Patience and a Plan

As I sit here listening to the rain I can't help but get frustrated at what seems like (but really isn't) months of straight rain. Then I hear those words of wisdom from my mother all those years ago, “patience is a virtue” and realize how right she was. It doesn't do anyone any good to get all bent out of shape trying to change something that is out of your control. Then the photographer in me thinks how many things in life can be related to aspects of photography. Patience just happens to be one of those big ones, especially in underwater photography, especially if it involves marine animals.

The average diver who shows up on holiday has one thing on their mind when they hit the water, cover as much ground as humanly possible, hope to find a shark or turtle or something big somewhere along their race track and fly home with a “picture” of their “encounter.” These divers like to have a record showing they faced a shark; mono-y-mono and lived to tell about it. For a diver who is interested in moving from just capturing a snapshot of their sighting to producing artistic photographs the first thing they must master is the art of patience. Vicky and I have both written before about slowing a dive down to find the little things, but a photographer must also slow down the dive to allow that perfect moment to happen. From stalking your “prey” getting in good and close. Waiting for the subject to get into the right position for your desired composition and snap, image captured. On a recent dive my patients was rewarded and I was able to capture a pair of jawfish just doing what jawfish do. I spent twenty plus minutes laying in the sand watching a pair of jaw fish trade places digging out a burrow. At first they paused what they were doing and focused on me. It took the first few minutes just to get them used to being around me, then they got back to work. Over the next fifteen minutes I worked to get the timing right and capture the image I was seeking; the jaw fish blowing a mouth full of sand while their partner stands guard in the background. Had I just taken the first photo for my one and only it would not have had the same impact about what was really happening within that burrow. It wouldn't have shown how the pair of jawfish work together to stand guard while the other excavates. It's these type of images and interactions that keep me coming back for more after thousands of dives. It doesn't have to always be something mind blowing spectacular like dolphins driving a bait ball (although it doesn't hurt) just something that makes you feel like part of the underwater world, interacting with you like you're suppose to be there.

Next week we will talk a bit more about working to create those images that make people just stop and pause and enjoy the image. 

Also don't forget that regristration to the 2012 Great Fiji Shootout before June 1st will save you 30%!  That's $323 AUD.  That almost covers flights from Sydney.  Any questions about the Great Fiji Shootout visit the Diveaway webpage and send us an email.  Hope to see you guys in November.

It might not be the most colorful photograph but it shows the relationship between the two gobies and the action of digging out their burrow.  I was able to get a second shot with better sand expelling but liked the position of the "gaurd" better in this photograph.

 

Cheers,

-Chris Liles

www.liquidmotionmedia.com

www.diveawayfiji.com/great-fiji-shootout

Great Fiji Shootout November 5-10th 2012 at Diveaway Fiji

 Click play for a slideshow of some of Chris' underwater photography!  The kind of photos you can learn to take during Chris' Great Fiji Shootout this November 5th-10th 2012!

GREAT FIJI SHOOTOUT

Attention Underwater and Aspiring Underwater Photographers

Hello divers and blogger readers.  It has been too long since I last updated the Diveaway Fiji blog but now it is time.  Over the past several weeks we have been busily getting Vicky and my work VISA's extended and finalizing details on what I hope is the dive event of the year, the first ever Great Fiji Shootout!!

For those who have been following my rantings on the blog you know that one of my passions in life is underwater photography.  I have worked (and still feel I continue to work) as a professional underwater photographer and videographer for many publications around the world and so many professional television productions I can't even begin to count all of them.  But another passion is teaching other aspiring photographers tricks I have picked up over the past 10+ years of shooting photos and video to help speed up their progression of underwater photography.  Of course I can explain all the theory until I'm blue in the face, it really comes down to taking these principles we talk about and practice putting them into practice and that is where the Great Fiji Shootout will help all levels of photographers excel.  We will spend the better part of a week doing nothing but working on taking more and better photos and having a great time with lots of like minded people.  It doesn't matter if you're shooting with a point-and-shoot or a high end DSLR, most of the concepts are the same and can be applied no matter which camera you're shooting.  In fact all week long I will be shooting with a Canon s100 point-and-shoot to show it's not the size of the camera that counts, it's how you use it.  :-) Today's point and shoot cameras are becoming more and more powerful with loads of options.  Digital photography is terrific, with it's lower costs and instant feedback it allows divers another avenue for those who want more from their diving and to share their experiences with others.  Plus with the ease of sharing underwater images you can become the envy of your friends overnight on Facebook, blogging and Youtube.

Check out the blur below about the Great Fiji Shootout.  A couple things not in that paragraph are that participants are required to bring their own underwater camera and housing as well as a laptop to review their shots and some basic editing seminars.  You're own dive equipment is also recommended but rental dive equipment can be provided for a small add-on fee. 

I am stoked to be leading this event and would like to give Alice and Alex my thanks in helping to encourage and promote the Great Fiji Shootout.  And to think, I actually get paid to do this.  Man I love my job.

Here is the blurb about the 2012 Great Fiji Shootout, November 5th - 10th.



Diveaway Fiji Photo Pro Chris Liles is hosting a week dedicated to digital underwater photography. For the better part of a week aspiring photographers of all levels will converge on the Hideaway Resort on Fiji's spectacular Coral Coast and work directly with professional photographer Chris Liles. Chris’ has been published in publications around the world and has worked as the Director of Photography for the Discovery Channel, FOX and many other US and international TV productions. “The week is dedicated to photographers of all levels and interests - those who are serious about their images and those scuba “snapshooters” who just want to learn more. The main goal is to have a great time and make some good friends who have a like interest in underwater photography.” Says Chris. “If they learn a little bit along the way then it's even better.” With its quick results and lower costs, the digital revolution is making underwater photography the perfect underwater hobby for those wanting more from their diving.


The Great Fiji Shootout is an unique experience for divers. Over four days participants will make a dive then immediately after participate in seminars with Underwater Photographer Chris Liles to review and receive instant feedback and tips to improve before heading back into the water later THAT day! Fiji's Coral Coast is well known for the diversity of it's underwater life. With hundreds of species of hard corals as well as a nice diversity of soft corals the Coral Coast provides a healthy marine environment for critters big and small giving photographers a variety of subjects to view through their lens. World class scuba diving adventures, prizes, social gatherings and photo workshops participants can learn and improve their underwater photography while having a great holiday.

Accommodation is within the tropical confines of The Fiji Hideaway Resort and Spa; a boutique beachfront holiday resort ideally located on the beautiful Coral Coast, along a beautiful stretch of white sandy beach. The resort offers a tropical setting, perfect for relaxing when not underwater shooting. This also provides the non-diving family members a great holiday with options to participate in an array of activities such as playing around the pool, volleyball, kids club, snorkeling, kayaking, spa treatments and more while their photographer spouse is out getting their diving fix.

For questions or booking info please email Chris (chris_liles13@yahoo.com)  .
Information for bookings as well as additional information will be available on the Diveaway Fiji website at www.diveawayfiji.com .  If it's not there now just give it a little Fiji time and it will be there shortly.

We hope to see everyone there.  

Cheers,
Chris and Vicky

$300 non-refundable deposit due by 1 June 2012 with remaining balance paid by 1 September 2012

Diving Holiday

TO VIEW THIS BLOG WITH PHOTOS PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK:
http://oursummeroff.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/diving-holiday/

Before I became a full time dive instructor I used to make several international dive trips a year to different destinations around the world. Occasionally leading a group of divers to see new dive destinations with great customer service to the point of spoiling our group. Over the past 8 years working as a dive instructor in different holiday destinations I have always made it my goal replicate the great customer service to my customers. Setting up their equipment, carrying their tanks to and from the boat, removing their fins and equipment at the boat ladder while getting smashed in high waves, just trying to make their diving as easy as possible while on their holiday. But boy I had forgotten how nice it is to be the one who is spoiled, just how nice it is to have a great diving holiday with great friends and I was reminded of this over the past weekend as couple of my best friends came out for a week of diving and Vicky and I got to join them for a day.

Jo and Julie booked their trip to Fiji last autumn before Vicky and I decided to move to Fiji, but it just so happened they were going to spend a day and a half on Viti Levu before heading on to Taveuni for their week of diving. So we swept them up from the airport in Nadi Saturday evening and headed back down to the coral coast with the plan to make a dive Sunday, which also happened to be Vix and my day off. Since Diveaway was closed we had to travel down the road a couple hours to another dive center. The diving was very nice, much like the diving we have off the Hideaway but it was being able to take the time to just enjoy diving with friends. Letting someone else run around the boat pouring water and handing out surface interval cookies (which were the same cookies we serve, guess it's a Fiji dive standard) while we got to enjoy relaxing on the beach soaking in the sunshine. There is nothing as nice as making dives with really good friends. Laughing and smiling about what you saw (and what others missed cause they had their head buried in the reef looking at something else). If you have never made a dive trip with a small group of friends I highly recommend you to give us a call, book your airline tickets and get your dive group out to Fiji. Let us do all the hard work, lug your tanks around so you guys just get to focus on relaxing and diving and enjoying life to the fullest in Fiji Time.

Cheers,

Chris and Vicky

BTW - Sorry about no photos in this weeks post. This blogging editor in Blogger won't let me add any photos. If you wish to view this post with photos please see my personal blog at Wordpress. http://oursummeroff.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/diving-holiday/

Canon s100 Camera Review for Underwater Photography

(All photos in this review were taken with Canon s100)

It's funny how so many people ask me during a given week how I could just up and move with Vicky to Fiji. These people are obviously NOT scuba divers or have never seen good underwater photos. When I received the new Canon s100 point-and-shoot camera in the mail as a belated Christmas gift in January I was stoked to being shooting photos and video underwater again. For the past several years I had been managing an underwater production center and was shooting with Canon DSLR's (my personal camera is a Canon 5DmkII). Do to tight baggage allowances I was unable to bring a bulky SLR underwater housing with me when I moved from the Caribbean to the South Pacific, thus no photography for me. I won't lie I was missing it dearly.

In today's world of social media, viral videos and instant gratification it makes it easy for thousands of people to enjoy and begin to understand just how amazing the underwater world can be. The old adage of “an image is worth a thousand words” says it all. There is nothing like finding something new, cool, amazing and exciting on a dive and displaying it for the rest of the world to enjoy along with you. Over the past 6 weeks I have been shooting with the Canon s100 when ever possible. Approximately every other day I have the camera in the water. My goal is to collect as many good and bad photographs as I can to get a really good understanding about what this camera can really do to give readers the most thorough review possible. I didn't want to post it too soon without really giving the camera a chance to prove itself, but also at the light speed camera manufactures release new models I still want the review to be relevant. My plan was to wait and post the review with the additional accessories I have ordered but decided to split the reviews into two. One with the camera with accessories and one bare bones camera package of just the camera and housing. I figure there are some divers who wouldn't want to invest in all additional pieces just what the basic underwater s100 camera package can provide them. For the rest of you the next review will be in around 4 weeks after the wide angle dome arrives with strobe and camera tray.

About the Camera

The Canon s100 when you look at it on paper seems it was designed with the underwater photographer in mind. With features such as manual white balance, maximum aperture of F2.0 for low light shooting, available manual shooting mode, the widest available lens on a point-and-shoot camera at 24mm and the ability to shoot in RAW it seems aimed at the serious underwater photographer. But these options are key for any photographer to capture good underwater photographs, not just underwater snapshots. (In a future article we will explore why these are necessary features in a good quality underwater camera). I am also very happy to see that Canon has stopped playing the “who has the most megapixel” game and has instead decided on 12 megapixels for their point-and-shoot cameras. 12 megapixels is more than enough resolution to print images up to 40” and the only thing happening with trying to cram more resolution was they were slowing the camera down and losing sharpness. The small sensors and processors weren't big enough to deal with all the information.

When the s100 arrived in the post with the Canon underwater housing I was impressed with the compact size and quality finish of the camera. It felt hefty but was so sleek. It wasn't finished in cheap plastic that plague so many other point and shoot cameras, it physically felt like a solid body. Canon has decided to keep things simple with the s100 and has chosen not to include a large amounts of buttons to access it's features. This of course is good and bad. It keeps the camera clean and won't overwhelm shooters who don't wish to use all the available features, but someone who purchases this camera is most likely buying it for all those options. By hiding them within menus just helps to aid in frustration when trying to change or learn certain settings. Of course to play devils advocate more buttons would probably result in a bigger camera say one the size of the G12. Since I was trying to avoid buying a large camera I'll deal with the menu based camera options.

Since I purchased this camera for underwater use I was a bit concerned that many of the features and controls would not be available or cumbersome to access in the housing. I was pleasantly surprised to find this is not the case. The s100 has the control ring around the lens and this is assessable in the housing by a side dial. This allows you to assign one of a variety of settings to the control ring. I have opted to assign the ring to control my aperture, thus making it very easy to adjust exposures. There are a few settings that you miss with not being able to use the back scroll wheel while in the housing. The biggest one I have been missing is the +/- exposure compensation and shutter speed adjustment when shooting in manual mode, my preferred shooting mode. But I have found solutions around the unavailable back wheel to still reach these settings. By assigning the control ring to change my shutter speed in Shutter Speed Priority (Tv) mode, switching to Tv, change the shutter speed there then back to manual the camera keeps the new shutter speed.

Underwater Shooting

After approximately 20 days of in water use I have to say I have mixed feelings about the Canon s100. But then I have to remember what camera I am actually using. Since I had been previously shooting with Canon 5DmkII and Canon 7D SLR's I keep trying to compare this camera to those. A high end DSLR it is not. I have to remember that just the camera body for those camera cost more than all the accessories, camera, housing and everything for the s100. It will fall short in every test you throw at it against a 7D, from auto focus speed, shots per second, sharpness etc, but the Canon s100 can produce some spectacular photographs. That says something about the camera it's self, that it can be compared to those high end professional level cameras and still impress.

First we'll start with macro photographs which everyone loves to shoot. It does very well and produces a nice sharp image at a low ISO like 80 or 100 (See octopus photo for ISO 80 example). The up close focus of the s100 is 1.2 inches on land, but for some reason underwater it's a bit further. I'm holding this to the refraction caused by the flat lens port, but I was able to get in nice and tight for some great nudibranch and crab photographs over the last few weeks. Since the camera lets you shoot wide open at f2.0 the camera gives you great shallow depth of field to really bring the focus to your subject. I do wish Canon allowed the aperture to go higher than f8 for silhouette shots, but this can be combated by adjusting your shutter speed faster.

Since I have not received my external strobe yet, for all macro shots I have been using the on-board flash. With the provided diffuser it does and adequate job for lighting your macro subjects. If you get in too close the lens tends to cast a shadow on the lower right quarter of the photo, but this can be avoided with some easy adjustments. The on-board flash does not light wide angle subjects well. It's positioned too close to the lens and can created a lot of backscatter, especially in turbid low visibility water as we've been having off and on this wet season. Speaking of low light, the s100 is good in low light. On most days I find myself shooting with an ISO no higher than 250. This tends to be the same ISO range I use with DSLR's which have a bigger sensor for dealing with low light. The s100 images when shot at ISO of 250 have some noise when compared to a 7D but when compared against other point and shoot cameras it's very impressive. Even photos at ISO 400 tend to be useable without too much noise. I have put a close up of an moral eel shot at ISO 250. When viewed up close you can see some pixalization, but it's kind of like sitting too close to your TV screen. Back up a little bit and the image because quite impressive.

I have also found that while shooting at full wide angle of 24mm their tends to be some slight loss of sharpness along the outer edges of the photo. It's pretty minor and most lenses even for SLR's are not their sharpest at full wide or full telephoto but rather in the middle ranges. I am hoping some of the loss is again caused by the refraction of the water against the flat lens port and using the wide angle dome port will help correct this. I just won't know until mine arrives early next week. But the camera does a fantastic job at capturing the vivid colors underwater scuba diving Fiji when the correct white balance setting is applied with good contrast within the photo.

The Canon s100 also suffers from the same malady that plagues the 7D. It runs hot, especially when shooting video or using high flash power settings. For us underwater photographers in the tropics this can mean fogging in the housing and blurry photographs. Turning the camera off in between photos helps a bit, so does using a silica gel pack (not included, but if you're reading this Paul thank you for your donation).

Now my one big gripe with Canon for the s100 comes when shooting in the video mode. When Canon was advertising the s100 with manual exposure mode I automatically thought that meant the camera would also allow video shooting with manual exposures like ALL their DSLR cameras. This is not the case. As soon as you try to shoot ANY video all exposure settings are determined by the camera. This is awful for shooting video underwater as the camera brains are designed to determine auto exposure on land, and water makes a camera behave much differently. This can be combatted by using the -/+ exposure compensation, but that is not available underwater because you can not access the back scroll wheel in the housing. Canon if you are reading this FIX IT and send me the new camera. I feel this boarders on false advertising and am very disappointed. You can “fix set” the exposure in video mode but this can be time consuming to get the exact exposure you're looking for. But at least there is a work around for this major inconvenience.

Overall Impression

My overall impression of the Canon s100 is that it is a great point-and-shoot camera for underwater photography. Many divers will be able to get great images with the basic set-up and won't need to spend a small fortune to equip themselves with a small package that can pack a big punch. It's small size makes it convenient to travel with and carry on almost any dive. If you have pockets attached to your wetsuit the camera may even fit into the pocket for safe and convenience while diving. The photos are sharp enough for general use and have great color. Like anything though, you have to have a general idea of how to use the settings available to produce the best images. Just setting the camera into “Auto” mode will not yield the quality that's possible with the s100. If you are someone who is a bit more serious about your photography you might be better off with an entry level DSLR like the Canon T2i (550D), of course instead of spending $600 for an underwater camera set up you will be looking at around $2400. Of course this is all relative as a 5DmkII underwater set up will run approximately $8000. But it's not a matter of how much your camera costs, it's if you know how to use it. You can get some really crappy pictures from an $8000 camera set ups and I can get some great photos out of a $600 point-and-shoot set up.

If you really want to get the most out of your camera come and book a trip to Fiji for an Underwater Photography Course with me. For those who are interested in getting the most out of their photography we will also be announcing in the next week or so a special Diveaway Fiji Photography week which will be dedicated to help you shoot, shoot and shoot some more with lectures in between dives so you will hopefully pick up a few tricks or two to turn your snapshots into photographs.

Useful Features of the s100:

12.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor combined with the new DIGIC 5 Image Processor for low-light performance

24mm lens

Full manual controls (photographs only)

F2.0-F8

Manual white balance

RAW Image format

3” High Resolution LCD screen

1080p @24p HD video

Useful scene modes, like 'Vivid Colors' for shooting underwater in JPEG mode (not available in RAW)

Price

Canon s100 camera approximately $400

Canon WP-DC43 housing approximately $220

To see more underwater photos taken with the Canon s100 please visit:

www.facebook.com/diveawayfiji

By Chris Liles

All Photos by Chris Liles

www.liquidmotionmedia.com

Diving on Fiji Time

If you have ever lived, visited or thought about visiting a tropical island destination then you have probably heard the term “Island time.” But have you actually stopped to embrace and enjoy what island time really is and what it represents?

For the past 8 years I have been living on one island or another and no island really represents island time better than Fiji. Fijians believe that you never know what tomorrow will bring so why rush today. To me this belief is spot on. Too many people rush thought life without stopping to enjoy what it really means to live. How life should be viewed and enjoyed and not just a race to see who can finish first.

Thousands of westerners travel hours and thousands of miles away every year to visit an island some place around the world, to relax and recharge their batteries on holiday. Few though are able to truly capture the “Fiji time” spirit. Many pack as many activities into a trip as possible to not miss a minute of excitement. Rushing from here to there to see all they can spot in one week, rather than stop and watch life happen around them.

Scuba divers are part of the many people who fall into this trap of trying to spot and check off as many adventures as possible rather than slow down and really see what's happening underwater. Turtle, check. Shark, check. Nemo, check. Another turtle, already found one, move on. Last week Vicky wrote about slowing the dive down and focusing on the small things, the nudibranchs, shrimps etc. This week my goal is to slow things down even more, to stop and smell the roses... underwater.

This past week I had the pleasure of teaching Jason his Open Water course. During his course Jason found turtles, sharks, anemone fish, lion fish, nudibranchs, countless other reef fish and found some really cool stuff. But the highlight of the course for him and me was his final two dives where we slowed everything waaaaaaaayyy dooowwwwwwwnnnnnn. In fact we slowed things so far down on the last dive we spent 89 minutes underwater and only covered half of the dive site. Yes, a dive site that normally takes 45 minutes to swim though we spent 89 minutes and only saw half of it. That's how slow we were going. Why did it takes us this long? Because we stopped at every coral bommy, looked in every nook and cranny for anything and everything. We stopped and enjoyed what was happening around us, watching a pair of jaw fish dig out their burrow for ten minutes. One fish on lookout guarding the other digging, then how they would switch roles. We watched as they chased off other fish trying to come in for a look, how one fish excavated a rock bigger than him (or her). Then a few feet later we observed the mutualistic symbiotic relationship between two species, a goby and a blind shrimp. The goby provides protection of a lookout while the shrimp digs the hole. Both animals now have a home, the goby does less work and the shrimp has a pair of eyes to watch for predators.

These types of relationships happen all around us underwater, but we have to stop and slow down to spot them, slow down to Fiji dive time. Spending 89 minutes underwater on a dive definitely helps. The more time we spend underwater the more likely we are to see something interesting or new. Actually this is one of the reasons Vicky and I decided to come to Fiji for diving. We had both previously worked at places that restricted divers dive times and we wanted to get back to what the scuba lifestyle is about, enjoying the underwater world for it's beauty and wonder, not just to make a buck. Too many dive company owners lose sight of why they got into the business and essentially lose site of what island time truly represents, life. They get caught up in what others are trying to escape coming to the islands for their holiday. I mean come on. Most certified divers are diving with dive computers so telling customers they can't make multilevel dives is ridiculous. By learning how to really use your dive computer or multilevel dive planner you will learn how to stay underwater longer and avoid your decompression obligations. Of course once you have all this additional bottom time only you can slow down and make sure you turn that extra time into quality bottom time to experience what's really happening underwater. Then come visit us and see what scuba diving on the Coral Coast Fiji is really about, quality.

Dive easy, scuba dive Fiji

Cheers,
Chris













All Photos By Chris Liles
www.liquidmotionmedia.com

All The Small Things

As the new kids on the block at Dive Away Fiji, myself and Chris unfortunately have so far only had the pleasure of experiencing diving along Fiji’s Coral Coast during the wet season, with some slightly lower visibility conditions on the odd day here and there, well that was until this week...
After almost a full month of rain, the sun decided it was time to make a visit and we have been blessed with some amazingly beautiful days both above and below the water.

As Wednesday rolled around and the water was calm and blue, divers were returning from dives with stories of sharks and turtles galore just cruising by, beautiful corals just ‘popping’ as the suns rays danced across them, and parrot fish creating a rainbow of colour as they swam along the reef.


Suffice to say, Chris and I were jealous as we had been tied to the shop in the morning, but 10am saw that there was space on the boat so both of us, divemaster Rick, and rescue student Sonja, hijacked captain Epi and his boat and made a plan to hit one of our favorite dive sites, ‘Big Foot’! Conditions were gorgeous and our excitement grew as we descended. Rick took the lead as we started to cruise along, with Chris bringing up the rear his camera in hand.

SCUBA diving is what I love, it’s what I do, but to be given an opportunity to dive for myself is a rare treat. I’m no longer limited by the depth of my students, and I’m not focusing on looking for what the customer wants to see. Don’t get me wrong, its not that I don’t want to see the same things, but the general con-census among divers on holiday is that they want to see the big things, the bigger the better, and turtles and sharks (or lack of sharks if their Aussie) get you massive brownie points. But my love is for the small things, and this means slowing my dive down a lot and getting my eyes focused.


Reefs around the world are covered in all sorts of amazingly beautiful animals many of which are smaller than your fingernails and it just takes a good eye and excitement for these small things to have an amazing dive without moving more than 5 meters!

You might have seen the little gobies that live on whip corals, but if you look a bit closer you are going to find a very highly camouflaged whip coral shrimp, you may also notice anemones and their anemone fish, but underneath some of them you might be lucky enough to find porcelain crabs sifting particles out of the water.


Out of all the small things that I adore, my first love, and many of my diving friends will agree, is nudibranchs. Nudibranch literally translates to ‘Naked Gill’ and they are very basically a snail that has lost its shell (But to be a bit confusing some of them do still retain a form of a shell). They make up one of the most diverse and fantastically stunning groups of marine animals, any colour you want, any pattern you can imagine, and any shape, they have it. Most of them have beautifully visible structures at their posterior end which makes up their gills, gaining oxygen from the water as it flows over them.

So after breaking the surface with Chris, having done a 70 minute dive, seeing blue sky, feeling warm water, and having found 5 difference species of nudibranchs and 2 different species of flatworms, all I can say is I was one very happy girl!

It’s a shame that so many divers miss out on these animals, or don’t even give them a chance to amaze. But at the same time I can understand. Having taken a trip to South Africa to learn all about safari guiding, all we wanted to see was the ‘big and hairy’ and it took our guide showing us the small stuff and explaining the importance of them in the overall ecosystem for us to appreciate them. So to all the divers and dive guides around the world, cry out to see more small things and give them the appreciation they deserve!

The Year of the Shark...

Hey Guys and Gals!

I decided to sneak in before Chris and write the blog this week because I want to tell everyone about something very dear to my, and Diveaway Fiji’s heart, and that is our sharks.


Yes, I hate to break it to everyone, but the statistic is true, you do have more chance of being killed by a coconut falling on your head than you do by a shark. And while we have a lot of sharks in Fiji, we also have a lot of coconuts.


Back in 1975 there was a book that was turned into a small production by an up and coming director, maybe you’ve heard of it, called Jaws. One of the true scare you out of the water movies, it followed the adventures of a ‘rogue’ shark as it terrorized a small seaside town on the north east coast of the USA.

The film became bigger than anyone could have imagined and unfortunately, damaged the image of all sharks around the world for the next 37 years. Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, was upset at how his work of fiction lead to the image which is held in the for-front of many peoples minds when you mention the word ‘shark’ and up until his death he spent his time trying to alter people’s perceptions and protect shark populations around the world.

What people should have taken from the book and the movie is the elegance of an animal that has been in our waters unchanged for millions of years. Sharks are perfect for what they do, with their streamlined bodies they can flow through the water effortlessly, their cartilage skeleton means they can bend and move in any direction within one body length, and their teeth, the bit most people worry about, are specialized for the food that they eat, small fish for the Reef sharks, lobsters and crayfish for the Nurse sharks, and seals and turtles for the Great Whites and the Tigers.

Not only are we fighting to change misconceptions, but we are also fighting to change habits and practices. In 2006 there was a documentary released called Shark Water, and this followed Rob Stewart as he traveled, mainly around Costa Rica and Cocos Islands, trying to stop the shark fining trade that was happening.

The dorsal, pectoral and caudal (that's top, side and tail) fins are cut from the still living shark, which is then thrown back into the water, while the fins are kept and dried out to be sold and used in Shark Fin Soup.

A traditional Chinese soup it is generally associated with special occasions and status, but it may surprise you to know that if you just ask, many Chinese restaurants around the world do serve it. In 2005 a petition was started by 400 students to get Disneyland Hong Kong to stop the serving of shark fin soup at banquets held at their venue, something which after many arguments with environmental organizations and bad publicity they did do.

But the problem still continues because in every country where you have a population of sharks, you will have fishing vessels for fining, even here in Fiji, which is why Fiji is has started is Shark Sanctuary campaign which is aiming to make people realize the importance of living sharks in our waters for the environment, tourism and above all, the culture of Fiji as a whole. While Fiji maybe a small location on the map, the shark diving tourism industry brought in F$80 million in 2010, not a small number, and as the economy grows, this number will only serve to grow also.

And while Fiji doesn't officially start its shark count until April, we at DiveAway thought that April was still too far away and so with the New Year we started our own shark, ray and turtle count! So far we have had multiple sightings of our beautiful White Tip and grey reef sharks, numerous Hawksbill and Green Turtles, and some on and off sightings of Eagle rays.

Also to much to our delight, PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) has announced that this year will be Project AWARE’s Year of the Shark, and will be petitioning for the addition of many sharks to the CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) lists, closure of loop holes in fining fisheries and pursue naturally attached rules for major shark species, among many other things.

So in following with our shark theme for this year, not only are we getting all of our divers, new and experienced, involved in our Shark counts, but DiveAway Fiji instructors Chris and Vicky are able to teach you more about the importance of these amazing and beautiful animals with the PADI Shark Awareness course.

You can get more information on how to help sharks around the world at the following websites;

http://www.projectaware.org/update/full-press-sharks-year?utm_source=eNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Shark%2BYear%2Bleader

www.coral.org/fijisharks

So whether you come down and join us in looking for sharks, or to learn more about sharks with the the PADI Shark Awareness course, even if you read this and just spread the word about protecting shark populations, every little bit helps!


Just a fact to finish on....Did you know that sharks do not get any form of cancer? Thats why researchers are studying the cells of living sharks to try and find cures for various forms of human cancers. Just one more reason to protect them.

A Full Press for Sharks This Year

www.projectaware.org

A Full Press for Sharks This Year