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Shark feeding... is it right or wrong...
do we have to interfere with our marine life for thrills?


© Gunther Deichmann - You can see action like this without the need for feeding...
Blue Corner, Palau Micronesia, shark dives with Sam's Tours are carried out the natural way.

I have received this article from a good friend and marine biologist, very interesting. I just returned from Chuuk Micronesia and during my stay found out that a dive guide had been bitten by a shark, yes he is is ok., but with scars to prove the story.
No, this is not fiction, this one is real, our dive guide (very experienced) went to a dive site where shark feeding had been carried out by some dive operator in the past (not Truk Stop Dive Center), he had not been in this area for a while and to his knowledge the feeding was not done for sometime, No he did not feed the sharks on this dive but somehow noticed the more aggressive behaviors of this normally docile animal, OK that is all I can say for now, read the story and opinion from a marine biologist view and YOU decide for your self what is right or wrong.
The Philippine -Micronesia Alliance does not support any shark-feeding or intervening in the natural Marine life. We do care about our environment!
GD

Just before I left Guam for my permanent move to the Philippines, I read an email sent out by a local dive shop advertising ‘Big animal encounters’ in Yap. Having been there a few times, I immediately conjured up images of mantas gliding by in channels leading from the outer reefs into the inner lagoons and a variety of reef sharks patrolling the reefs around the island. I clicked on the link to see what it was all about and was surprised to see that it involved shark-feeding. My immediate thought was ‘why they decided to start this practice’? I went to the website of the operator and found that they have been doing it for many years. My thoughts changed immediately to ‘why didn’t I know about this earlier’? I have been in the diving industry for many years in Micronesia, beginning my career as a guide in Palau. Again, why didn’t I hear about this? Certainly during my visits to Yap, and diving with the operator, I would have heard of this. But, no, I really didn’t up until two weeks ago when I read the email.
Dismissing the thought of not knowing about the attraction was much easier than why were they doing this in the first place. What about it was bothering me? As a Marine Biologist, and a dive Instructor still with important ties to the industry, I knew there was a fierce conflict between those that subscribe to the practice versus those that don’t.
Those that feel shark feeding is good cite the thousands of encounters with sharks (and these come from operators from South Africa to Australia to California to the Caribbean, to tropical Pacific) without incident. Further, they expound on the important considerations these encounters provide people, namely that the intimate experience which brings a greater appreciation for sharks, thus, ultimately, this is a way to increase conservation efforts. I kinda agree with this, especially in situations where unless there is a bit of shark feeding / baiting, most people would not have the chance to ever see these magnificent creatures (example: Great Whites in SA and AU, and pelagics of the California coast).
Those that don’t agree with shark feeding feel that it promotes an activity that could potentially cause harm to humans (whether it is those participating in the shark feeding program or nearby swimmers). Further, they argue that the feeding causes unnatural aggregations of sharks to the areas on the reef where the feeding takes place. Also, it may make the sharks ‘dependent’ on these feeding rituals and it could potentially upset their natural feeding patterns – which leads back to the potential attacks due to the association of food with humans.
Well, both sides have a point except that both sides are basing their information on un-proven points. When Gunther asked me to write something up, my first task was to do a literature search to see what the science has to say about this subject. There currently (to my knowledge) is nothing out there (yet) about this. Florida has banned the practice mostly due to ease fears from potential tourists (and rightly so, with my full understanding for their actions in tact) and in response to all of the media attention in 2001 about the now misrepresented ‘summer of the shark’. A number of fatal shark attacks were taking place off of the Florida coast. It got media attention due to the number of attacks that happened within a relatively short period of time. Yet, the total number of attacks never exceeded previous year numbers, thus, contrary to what the media was reporting, there was no exponential increase in shark attacks – and no reason to lay blame for the cause on any good suggestion to fall their way. Most importantly there was no scientific basis for Florida to come to their decision. Hawaii is putting legislation through the system to ban it but it has not been made into law. They are also working off of fears.
So, okay, now we have Yap. What make Yap unique among the other operators doing tropical reef shark feeding is that they are not bringing in unnatural aggregations of sharks…they’re already there. They are also not endangering local and visiting swimmers since the area where they are feeding is not a public or even visited swimming hole. So with the information, it really leaves the anti-shark feeding advocates with little left to argue with Yap about.
So why am I bothered by this?
It took a few more days of thought until it finally hit me. What’s bothering me is that by conducting shark feeding it loses the charm of being Yap. When we think of many areas in the world that have reefs, we rarely associate sharks with them (or rarely see them while we are diving may be a better way to put it), mostly because they are either fished out, not really prevalent in the first place, or wary of humans. Remember, shark feeding is a way to DRAW IN sharks so that customers, who would not normally see them, get a chance to see them. When I think about Micronesia, my mind drifts off to a place that is still raw with marine-life, including sharks. One does not have to bait them in for close encounters. Shark encounters are already going to happen. As divers, we know that nature is unpredictable and it is the chance to see the animals that gives us a thrill and an even bigger thrill when we get to see them. We hedge our bets on getting these encounters by visiting magical places like Micronesia and leave being overwhelmed by the entire experience. To me, shark feeding in Micronesia is, well, cheating the experience. It’s like having a full house in poker and cheating for four-of-a-kind…when you know that the full house is top hand. To me, Yap may gain some of the ‘benefits’ of shark feeding (mostly the ‘commercialization’ of shark encounters), but it loses some of its natural appeal. Now Yap can be lumped in with other countries promoting this experience, and for those who have been diving for many years, you know that most of these destinations may summon up ‘cattle-boat’ diving mentality as well as clearly being right ‘ON the beaten track’. Yap was not destined for this. Go there, it is absolutely worthy of being the far-flung, exotic, beautiful, customs-oriented island that you think of as Yap. Commercialization is the last thing you’ll think of when your there…but maybe not anymore.
Ahh, I could as easily be wrong or misguided as I could be right or spot-on when it comes to my thoughts about this subject and the island of Yap. This is just my opinion as someone who fell in love with this area after spending many years traveling and diving in other exotic locals. It was the raw natural beauty and the thrill of encounters with incredible marine life that kept me and continues to keep me entranced to this day.
From a Marine Biologist

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Everything is high-tech at some of our partners in the Philippines and Micronesia, at Sam's Tours Palau (check out the previous Blog) the state of the art Digital Photo Center incorporating a high speed wi-fi connection for the internet and at Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center in Chuuk (Truk Lagoon) Wi-Fi connection is now available for all their guests free of charge. Diving with the Alliance has just gotten a lot better!


© Gunther Deichmann - View from your Balcony at the
Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center, Chuuk Micronesia

A lot is happening at the Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center, Chuuk Micronesia, Chuuk or also known as Truk Lagoon is about an hour and 45 min. flying time from Guam, via Continental Airlines. The world famous place for wreck diving. Our partner Truk Stop Dive Center can take care of all your diving requirements including your tech diving needs, yes they have helium and nitrox too. We have just came back from there and can proudly announce that Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center is now connected free of charge for all their guests via Wi-Fi in the restaurant and on the Patio area, have a real divers breakfast or dinner and check your email.

© Gunther Deichmann - a great breakfast and
Wi-Fi connected at the Hotel

Very soon we announcing the long overdue new website, incorporating all the wreck dive sites with a full description of the wrecks plus a lot more.
But that is not all, if you getting tiered of all these great wrecks take a afternoon dive at Shark Island only a 15min boat-ride from the Dive Center, watch the reef-sharks at the cleaning station in their natural environment at about 18-meters with superb visibility.
Check out the Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center section on the Philippine -Micronesia Alliance Website at: www.alliancediving.com
Your partner in island-hopping, tech diving, wrecks and shark-dives in the Philippines and Micronesia, you can also book direct via our exciting packages or with our expert travel agent Blue Horizons at: http://www.alliancediving.com/horizons.html
GD

Now I am waiting for some reports from our partners who visited the German boat Show in Duesseldorf, let's wait for their feedback when they all return.

Diving, Tauchen und inselhuepfen auf der Duesseldorf
Boot Messe Germany, mit der Allianz in 2008, 19.-27.1. 2008
Wir sprechen auch deutsch, click here

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From left to right: Rhea Richardson newly trained and now in charge of operation,
Arnold Munoz, Sam Scott, Dermot Keane and Gunther Deichmann the first day of operation.
All Photos: Hermes Singson

When we arrived we had to unpack, install and fine tune all the six iMac's including the installation of the additional RAM, oh boy... we though all of it had been done prior shipment but to our surprise well... we had to do it.
Installation of the RAM was easy and went through without a glitch, then we upgraded all the iMac's to Leopard since the operating system was all on Tiger, now that was fine too, however we encountered some real problems in upgrading all six(6) iMac's due to the internet connection, that took us about 3 days to finish.
Then we setup all the external hard drives for a perfect back-up system, not to forgot upgrading Aperture to 1.5.6 which was a little cumbersome, the latest update does not work via the 'Software Update', due to a glitch, we had to get it direct from the Aperture site, and after hours of downloading we were finally up and running.
Sam's Tours made available two staff for the training, Rhea a Filipina and Alex a Polish divemaster are now running the Digital Photo Center, after receiving a crash course on the operating system we went straight to Aperture for the remaining days.
The system at Sam's Tours was set up in such a way that customers can give the Compact Flash (CF) cards after the dive to the DPC and the staff will import the images direct into the database of Aperture.

Setting up time- left : GM Dermot Keane, Sam Scott
and Arnold Munoz,
right: Gunther Deichmann and Sam Scott
All photos Hermes Singson, thanks Hermes

Since most of the diver photographers come to Palau for about a week or two, the images are uploaded every day and by the end of the week the staff will prepare a CD/DVD for them to take home.
But now comes the good part, if for what ever reason the customer looses his or her CD/DVD up on returning home, they only have to send an email and request a copy.
This is where Aperture comes in very handy, all images are stored as a project (the project name in this case is the name of the Customer/Diver) as reference files and further backed up again to another drive which is independent.
Customer files are usually kept for about 60 to 90 days, but upon request special arrangements can be made for longer storage, in the DPC two iMac's are set aside for photographer who like to use Aperture themselves, a similar back up and storage system is in place.
All six (6) iMac's are connected in the same network via the Airport Extreme Base Station for file sharing, perfect for photo workshops, we put a lot of emphasis on the back up system, so no matter what happens to your great underwater shots they'll be safe even after you leave Palau.

Aperture installed including your own back up X2
All Photos Hermes Singson, thanks Hermes.

All iMac's are wi-fi connected and have dedicated access to the internet, thanks to Arnold our I.T. guy making the DPC a virtual internet Cafe as well, a Video station is soon to be implemented as well, separate printing via an Epson printer is also available plus external CD/DVD burner with labeling ability.
But there is a lot more... small Canon digital cameras with underwater housings are for rent and some new video cam's are available also, there you have it, diving with Sam's Tours has just gotten a lot better, thanks to the new Digital Photo Center, now you can leave your laptop at home, you are in good hands at Sam's Tours.
To round it up, this is the most complex and efficient Digital Photo Center in Palau, Micronesia, the Pacific and I believe a first in the diving industry, in this part of the world.
Stay tuned for this real great news and info, you won't believe the one from Chuuk Micronesia, the things I came across during my travels....
the title will be "The forgotten ones" related to our partner Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center, Chuuk Micronesia.
GD

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We all know the slogan from Sam's Tours...
A reflection of Excellence... now it is...
a Reflection of Excellence continues. (Part 1)
15/01/2008 Sam’s Tours Palau, Micronesia



Photo: Hermes Singson -
Finally... it is done! Gunther Deichmann and Sam Scott,
we did have a few glasses of wine afterwards, celebrating another
mile stone at Sam's Tours.

I know I kept everybody in suspense for about a week, as of tonight it is no longer a secret. It is late, I am very tired but it is done and official, a first for Palau, Micronesia and probably in the Pacific and I guess in the diving industry. Sam’s Tours is open for business, a complete Photography-Internet-Digital workstation entirely run on the latest iMac’s loaded with RAM for our photographers and Aperture users.
It doesn't matter if you an amateur or professional Sam’s Tours is catering for all your needs, like to rent a camera for underwater or above, or a small video cam is not a problem.
Our trained staff can assist you after the ‘dive workflow’, show your images to your friends while still on location with a impressive slide show, burn you images on CD/DVD for you to take home. We offer you all the options, do it yourself or let our staff take care of all your images while you wait and enjoy a cold beer at our Bottom Time Bar.

Photo: Hermes Singson-
A very happy Sam Scott from Sam's Tours
with the newly arrived iMac's

All of this is now possible at Sam’s Tours Digital Photoshop, DSL wi-fi internet connection using Airport Extreme, but most impressive is the photo workstations, not only one but six high end iMac computers with all the software you ever going to need.

We have also installed high-end backups so we can always guarantee that your images will be safe and secure with us after each dive or adventure trip in Palau.
In case you loose your CD/DVD, we backup your images for up to 60 days just send us an email and we will burn another copy of your CD/DVD and post it to you.

Photo: Hermes Singson - Gunther Deichmann training Sam's Tours
staff on Aperture and the digital workflow after the shoot.

For our professional photographers Aperture is installed and if you not familiar with Aperture, you can always use Bridge or Photoshop Elements.

That’s about it for now, I am very tired and need to get some rest, we follow up with part two in a couple of days, and explain in more details of this unique setup in Palau.
Congratulation to Sam’s Tours!
Please stay tuned for more in depths details in my next blog, by the way our commercial shoot at the Palau Pacific Resort is also completed, some more training in the next few days for the staff at Sam’s Tours on the Leopard operating system and of course Aperture, we should be all sweet by the weekend before we proceed to Chuuk (Truk Lagoon)

Photo: Hermes Singson
Five of the six workstations at Sam's Tours Palau

Special thanks to Apple Singapore and the Power Mac Center Manila, for the support in this project, thanks to my staff Hermes and Arnold for the very long working hours in completing this job. Thanks to Dermot Keane the GM from Sam's Tours for all his help and assistance.
Gunther Deichmann is an Apple Certified Pro Trainer and has been on site with his Manila staff in Palau as a consultant, training the staff on the operating system including Aperture, Dermot Keane the GM of Sam's Tours and Gunther have been responsible for the concept and initial set up of the Digital Photoshop Center a first in Micronesia, even Photographers have a better survival rate in Micronesia now, thanks to Sam's Tours.
GD

Stay tuned for part two. (2) or subscribe to our Blog at: http://www.alliancediving.com/blog/
Sam's Tours is a founding member of the Philippine-Micronesia Alliance: http://www.alliancediving.com/

For Photography and Photo Worshop related matters please visit Gunther's website at: www.deichmann-photo.com
The very first Photo Workshop utilizing Sam's Tours new facilities will be held together with Tony Wu and Gunther Deichmann in April 2008, for inquiries please contact Sam's Tours
at: info@samstours.com

Photo: Hermes Singson - From left:
Dermot Keane, Gunther Deichmann,
Rhea Richardson and Sam Scott in the new
total Mac/Aperture Photography-Digital- Internet Center

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Direct from Palau Micronesia… more great News!
No it is not the Survivor show, but never less very cool news from Sam's Tours.
A major event is just about to go down at Sam's Tours Palau... great News for... find out on the 15th of January.

If you can guess what is going to happen on the 15th of January at Sam's Tours... the first email with the right answer can win...
...3 days of free diving at Sam’s Tours, Palau.

© Gunther Deichmann - for more images from the
Philippine-Micronesia Alliance destinations please
click the image above.

Clue: It's Simply Digital!

You have 3 days to figure this one out, please send your email to: info@samstours.com

Note:
Sam’s Tours staff, Gunther Deichmann and Team, family members and close associates are not allowed to participate. Sorry guys.

Next week starting on the 13th I be reporting direct from Sam’s Tours from where we will fire up our big surprise. At the moment we are still tied up at the Palau Pacific Resort. After the 15th things will be very different at Sam’s concerning … opps… I almost slipped and let the cat out of the bag, and after Palau around the 18th of this month I am leaving with my web master for Truk Lagoon to prepare for some major work for our Alliance Partner Truk Stop Hotel and Dive Center. January 2008 is a real Micronesia month for us.

Our next blog with the announcement re. Palau will be in the evening on the 15th. 01. 2008
GD

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Diving, Tauchen und inselhuepfen auf der Duesseldorf
Boot Messe Germany, mit der Allianz in 2008, 19.-27.1. 2008
Wir sprechen auch deutsch, click here

I am leaving for Palau Micronesia and Chuuk tomorrow until the 24th of January, my blogs going to be a bit light during this time.
However a major announcement will be made direct from Palau from our Alliance partner Sam's Tours, a very first in Palau and Micronesia.
Announcement date is around the 14/15th of Jan. direct from Palau.
Surviving in Palau Micronesia is going to be easy, with good friends, like Sam Scott, Dermot Keane and many others.

Stay tuned and Subscribe to our blog and be one of the first to know.

Please see below in German excerpts from a new PADI magazine in German language soon available...

A new PADI magazine is soon available in German, please see below some excepts from the very first edition, reproduced with permission from Dirk Fahrenbach from Dugong Dive Center and Club Paradise in Palawan, Philippines.

Dirk Fahrenbach fand auf der philippinischen Insel Dimakya eine neue Heimat. Der Tauch- lehrer und Dokumentarfilmer führt Urlauber durch eine Unterwasserlandschaft, die alseine der artenreichsten welt-weit beschrieben wird. Die Riffregionen sind gefährdet. Jahrzehnte sprengten die Fischer ihre Lebensgrundlage mit Dynamit kaputt. Die Seekühe, die Dugongs, wurden Fast ausgerottet.

Von Lutz Peter Kaubisch

Die Rückkehr der Dugongs

Jahrmillionen zerrten tektonische Kräfte an den Kontinenten. Geologische Gewalt formte sie mit baumeisterlicher Beharrlichkeit. Vulkane, Meeresströme und atmosphärische Umwälzungen schufen das Klima und änderten es - immer wieder. Im mittleren Pleistozän, vor 175000 Jahren, fiel der Meeresspiegel. Es dauerte eine Weile; dann ragte dort, wo die eurasische Kontinentalplatte Asien trägt, eine Landbrücke aus dem Wasser. Sie führte im Bogen nach Südosten, zu einer Inselgruppe aus Magmagestein. Die Öfen unter der Erdkruste hatten sie nach oben gefeuert und Sonne und Ozean überlassen.
Die Naturkräfte inszenierten ein mächtiges Schauspiel. Die Erdzeitalter hatten die Kulisse geschaffen: einen der größten Archipele auf dem Planeten, die Philippinen. Reiseveranstalter schwärmen heute von „smaragdgrünen bis türkisfarbenen Lagunen“, in denen „eine faszinierende Welt exotischer Fische und Korallen“ ihre „unerschöpfliche Farbenpracht“ entfaltet. Werbetexte, die die exotischen Refugien auf der Erde beschreiben, sind oft beliebig und austauschbar. Sie versprechen den „einzigartigen Urlaub“ an „feinsandigen Palmenstränden“. Sie bieten touristische Schnellkost.
Wenn Dirk Fahrenbach den Außenborder aufdreht, schafft das kleine Boot die Strecke zwischen Busuanga- und Dimakya-Island vielleicht rechtzeitig. Der Mann ist ein Hüne:.........

...viel mehr in der neuen PADI Zeitschrift in Deutschland fragen Sie auf der Messe Boot 2008 in Duesseldorf nach Dirk Fahrenbach.
Sie finden Ihn beim DOT WOW Philippines stand...

Club Paradise and Dugong Dive Center are member of the Philippine-Micronesia Alliance.
The Divers Choice.

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Did You Know?
It is 2008 and our very first Blog for the New Year, it is now 3:32 Am Manila time. Do I ever sleep? Well sometimes.
A very Happy New Year to all! Cheers...

Diving with Philippine-Micronesia Alliance in 2008!

Our good old friend behind the scene Walter Ty pointed this out to me a few days ago, thanks Walter. Surviving Malaria…well soon… hopefully. If you read this article then you might understand why we DO have to take care of our ocean and environment, which we know so little about it.
OK now read on…real cool.
GD

Sea cucumber 'new malaria weapon'

Sea cucumbers live on the ocean floor, Sea cucumbers could provide a potential new weapon to block transmission of the malaria parasite, a study suggests.

The slug-like creature produces a protein, lectin, which impairs development of the parasites. An international team genetically engineered mosquitoes - which carry the malaria parasite - to produce the same protein in their gut when feeding.

The PLoS Pathogens study found the protein disrupted development of the parasites inside the insects' stomach.
Ultimately, one aim of our field is to find a way of genetically engineering mosquitoes so that the malaria parasite cannot develop inside them Professor Bob Sinden Imperial College London
Malaria causes severe illness in 500 million people worldwide each year, and kills more than one million. It is estimated that 40% of the world's population are at risk of the disease.
To stimulate the mosquitoes to produce lectin, the researchers fused part of the gene from the sea cucumber which produces the protein with a gene from the insect.

The results showed that the technique was effective against several of the parasites which cause malaria. Lectin is poisonous to the parasites when they are still in an early stage of development called an ookinete.
Usually, the ookinetes migrate through the mosquito's stomach wall, and produce thousands of daughter cells which invade the salivary glands, and infect a human when the mosquito takes a blood meal.

But when exposed to lectin the ookinetes are killed before they can start their deadly journey. Researcher Professor Bob Sinden, from Imperial College London, said: "These results are very promising and show that genetically engineering mosquitoes in this way has a clear impact on the parasites' ability to multiply inside the mosquito host."
You would have to get the modified version to become the predominant species, and that has never been done in any setting before
Dr Ron Behren London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
However, he said much more work still had to be done before the technique could be used to curb the spread of malaria. "Although the sea cucumber protein significantly reduced the number of parasites in mosquitoes, it did not totally remove them from all insects.
"At the current stage of development, the genetically modified mosquitoes would remain dangerous to humans. "Ultimately, one aim of our field is to find a way of genetically engineering mosquitoes so that the malaria parasite cannot develop inside them."

Professor Sanjeev Krishna, an expert in malaria at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, said new treatments for malaria were vital, as there was some sign that the parasites which cause the disease were developing resistance to the current artemisinin drugs.

He said: "This is a very important first step in developing a potential new way to control this infection." Dr Ron Behrens, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the technique showed promise in theory - but he warned that introducing genetically modified mosquitoes could be fraught with practical difficulties.

"You would have to get the modified version to become the predominant species, and that has never been done in any setting before," he said.
Images and more info at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7155398.stm

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