The film is about an unusually large population of whale sharks that gathers off the coast of Mexico’s Holbox Island during the summer months to feed and mate. Narrated by marine biologist, Sylvia Earle, the film explores how the recent discovery of this population of whale sharks – the largest fish in the world- is shifting the economic focus of the surrounding area from fishing to eco-tourism. The film highlights the successes as well as the ecological concerns that have arisen from this transition.

Diver and whale shark vertical feeding. Photo by Kip Evans

If I was actually able to switch places with Kip Evans, I’m not sure how he would feel about working at KQED and running the QUEST TV series. I’ll admit, my job is pretty much as cool as it gets for a Bay Area science geek and TV producer like me, but Evans's resume makes the day-to-day aspects of my job look downright mundane.

He’s an internationally known photographer who’s been widely published in books and magazines including National Geographic, Outside, Sea and Patagonia. He’s an underwater cinematographer and documentary producer who’s worked on shows for BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel and National Geographic. He’s also the Director of Photography and Expeditions for the Sylvia Earle Alliance and has served for many years as the great marine biologist’s chief photographer and videographer.

I first became aware of Kip Evans's work in 2008 when I produced a QUEST TV story about Sylvia Earle. We only had about two hours to shoot an interview with Earle and that was all the time she could give us for the whole story. We normally shoot with the main subjects of our stories for two or three days in order to get enough footage to make a 10-minute story. So, because I had only a sit-down interview with Earle, I had to acquire all of the footage and photographs of her throughout her career. We were happy to locate Kip Evans and licensed some spectacular underwater footage and photographs from him.

Dr. Sylvia Earle in the Deep Rover submarine. Photo by Kip Evans

So, when I was thinking about who we could feature in our new segment, “Your Videos on QUEST,” where we feature the work Bay Area filmmakers who tell science, environment and nature stories, I immediately thought of Evans. I feel lucky that he answered the phone when I first called because it seems that he’s often traveling around the world to shoot photographs and video about what he and Sylvia Earle call “Hope Spots”- places that are critically in need of protection and conservation because they are vital to saving what’s left of the planet’s oceans.

When I was in college studying biology and cinema production, my dream was to one day, travel the world as a cinematographer shooting films and TV shows about science and nature. I’m not at all disappointed with where I ended up but I realize that one of the most special things about my job is that I get to meet people like Kip Evans and Sylvia Earle and showcase the important work they are doing to protect the environment. I suppose it’s the next best thing to being them.

Forty years later the rivers are cleaner, millions of acres have been established as national parks and wilderness areas and over all the air quality has improved. But what about the other 71%? Over half our oxygen comes from the ocean. Fish feed millions and the beauty and complexity of marine life leave us in awe. Yet today, a year after the ravages in the Gulf from the BP Oil spill, 90% of large pelagic shark species are going extinct from overfishing and for their fins. Whales and seals have been hunted to a genetic bottle neck and are hunted still. The wolves of the sea, the bluefin tuna, are being fished to the vanishing point. While a thousand other insults are being inflicted on Mother Ocean, where is our outrage?

New oil wells are being considered along our coast while nuclear power plants hum along our shorelines vulnerable to Tsunami and earthquakes. Recent die-offs of sardines in southern California; emaciated and sickly sea lions along the coast, vanishing salmon and stranded leopard sharks in the San Francisco Bay are bellwethers reminding us that the ocean is sick.

The ocean needs our help.

After a week of celebrating the Earth, it's time to celebrate our ocean with World Oceans Day. This day had been unofficially celebrated every June 8 since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then, WOD has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network with greater success and global participation each year. World Oceans Day is an opportunity every year to honor the world's ocean, to celebrate the all marine life.

It's time to motivate change and let our leaders know that marine life and ecosystem are worth protecting, and they need our protection now. This summer, celebrate World Oceans Day and tell our representatives we need a sea change. With our partners from The Ocean Project, Sea Stewards will be coordinating a World Ocean Day Celebration at Crissy Field in San Francisco on June 11. We will be celebrating all marine life, especially sharks, and motivate people to protect the ocean and ocean life we love.

37.7699 -122.467174

What is it about sharks that inspire such controversy? Sharks make good press. The very words, "shark attack" sends a chill up the spine and puts a gleam in the editor’s eye. Sharks are all over the news when there is a shark attack or when the Discovery Channel is re-enacting shark attacks on "Shark Week". But this spring, sharks are in the news for another reason.

Sharks swim in our psyche. There is something mysterious, enigmatic and even deeply atavistic about sharks. The unmistakable shape of a shark, the open jaws lined with serrated teeth, and the shark fin is imprinted throughout human history up to modern times.

From petroglyphs in European caves, carvings in Pacific Island volcanic rocks to shark masks in a West African dance, the image of the ocean's apex predator inspires power, fear and even virility. Cultures the world over have created myths and cults around sharks, deifying them and demonizing them. The Greek goddess Lamia was a daughter of the god Poseidon, a devourer of children and the mother of the sea-monsters Skylla and Akheilos. The Australian Aborigines have an oral history of Bangudja, the tiger-shark, which attacked the dolphin man in the Gulf of Carpenteria, leaving behind a large red spot on the rocks of Chasm Island. The Pacific Island peoples who live in close connection to sharks have elevated sharks to a God-like status. The Hawaiian amuakua symbolizes an ancestor in the form of a shark. Countless Hawaiian myths refer to the shark god Kamohoali’i serving as protector of fishermen and guider of lost canoes. The indigenous people of Solomon believe that the bodies of sharks are inhabited by the souls of the dead people.

In modern cultures, we continue to symbolize sharks: the ruthless lawyer; a cool calculating professional golfer; a quick and menacing professional hockey team. Until recent times shark encounters did not extend beyond local beach or fishing communities. With modern media and the immeasurable psychological impact of a Hollywood film, sharks rose from the subliminal depths into the forefront of our collective fear.

Jaws was a good film. It struck a chord, but it was not good for sharks. Peter Benchley spent the last decades of his life trying to undo what the film sparked. The wave of horror initiated by Jaws continues today: news stories of a single shark attack spread beyond proportion, when the true story should be man bites shark.
The fact is we are removing all large predatory fish from the world ocean at an unsustainable rate. As the consummate oceanic predator, sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing and are increasingly being wiped out as bycatch and for products like shark fin soup. Global demand for shark fin soup has pushed several shark populations to the brink of collapse. Shark finning is the cruel and wasteful practice of hacking off fins from live sharks, tossing the dead or dying animal overboard. Man bites shark at the rate of millions to one every year. In this respect man is winning, but in reality we are all losing. It has been demonstrated that sharks are essential members for a healthy ecosystem and removing them is causing an imbalance, even a collapse of complex marine communities.

But sharks are in the news for other reasons. States and countries are rising up and protecting sharks. Last year Hawaii banned shark fin soup and commercial shark fishing. The Marianas Islands, Guam and Palau have all banned shark fin sales and provide sanctuary for sharks. The Washington State Assembly just passed a bill to ban the sale of shark fin, and California has its own bill, AB 376 started right here in San Francisco to ban shark fin in our state. Other states and island nations are considering similar passage. The news is that sharks are important and we care enough to override cultural concerns about a delicacy. The news is that cultures can evolve so that the ocean can survive.

Sharks are a symbol of what is going wrong with the oceans and what can be right. Sharks are symbols of ocean health. It's time to dismiss the man-eater myths, push back the soup bowl and start protecting sharks for a healthy ocean and healthy humans. Living sharks are valuable to the ocean ecology and to human cultures across the Pacific. It's time think like a sea steward for all ocean life, including the shark. This is why sharks are the Sea Stewards symbol and the motivation behind the Shark Sanctuary Initiative. It is why we are supporting AB 376 and will be celebrating sharks on World Oceans Day in June 2011. Let sharks live!

Find out more about what legislators are doing for shark protections and the passage of the Shark Fin Bill.

37.7699 -122.467174

I'm currently with a team of Costa Rican biologists from the environmental organization Pretoma on the vessel Sirneuse to film and tag turtles and sharks at Cocos Island. Image courtesy of Matt Potenski and Pretoma.

With the implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act in California, marine protected areas are in the news. Although we have protected over 10% of our land areas through parks, wilderness areas and nature reserves, the ocean is still hovering around 1% of area under some kind of protection. California is attempting to remedy this by setting aside a network of marine protected areas, protecting some 20-25% of the California coastline. The last stages are coming to the San Francisco Bay this year.

California is not alone in attempting to establish marine protected areas also known as MPAs. Countries like New Zealand, Australia and Belize have been active in establishing MPAs.
What is a marine protected area anyway? There are as many definitions as there are ecosystems, but essentially it is an area of ocean with defined boundaries and defined protections that are legally enforceable. Some areas such as marine parks allow mixed use including fishing and recreation. Others such as marine reserves are defined in California to have some public use but no take of marine life.

The latter are the most controversial because they exclude fishermen from their recreation or trade. Whatever the controversy, the facts are clear that we are overfishing our ocean and destroying habitat faster than we are protecting it. There is some pretty solid science indicating the benefit of no-take reserves to the protected habitat and areas outside the protected region. Reserves act as sources of fish and invertebrates well beyond the boundaries. In Florida, where a closure near Cape Canaveral resulted in bigger and more abundant grouper and snapper, a phenomenon developed called “fishing the line,” meaning catching fish spilling at the edge of the protected boundary.

The same phenomenon occurs in New Zealand where lobster pots are so numerous along the protected zone’s edge they resemble a defined border like a swim zone. The fish and invertebrates protected inside the reserve are spilling out to the areas outside the protection.
Larval fish spread out in the current, casting seeds for future fish downstream.

The problem in any case is observance and enforcement. There have been success in countries with resources to enforce and convict violators, but many of the areas on the global map are in name only – "paper parks." Boats fish freely in world heritage sites and areas designated protected by governments. I am writing this from one such area outside Cocos Island approximately 400 miles off the coast of Costa Rica. I am currently with a team of Costa Rican biologists from the environmental organization Pretoma on the vessel Sirneuse to film and tag turtles and sharks at Cocos Island.

Cocos is a volcano rising from the deep sea and is an oasis of life from sharks and large fish to manta rays. The government has designated a no-take area 12 miles around Cocos Island over a decade ago, but there has been rampant poaching in the reserve. Recently Costa Rica created the Seamount Management Marine Area that will extend the Cocos Island protected area to 9640 Km2 (nearly 3700 square miles) has been established to protect pinnacles and migratory pathways for fish and sharks. The objective is to protect sharks and other species at risk such as sea turtles from the tuna fishery.
However, these areas are fished for tuna and even sharks with little fear of enforcement.

The Protema biologists tell me that there are several challenges enforcing illegal fishing within the protected zone. The law says that the longlines set for fish must be attached to the boat and inside the reserve to be enforced. Costa Rica does not have a navy, and the Coast Guard primarily enforces against illegal drugs and not fishing. The rangers and the non profit located on Cocos (Marviva) can only report illegal activity to the authorities. If enforcement arrives, they generally find an abandoned longline filled with dead fish and sharks.

Despite public denial by officials, sharks are being finned in Costa Rican waters. Finning is illegal in Costa Rica, yet it is common knowledge that shark fins have been unloaded at private docks behind guarded compounds. Two weeks ago Pretoma forced the courts to uphold the law requiring sharks to be landed at the public docks. Not long after the crew of a Taiwan flagged vessel was apprehended unloading shark fins at the public docks. "The system is working", said Randall Arauz, president of Pretoma. "Clearly, the international fleet needs the privacy of its private docks to hide its shark finning activities, but now it must respect our laws", added Arauz with satisfaction.

In order to protect marine resources we need to have the support of the public and vigilance by watchdogs like Pretoma. However, protecting the ocean from the impacts of fishing are difficult even with enforcement, Protecting the waters from impacts from the land such as run off and ocean acidification cannot be implemented by drawing a line on a map. In San Francisco the last
stage of the MLPA is now underway. With significant influence from
the and, and with potential sea level rise, the best we can do is protect and restore damaged habitat and protect large enough areas such as ecosystems which include fish like our shark nurseries and habitat for sea grass and native oysters to flourish.

Protecting far ranging species like sharks through MPAS is also not easily attained. Sharks cross international borders and roam far past the protection of any single marine protected area. Open ocean MPA’s have been proposed but will take international agreement and the cooperation of the pelagic fishing fleet. At best we can protect nurseries such as the San Francisco Bay and Biodiversity hot spots in the ocean like the waters surrounding Cocos Island. Islands and submarine pinnacles such as Cocos and the new protected area are theoretically large enough to better protect the large migratory species like some species of sharks. However, we need to increase enforcement and alter consumption patterns to support sustainable fisheries. Clearly eating shark fin, or Bluefin tuna sushi is not sustainable. Even with good enforcement, there will be problems, but recognizing the need for marine protected areas is a place to start, even if it’s still only on paper.

37.7699 -122.467174

Producer Chris Bauer filming over the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in NOAA's Twin Sea Otter plane.

Every story is different. And with every story I get a chance to expand my world and ways of thinking. I often say my job gives me great "cocktail party stories."

We recently went on a QUEST Exploration of Angel Island and were led by the effervescent Silvia Lange. Silvia's face would absolutely light up when talking about the wildflowers and even the poison oak. She loved Angel Island and it showed. Last January, just months after she guided us on our hike, Silvia went missing during a visit to Point Reyes National Seashore. Her vehicle and dogs were found but she has not been seen since. It’s assumed that she was swept away by a rogue wave while walking on the beach.

Silvia was an Angel Island State Park docent of 26 years, well known for her historic sketches and wildflower walks. She also served as a docent at Mountain View Cemetery, and volunteered for Marin Agricultural Land Trust and the Nicasio Historical Society. She raised puppies for Canine Companions for Independence in Santa Rosa. Silvia was the kind of person the world needs more of. And her loss is deeply felt by everyone who knew her. I’m glad that we can share her song, “On Top of Mt. Livermore” on our Quest Exploration. But it’s bittersweet to hear. I spent only one day with her and yet I miss her. I feel fortunate to have met her and showcase her enthusiasm. But I wish she was still here to teach more people, share the wonders of Angel Island, to sing and inspire.

It’s not surprising that I oftentimes get attached to our subjects. Through our research, meeting these people, people I call “heroes,” you can’t help but get attached. We spend a lot of time with them, both literally in person and figuratively in the edit bay. We often get swept up in their stories, their causes, the places or animals they protect, the work they do and the things they hold dear. We join them on their journey.

Yes, I have met many great people in the course of my career. Many I still consider friends. Most I continue to keep close tabs on. I follow their stories long after the TV show has aired. Some I get the fortunate chance to revisit. I consider this a blessing of my job. But when you care about someone or something, you end up taking both the good and the bad. People I’ve profiled and cared about have been injured or killed in the far-flung battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Other friends we have met, both two-legged and four-legged, have been lost to disease. Beautiful places we have showcased have been bulldozed and paved over. Some of the animals we have profiled are now teetering on the edge of extinction.

I got to thinking about this again this week when I felt the pain of another kind of loss. We just got news from The Monterey Bay Aquarium that the juvenile great white shark we profiled in our story “Sharks in Captivity,” was killed by a fisherman’s gill net. The shark had been fitted with two electronic tracking tags when she was released in Monterey Bay, one of which was recovered by Mexican researchers who collaborate with the aquarium to study migrations of young great white sharks. Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry for the aquarium, said “This just underscores the threats that these young sharks face in the wild.” “Though they’re legally protected in both California and Mexico, they are still caught accidentally by commercial fishermen on both sides of the border. Not all of them survive.” It’s painful to know that a beautiful animal we just saw so full of life is gone before she had a chance to grow up. And in this case, it is also representative and a reminder of the millions of sharks that are killed each year.

We can easily get caught up in the stream of bad news; the trees dying, the climate changing, the oceans at the brink. It can be overwhelming, heartbreaking and often disheartening. But these things also reinforce my commitment and, I think, the commitment of my colleagues at Quest, to report these stories. These people, these places, the science and the environment, need to be showcased and cared about deeply. I consider myself fortunate to be able to witness these stories and profile the heroes who are making a difference. It’s truly an honor. And so, with that, I just want to take the time to once again thank all the people who have appeared on Quest for their hard work and dedication. I look forward to seeing you again, meeting other heroes and sharing whole new stories.

37.762611 -122.409719

Most people don’t know that the animals we are eating from the ocean are vastly different from the animals we eat on land.

I have been working lately with John McCosker, Chair of Aquatic Biology department at the Academy, in preparation for his talk – Sharks: Why We Need, Fear and Love Them at the next NightLife on April 29th. It is in collaboration with the Great White Shark episode QUEST has produced featuring John McCosker in his research with Great White Sharks. It also goes into why these animals are now threatened. There was a portion of the video that showed sharks being hauled up onto a boat only to have their fins cut off and then the injured animal being thrown overboard to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Shark Fin Soup being is demand is influencing this practice. I physically cringed at the cruelty and mentally noted, “Okay, that’s another species I vow to never eat.”

My list thus far of animals from the ocean I will never eat:

Octopus
Squid
Giant Sea Bass
And recently added Shark

The first three animals I have come to be more closely acquainted with while volunteering in the Steinhart Aquarium on Tuesday mornings. I regularly help with the Tidepool, Octopus and Giant Sea Bass tanks and have grown quite fond of them and their inhabitants. On my last morning volunteering, I was given the opportunity to give the small Octopus in the tidepool a sardine-on-a-stick. Seeing a tentacle tentatively reach out and then deftly take the sardine and then try to take the whole stick definitely made an impression. As well, every Tuesday, I spend time preparing squid in the Aquarium prep kitchen for the black tip reef shark’s lunch given later in the day. That duty has made me grow much less fond of squid. I’m not the only one who has worked in the Aquarium who has a list. John McCosker suggested sushi for dinner as long as the apex predators were not on the menu. Moreover, many biologists have told me that their seafood consumption has drastically decreased with the increasing knowledge they have gained working in the Steinhart.

Most people don’t know that the animals we are eating from the ocean are vastly different from the animals we eat on land. Bluefin Tuna, Sharks, Octopus, and Squid are predators. We eat chicken, cows, ducks and pigs on land, which are herbivores and omnivores. Eating a shark or tuna is analogous to eating a tiger. We wouldn’t eat a tiger, but the demand for seafood is threatening top predators in the ocean. In the example of sharks, John McCosker notes, “It's tragic for sharks, and tragic for the ecosystem…Sharks are top-level predators for the ocean ecosystem. And the oceans are collapsing. When the sharks go, there are no controls.”

What does he mean by no controls? An ecosystem is a tiered system. Predators ensure that no one animal population explodes. If a hunted population does explode it will then eat food lower in the food chain without check and cause animal and plant populations to crash. With fewer Great White Sharks in the ocean, Sea Lion populations have already adversely affected the Salmon population off the coast of Northern California.

The Seafood Guide put out by Monterey Aquarium is a great way to become educated about what seafood is sustainable and which ones when eaten without check lead to imbalance in the Ocean’s ecosystem. I have downloaded the application onto my phone and check it when I go out for sushi or seafood. I have angered many a waitress with that application! Yet, I wouldn’t eat a tiger and want to give the mighty predators of the ocean the same respect. I have a feeling that means my list is going to big bigger.

37.7699 -122.467174

Artist's depiction of a megalodon chasing two blue whales (image credit: Karen Carr, the Virginia Museum of Natural History)

What I find most interesting about this subclass is the body make-up these creatures share. They do not have a bony skeleton like humans; their skeleton is made up of cartilage—a dense connective tissue that is tough yet elastic. Their grace, speed, and great success as predators come from the fluidity of their movement.

This also makes it difficult for Ichthyologists to agree on taxonomy within this class as fossilized remains of cartilaginous fish are often poor. The oldest fossil on record of a megalodon, 18 million years old, is the only bone in the skeleton: a tooth. From the tooth, several researchers have tried to reconstruct the jaw and piece together what the body would look like. The tooth also suggests what this massive prehistoric shark preyed upon: There are bite marks on whales, dolphins, porpoises and sea turtles.

As the sharks, rays, and guitarfish pass by in the lagoon, I imagine the shadow of their giant cousin, the megalodon.

37.769700 -122.466000

Mary Collins School teacher Blythe Shelley touching
a leopard shark at the Aquarium of the Bay

So, how do the Bay's leopard sharks, soupfin sharks, sevengill sharks, spiny dogfish, and other shark species differ from "non-shark" fishes? Here are a few key distinctions:

#1. You could say that sharks don't have a bad bone in their bodies. In fact, sharks don't have any bones in their bodies. Sharks-along with their relatives skates, rays, and ratfish-belong to a diverse class of fish that have cartilaginous skeletons, unlike the bony skeletons of other fish.

#2. Body shape. If you look at most fish head on, they have a generally oval shape. Sharks, in contrast, tend to be more triangular with a wide, flat under-surface. Their broad pectoral fins give them lift as they move through the water, not unlike the wings of an airplane. This hydrodynamic shape is key to keeping sharks afloat (you'll see why as we move on to difference #3).

#3. Besides bones, sharks lack the air-filled swim bladders that most fish use for buoyancy (If sharks are airplanes, does that mean bony fish are hot air balloons?) Instead, sharks keep afloat with the help of a large, low-density liver, their unique body designs, and the physics of forward motion. If a shark stops swimming it won't necessarily drown-only some sharks need to swim to breath-but it will sink!

#4. While most fish have gills tucked behind a bony flap called an operculum, sharks exhale water through gill slits located behind their head. Five gill slits are typical, but some sharks -like the sevengill shark found in the Bay-have more. Most sharks use ram ventilation to breath, swimming constantly with their mouths open to keep water flowing over their gills. Bottom dwelling sharks, whose mouths may be buried in the sand, inhale water through an opening on the top of their head called a spiracle and pump water past their gills.

#5. A shark's skin is covered with tiny dermal denticles that differ from scales on most fish. As their name indicates, they bear a physiological similarity to teeth. Their unique structure helps reduce drag as the shark moves through the water-in fact, sharkskin helped inspire the high-tech swimsuits we saw at the Summer Olympics.

#6. Most fish spawn by releasing large numbers of unfertilized eggs and sperm into the water. Sharks, in contrast, reproduce via internal fertilization. Depending on the species, they then lay a much smaller number of fertilized eggs, or carry the eggs inside until they hatch, giving birth to live pups.

Old Adobe Elementary teacher Juliet James examining shark teethSadly, these unique creatures are declining all over the world due to overfishing, pollution, loss of habitat from coastal development, and climate change. And that's bad news not just for sharks but also for their ecosystems. Like lions and wolves, most sharks sit atop the food chain as apex predators; thus their disappearance can trigger a cascade of disruption up and down the chain.

All the more reason for us to study up.

38.1048 -122.561

From fossils and gemstones to bird eggs and a stuffed Kodiak bear, it takes a lot of creativity to pack their collection. Everything seems to have special requirements. Their fish collection is made up of 200,000 jars – all filled with alcohol. And since it's a flammable liquid, they'll need a licensed hazmat driver to take it across town.

The live animals take extra care, of course. In this story, we followed the move of three black tip reef sharks. They hadn't been fed in a few days (so they wouldn't make any, um, deposits in their holding tank) and they weren't easy for the staff to catch, but they made it safely to their new exhibit. Even the largest of the three, F3 as she's known, made it ok, despite being a little groggy at first from too much oxygen.

As curator Bart Shepherd put it, their new Philippine Coral Reef Exhibit is a giant science experiment. The water for the 200,000 gallon tank comes straight from the Pacific Ocean through a four mile pipe. But most impressively, the Academy has been growing coral just for the exhibit. Just managing the water chemistry alone has been a major project, but now several dozen colonies of coral are happily planted in their new home.

Make sure to check out the audio slide show for this story to see how the new building is shaping up. And check out a few of the posts from QUEST science blogger Cat Aboudara, who is an Academy staff member, for more details on what it takes (here, here and here).

Watch the "Moving Day" audio slide show online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Lauren Sommer is an Associate Media Producer for QUEST.

37.7697 -122.466