The wonders of my mind.

This weekend I went to Lake Rawlings Quarry and became certified to scuba dive in open waters (I needed it to continue my education and life playing with and learning about sharks) I was nervous when I first got underwater.( in a freshwater quarry, let me note, I’m sure you have seen River Monsters, that was what was going through my mind the whole first dive) The dive master told me I would clearly be able to see around me. that was not the case. I barely could see 20 feet in front of me and i was getting very cold. (the water temp was 65 and I was in a 2 ply wetsuit) we started to explore for about 5-7 minutes to reach 20 minutes to consider it a dive. I didn’t like exploring. for one, that’s not what I am interested in. I (hopefully) will be able to be placed underwater and sit/ float underwater and look at sharks, not swim around. Two, I couldn’t see that far in front of me, and that made me very uncomfortable. I am a very precautious person. (and I will spend the rest of my life diving with sharks, I know, it makes no sense) I didn’t like swimming around, cold, looking at a sunken car, or a sign. It did not interest me and I had no earthly clue where I was going. When I got out of the water I ran to shower because I was freezing. I stood under the hot water contradicting my whole life before that dive about swimming with dangerous animals if the water I swam in was what they considered “clear.” I was really disappointed. I have spent my whole life wondering what it would first be like to swim underwater, and it was a real let down. I came more to my senses, without automatically changing my major to culinary arts, when my father and I talked that night. he reassured me that the water wasn’t clear today and where I would be diving in the gulf and Caribbean would be much more clear. I let out a breath and thought for a while why was I terrified of going in the water with a shark even though the water wasn’t clear. I know logically, I will probably be a little terrified the first couple of times I am in the water with a shark, no matter the conditions, because they are huge animals that are very unpredictable. I will have to “warm-up” to them because I am easily placed in uncomfortable places. I read that night in 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. the one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  It really made me realize that the “perfect love” I have for sharks will eliminate the little fear I have for them. Sharks are majestic animals that have tons of teeth, but just like my mom told me with bees, “if you don’t mess with them, they won’t mess with you.” I am sure in my life that i will be in some “if-y” situations with sharks, but I’m sure fear won’t overcome most of my emotions. I know there are not sharks out there looking at me like a piece of meat. (even if some are, no big deal) I still love them more than anything, and don’t worry my mind was not changed this weekend, I am not going to open a bakery in auburn Alabama. I am definitely sticking to Shark Biology. As long as there are sharks dying each day, I will still love to serve them. Sharks to some people are the stereotype, and it hurts me to know that the stereotype has fallen into my heart. People just need to remember there are things out there that will hurt you. Sharks included. But why live your life in fear of an animal, when you can dive with them, see their actual beauty and grace underwater? This is kind of a long post. I apologize, just wanted to share.

May Sharks be saved and your mother’s day be wonderful,

Morgan Nicole

Basking Shark found off the OC coast

More than a dozen fishermen on an early morning expedition off San Clemente got the sight of a lifetime Wednesday morning. There, before their eyes, was the 20 foot leviathan.

It was no mythical Moby Dick. It was a Basking Shark, the second largest fish in the world, surpassed in size only by the the whale shark.

The boat, called “Sum Fun,” and its fourteen seafarers came to life, even though it was before sunrise.

“Once it got closer you could feel,” said Marty Hundley, on the trip from Mira Loma. “Then we saw the nose come up and we said, ‘Wow, that’s a big shark.’”

The Basking Shark is listed as a species of concern in the United States, meaning it’s a step from endangered. In Canada, it has already reached that designation.

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An Oceanfront Compound in Palm Beach

 

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This rare sighting wasn’t the first for the captain on the boat, who said he’d seen one a year ago.

“Everyone associates sharks with a man-eating, vicious fish, when this is a very docile animal,” said Captain Brian Woolley.

Scientists said this gentle giant loves its plankton and it goes where the food is.

Fisherman Mike Lam said he will never forget what he saw.

“I was like, wow, this is a mythical creature,” Lam said. “I thought everything about shark was scary. It was calm; it actually wasn’t scared of us.”

The gigantic fish hung around the boat for at least eight minutes.

“It was definitely a neat experience,” said Woolley. “You never know what you are going to see out here.”

read more and see photos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Rare-Shark-Sighting-Off-OC-Coast-148974275.html

Saving one team

Thanks

I don’t say this enough but i want to thank everyone that comes to the website. You are making a difference in the world.

today i saw this(it shows that the world is changing):

Did you know that every shark that is killed by a human, humans kill 10 million sharks.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING!!!

Save the Sharks (and I’ll be forever thankful)

 

Shows

If you want a really good show to watch, watch shark men on national geographic. Not only do you get to see tons of White sharks on the show but they actually place tons of facts on the show about sharks.

Babyyyy Bonnetheads

A Week or so ago i was at the Fort Fischer Aquarium and i saw some cute baby sharks. Bonnethead babies were in a shallow tank just living it up. they looked so adorable, as most animals do, so i thought i would share it with you lovely shark lovers.

Here they are:

Remembering Those in Black December

remembering the victims and the lost lives from the attacks of Black December in Dublin, Africa in the middle of the hectic holiday festivities

Here is a good link to a website i found and love on shark attacks

http://www.knysna.co.za/nsri12/shark.html

Have a Fin-free  Holiday Season

Morgan Nicole

we, at SOATT, appreciate your visitation, and hope your holidays are safe and magical. Thank God for the sharks

A New Outlook on Sharks

“I thought if I could change the public’s view of sharks, to have them see sharks through my eyes, maybe they would want to fight for their protection, like they’re fighting for pandas and tigers.” – Robert Stewart, filmmaker, Sharkwater

I am the kind to take action and be very aggressive about working with things I love, like sharks. I come across, usually in the wrong way, mean and very short fused, but it’s because of my deep and pure love for the creature, that no one, not even my family understands. I was insulted this weekend by my own sister about my career with the wonderful and majestic fish I am planning on spending my life with. She told me in laments terms I was going to end up fish food instead of fish friend. I don’t believe that, at all. I am a very precautious person, with everything I do, so why wouldn’t I act that way around on of the worlds largest predators, that wonderful shark I keep mentioning.

Loving sharks isn’t just a passion or a “thing” i do. It is my lifestyle. Along with this lifestyle comes a lot of criticism and a lot of harsh comments that do in fact hurt me. I don’t want to hear people lose faith in me, because I have so much faith in every living thing I don’t like to give up. Sharks are my life. I think about them so much. I read about them. I research them. some days I wish I was one. other than the whole finning issue, Sharks have the easy life. I wish.

Sharks to me are hard to describe. I see sharks as something brand new. they are never the same and very much so crazy and insane like I am. They are very cautious and different, they never ever come in contact with many animals, in many ways they are loners. I love to compare sharks to myself. its fun in a way. they change attitudes and motivation. they like certain food one day and certain food the next. they are very temperamental when they are around older sharks. they seem to eat with emotion not for hunger, and they seem to be the most wild and unpredictable animal in the world. Sharks are just Awesome. just utterly awesome in everything they do, eat, swim. EVERYTHING. they just amaze me day in and day out. and its hard for me not to love them when they are so much of their own person (roughly, hang in there with me people)

Sharks are magical and majestic, and sweet and peaceful they aren’t killers. They are not vicious. they can be the sweetest animals in the world and they sense emotion like fear and tenderness.

Sharks are not placed on this earth for us to make a mass production of their fins, they are here to be apart of the ecosystem we swim in and fish in and seem to use for everything. Sharks are important. Please remember that.

I am so thankful for the sharks

Happy Halloween

Letter from Oceana.

I get the regular letter of from Oceana’s mailing list, and if you want to join in on the news i can post the link below

and here is some of the content of the letter

At last, the good news you’ve been waiting for: California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill banning the trade of shark fins.

California has joined the ranks of Washington State, Oregon and Hawaii, who have all passed similar bans. Oceana supported this legislation from the beginning, and we are thrilled that Governor Brown has passed it into law, completing a West Coast ban.

Each year, tens of millions of sharks are killed for their fins, mostly to make shark fin soup. In this wasteful and cruel practice, a shark’s fins are sliced off while at sea and the remainder of the animal is thrown back into the water to die. Without fins, sharks bleed to death, drown, or are eaten by other species. In recent decades some shark populations have declined by as much as 99%.

Removing sharks from ocean ecosystems can destabilize the ocean food web and even lead to declines in populations of other species, including commercially-caught fish and shellfish species lower in the food web. While shark finning is illegal in the U.S., current federal laws banning the practice do not address the issue of the shark fin trade, so shark fins are imported to the U.S. from countries with few or even no shark protections in place.

“Today is a landmark day for shark conservation around the globe” said Susan Murray, Oceana’s Senior Pacific Director. “The leadership shown by legislatures and governors of California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii sends a strong message that the entire US West Coast will no longer play a role in the global practice of shark finning that is pushing many shark species to the brink of extinction.”

A huge thanks to everyone who called your legislators and Governor Brown and helped secure this enormous victory for our oceans’ top predators!

Oceana in Chile has been working for several years to keep bottom trawlers out of the most vulnerable marine ecosystems in the nation’s waters.  

Back in 2009, we proposed a bill that would close all 118 seamounts in Chile to bottom trawlers, and this week our staff participated in a discussion of the bill by the Chilean Senate’s Fisheries Committee.

Bottom trawling, one of the most destructive forms of fishing, uses a huge, heavy net to scrape the seafloor. Trawlers are indiscriminate, which results in overfishing and the accidental entanglement of animals including sea turtles and marine mammals. And these heavy nets destroy everything in their paths, including coral reefs.

Chile’s seamounts are home to jewel-toned coral reefs and fish, mammals such as fur seals and sea lions, and many more beautiful and unusual creatures. Some of these seamounts are home to species that can be found no where else in the world. Every pass of a bottom trawler turns swaths of these seamounts into barren wastelands.

Oceana’s 2009 proposal would ban bottom trawling on all 118 seamounts until this fishing technique is scientifically proven not to damage the ecosystems in question. Estimates suggest that this ban would have affected only 0.09% of Chile’s seafood exports in 2009.

Alex Muñoz, Oceana’s Vice President for South America, said about the bill, “Protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems that are threatened by trawling not only is important from an ecological point of view but also enhances the productivity of the fisheries that depend on these habitats.”

South America has been making important strides to protect their vulnerable ecosystems. Last year, Chile created a 150,000 square kilometer no-take marine reserve around Sala y Gómez Island and Belize banned bottom trawling throughout its waters.

Every year, our research vessel, the Oceana Ranger, explores new areas of the ocean and collects scientific data – and incredible photos! — to help protect vulnerable marine habitats.

This week, our colleagues in Europe presented their findings to an environmental rule-making body in the Northeast Atlantic, and we’re hopeful that it will lead to exciting new ocean protection measures.

Europe’s Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) offers guidelines about threatened species and habitat types that should be protected. However, these principles rely on old and incomplete data, so countries have had trouble using them effectively.

Although Norway, the UK, and Germany have already taken steps to explore and protect their seafloor communities, Spain and Portugal have had much less information about their oceans and so have been less active in preserving it.

But thanks to our expedition findings, that might change. Oceana presented OSPAR with findings about coral gardens, deep sea sponges and seapen communities from our expeditions in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean. In total, our scientists presented 28 previously unknown areas that have these types of habitats.

These habitats are home to some of the most diverse and unique communities in the oceans. Creating marine protected areas to preserve them can go a long way in keeping the oceans and everything that lives in them healthy.

Here’s hoping that today’s presentation will pave the way for both continued scientific study and additional protections.

read more you can visit http://www.oceana.com

Morgan Nicole

Fin Free Toronto

Congrats Toronto on making your community fin free! You’ve made a huge difference to many sharks! We are proud to be members in your community