it out there. The last section of this article highlights my point.

Ensenada, BC - For three different reasons the Ministry of the Navy has denied any permit for dumping waste sanguaza and pieces of fish in the reserve island of Guadeloupe.

Entre las razones destaca el ataque de tiburones blancos a buzos de una cooperativa pesquera y la alteración del comportamiento de los escualos. Among the reasons highlights the white shark to attack divers from a fishing cooperative and altering the behaviour of escualos.

Un documento indica que apenas en abril pasado le fueron negados permisos para el vertimiento de trozos de pescado a las naves Ocean Odissey y Searchger Horizon de Rosarito. One document indicates that just last April were denied permits for dumping of chunks of fish to craft Ocean Odissey and Horizon Searchger of Rosarito.

La Zona Naval puntualiza que: “No autoriza el vertimiento al mar de trozos de pescado y sanguaza para la actividad de observación de tiburón blanco en la reserva de la Biósfera de Isla Guadalupe”. The Naval Zone says: "Does not permit the dumping at sea of pieces of fish and sanguaza activity for observation white shark in the biosphere reserve of Guadeloupe Island."

Precisa que la Cámara de Diputados, con fecha tres de abril de 2008, aprobó en un punto de acuerdo el prohibir aprovechamientos no extractivos para el avistamiento del tiburón blanco en la reserva de la biósfera de Isla Guadalupe. He explained that the Chamber of Deputies, dated three of April 2008, adopted on a point of the agreement prohibit non-extractive uses for the white shark sighting in the biosphere reserve of Guadeloupe Island.

En el segundo punto agrega que aunque el material a verter es biodegradable y no existe riesgo de contaminación tal que ocasione cambios drásticos en la calidad del agua marina, en el sitio propuesto, existe información donde se argumenta que alimentar al tiburón blanco para ser objeto de observación ecoturística ha alterado el comportamiento natural del mismo. The second point says that even if the material is to shed biodegradable and there is no risk of contamination that may cause drastic changes in the quality of seawater at the proposed site, there is information which argues that feed the great white shark to be observation ecotourism has altered the natural behaviour of the same.

Asimismo, puntualiza que se cuenta con informes de la Sociedad Cooperativa de Producción Pesquera de Participación Estatal abuloneros y langosteros, los cuales reportan que sus trabajadores (buzos) fueron atacados por un tiburón blanco. It also points out that there are reports of the Fisheries Cooperative Society Production Participation State abuloneros and crawfish, which reported that its workers (divers) were attacked by a great white shark.

Además, los barcos de pesca deportiva ocasionan daños a los equipos langosteros al cortar los cabos y con ello las trampas provocando cuantiosas pérdidas económicas. In addition, sport fishing boats causing damage to equipment crawfish to cut the ropes and thereby traps causing heavy economic losses.
 
Hi Dan,

Regardless of what you have been told Mexico's Navy has banned chumming at the island effective 2008. CONANP the agency in charge of the bio sphere has no control over the chumming issue. All operations had to submit an Environmental Impact Statement last season addressing the use of "sanguaza" last year. It was thought at that time the Navy would allow chumming but last month in a stunning turnabout they banned it.

This was also on the heels of the Green Party's incorrect accusations about shark diving activities. We translated the news report and provided a link. So far this means all liquid chum and not hang baits, so there's some good news.

All operations are working on this latest issue. CONANP is doing their best with what they have but this one's out of their office. The bad news is the continuing wild assumptions being made by several agencies and newspapers about what we do and how we do it out there. The last section of this article highlights my point.


Ensenada, BC
- For three different reasons the Ministry of the Navy has denied any permit for dumping waste sanguaza and pieces of fish in the reserve island of Guadeloupe.

Entre las razones destaca el ataque de tiburones blancos a buzos de una cooperativa pesquera y la alteración del comportamiento de los escualos. Among the reasons highlights the white shark to attack divers from a fishing cooperative and altering the behaviour of escualos.

Un documento indica que apenas en abril pasado le fueron negados permisos para el vertimiento de trozos de pescado a las naves Ocean Odissey y Searchger Horizon de Rosarito. One document indicates that just last April were denied permits for dumping of chunks of fish to craft Ocean Odissey and Horizon Searchger of Rosarito.

La Zona Naval puntualiza que: “No autoriza el vertimiento al mar de trozos de pescado y sanguaza para la actividad de observación de tiburón blanco en la reserva de la Biósfera de Isla Guadalupe”. The Naval Zone says: "Does not permit the dumping at sea of pieces of fish and sanguaza activity for observation white shark in the biosphere reserve of Guadeloupe Island."

Precisa que la Cámara de Diputados, con fecha tres de abril de 2008, aprobó en un punto de acuerdo el prohibir aprovechamientos no extractivos para el avistamiento del tiburón blanco en la reserva de la biósfera de Isla Guadalupe. He explained that the Chamber of Deputies, dated three of April 2008, adopted on a point of the agreement prohibit non-extractive uses for the white shark sighting in the biosphere reserve of Guadeloupe Island.

En el segundo punto agrega que aunque el material a verter es biodegradable y no existe riesgo de contaminación tal que ocasione cambios drásticos en la calidad del agua marina, en el sitio propuesto, existe información donde se argumenta que alimentar al tiburón blanco para ser objeto de observación ecoturística ha alterado el comportamiento natural del mismo. The second point says that even if the material is to shed biodegradable and there is no risk of contamination that may cause drastic changes in the quality of seawater at the proposed site, there is information which argues that feed the great white shark to be observation ecotourism has altered the natural behaviour of the same.

Asimismo, puntualiza que se cuenta con informes de la Sociedad Cooperativa de Producción Pesquera de Participación Estatal abuloneros y langosteros, los cuales reportan que sus trabajadores (buzos) fueron atacados por un tiburón blanco. It also points out that there are reports of the Fisheries Cooperative Society Production Participation State abuloneros and crawfish, which reported that its workers (divers) were attacked by a great white shark.

Además, los barcos de pesca deportiva ocasionan daños a los equipos langosteros al cortar los cabos y con ello las trampas provocando cuantiosas pérdidas económicas. In addition, sport fishing boats causing damage to equipment crawfish to cut the ropes and thereby traps causing heavy economic losses.
 
Hi Patric:

Thanks for the information. The last time I spoke with SDI they were on their way to a meeting in Mexico, which must be the one you are referencing.

Do you have a Mexican government URL where those of us who speak Spanish could watch what is going on? I am not sure I want to put all my faith in an online version of el Vigía. It would be really helpful to be able to read the Secretary's order. The magazine article has very few details.

Thanks,

Dan
 
Hi Patric:

Just spoke with SDI about new regulations, and they indicated nothing official has been adopted as of this date (7/8/08), and I have not been able to find anything on Mexican governmental sites. Even the Guadalupe Reserve site (http://islaguadalupe.conanp.gob.mx/fisiografia.htm) does not talk about any new laws or decrees.

This is pretty much the same situation as last year. SDI indicated they doubted new rules would be in place prior to this year's season. But who knows: we were in the Galapagos last July and were among the last group of divers to go out before the new restrictive regulations went into effect.

My personal feeling is that the best bet is to go out on a boat that has Mexican registry. I can see placing restrictions on "gabacho" operations before impacting locals. The Solmar V was a lot of fun last year: hopefully it will be as good this August.

Dan
 
please do. I read the report shortly after booking a dive trip, i'm going on the 22nd of Sept trip.
If sharks can detect 1 drop of blood in thousands of gallons of water. I brief chum should be no problem and then bait the water like no tomorrow. It'll bring them in, especially if the sharks are already on the prowl for the seals.

But as a paying customer, you cant really rely on that information. So hopefully everything can be done to get the sharks as close as possible with multiple encounters with more than one Great White.
I hate flying on Airplanes, and coming from Vancouver B.C. Canada, I have no choice.. that's why i'm a little bit concerned :)
 
While there is no established link between chumming for sharks and the recent shark attacks in Mexico, losing tourists to sharks looks bad. I would not be surprised if a chumming ban is enforced in the future.
 
SDI certainly has an interesting take on things. CONANP does not have anything posted because this chum ban does not involve them. It's a "navy thing". I have personally been down to the office to speak with the staff at CONANP, they confirmed it's a "navy thing". They have no control over navy decrees. This is a very real and very interesting development for this pristine site.

Fact is the ban is in effect. Hang baits are allowed, no liquid chum. Will this impact your vacation to the island? Probably not, there's enough animals on site that liquid chum is a moot point- otherwise we would have canceled our 2008 season by now.

We feel that bringing this issue up and dealing with it is the best course of action here. On a side note about MX vessels vs US vessels. A lot of effort went into this enterprise at this site by the US vessels, in fact they pioneered the shark diving at this site. It would be sad to see them shut out in favor of MX only.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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