Welcome To Australia

Dear family, friends, and teachers,

If this is the first time you are hearing that I am heading to Australia, that's because all of this happened very last minute. I have wanted to go to Australia for a very long time, but I didn't expect the opportunity to come so quickly. 

Here's the quick facts of my trip:

Where: James Cook University in Townsville 

Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef.

To see a quick video tour of some of the James Cook facilities, go to: http://www.jcu.edu.au/international/JCU_114266.html

Sunset from Castle Hill over Townsville City.

How long: February to late June

Why:

As many of you know, I am very interested in sharks, yet have no desire to do research work. Last year, I took a tourism class at University of New England and wrote a term paper on cage diving tourism. I also had the chance to interview Luke Tipple, a shark diving expert (see a few posts below). This sparked an idea that tourism could possibly be what I want to do as a career or at least part of my career. Tourism is appealing to me because it incorporates everything I love about marine biology: hands on work, being out on the ocean, meeting new people, educating people, assisting in data collection for researchers, and working to create a sustainable ocean. 

Several factors influenced my decision to apply to James Cook in Townsville; location, the opportunities this institute offers, and my future career goals:

The close proximity of the Great Barrier Reef to the University is a huge draw. I got SCUBA certified over the summer and have not had the chance to go diving since. As a marine biologist, SCUBA diving will likely be a component to any work I am doing, from tagging sharks to cleaning an aquarium tank. Maine has a limited dive season and in order to gain confidence and experience I need to have access and opportunity to dive. James Cook's location provides that for me.

The opportunity for hands on learning is tremendously exciting. From 6^th to 8^th grade I was fortunate to attend a charter school whose curriculum was built around environmental sustainability and social justice utilizing project based learning. It was in this atmosphere that I became aware that ‘hands on’/ project based learning is not only how I best learn, understand, and retain information, but what makes learning most exciting. I have read about James Cook taking students out onto the Great Barrier Reef and learning about tourism from people who are currently working in that field. James Cook will allow me to gain some real world experience that will be invaluable in the future.

When I applied I figured it was worth trying, but I didn't expect it would all work out... The crazy thing was, somehow it all fell into place: 

On February 7th I'm headed out. I will keep you posted on what I am up to on this blog, but feel free to email, Facebook, or Skype me as well!  

Thanks to everyone for all their help and support in getting me to where I am today

~ST

The Bird

The Adventures of Raleigh: The Bird

Occurred January 8, 2011

Starring: Sarah Tenney, Raleigh, and The Bird

This morning I awoke to Raleigh freaking out downstairs. I first thought nothing of it because he was probably hungry. Which would make sense; he is a typical food obsessed dog. But, when I got downstairs I realized he was charging full speed at a bird who was repeatedly flying head first into the living room window. The only reason this poor bird wasn’t caught and eaten by Raleigh was because Raleigh would charge and get almost close enough to catch it and then get scared and run tail between his legs in the opposite direction until he got his courage back and then would charge again.

Why I didn’t videotape this I don’t know. 

What I did do was get Raleigh into the laundry room and opened up all the doors in the house, but the bird just kept flying into the window repeatedly. So I did what any rational person would do… I threw dog toys close enough to it hoping to scare it away from the window and out the door.

Obviously this only scared the poor thing more BUT I did get it to fly away from the window- first into the ceiling, then into the wall, then into several different windows, then the kitchen cabinets (which are glass so maybe it thought they were windows), then back into the living room window. As it bashed its head into everything in the house it simultaneously pooped everywhere!

Okay so it was back to square one. As I pondered what in hell I was supposed to do next I took pictures of it- Why not right? Clearly he was going to stay for a bit since he didn’t understand the concept of doors…

I guess it got tired of running into the window because all of a sudden he just started flying around the house right over my head which made me scream and drop to the floor like I was being shot at. I am not even going to pretend I wasn’t scared of that thing; it gave me a whole new appreciation for the movie The Birds.

While I was ducking for cover he must have flown out because I couldn’t find him anywhere. I let Raleigh out and checked out the damage: bird poop everywhere including the furniture. Most of it was black with bits, and even whole, black berries in it, but some of the more liquid stains were red. It probably hurt itself while bashing its own head into the window. Okay so blood and berry poop, not too bad after the deer incident and it was out! 

Or so I thought…

After cleaning up and scrubbing the furniture and closing all the doors Raleigh started freaking out again. Uh oh. And then came the bird flying around the house frantically again with Raleigh barking and chasing it.

Open went all the doors. To the laundry room went Raleigh. To suit up went Sarah.

Boots on, mom’s big puffy green coat on (you know the closest thing I had to armor), broom in one hand, tennis racquet in the other, and I was ready.

With Raleigh barking like a mad man from the laundry room as if cheering me on, I chased the bird around the house like a crazy person, ducking and covering my head with the tennis racquet and screaming every time it changed directions and flew over my head. If that wasn’t crazy enough, Raleigh broke out of the laundry room (I had put a baby gate across the door frame). So with a loud crash, Raleigh comes running top speed out of the laundry room, tongue out and barking which makes the bird freak out more and starts flying in circles around the house, crashing hysterically into walls and windows and furniture while pooping EVERYWHERE!  

So now Raleigh and I are running all over the house chasing this thing, Raleigh still barking and I’ve still got the broom and tennis racquet, which I’m holding up over my head for protection while I run. 

Seriously we need to set up cameras in our house.

Finally the bird flies out the DOOR!!! Halleluiah! I start jumping up and down and cheering and Raleigh jumps on me tackling me to the floor and stares down at me as if to say, “can we do that again?”  

The bird not understanding that the window is closed but there's an open door less than a foot away

~

The Deer

Meet my boys:

Theo and Bodie

Raleigh

Raleigh is a Golden Retriever who still thinks he’s a puppy

Theo is a Golden Doodle who is incredibly smart with a deviant side

Bodie is the baby of the group and is a Black Golden Doodle who (thankfully) still does what people tell him to

The Adventures of Raleigh, Theo, and Bodie: The Deer

Occurred January 11, 2011

Raleigh and Theo have discovered that the electric fence has stopped working and have started going on sojourns whenever they please. So, one day I was watching them and of course I turn my back for two seconds and they’re gone!

Bodie was still here luckily so I got him inside and start getting my boots on while yelling “Raleigh! Theo! COME!!!” at the top of my lungs. As I’ve got one boot on I see Theo trot proudly through the front yard with a large stick in his mouth. I know if I don’t grab him now it will be impossible to get him because he likes to run away and play games when he’s found a toy. So with one boot on I run out into the porch, but something makes me stop...

As Theo gets closer the stick looks less and less like a stick and there is something on his feet and around his mouth and down his front… Then it occurs to me it’s blood and there is a hoof attached to the end of the “stick”. Somewhere they had found the remains of a fully grown and freshly killed deer.

I run out into the snow with only one boot and grab the deer leg out of Theo’s mouth along with some skin and fur and gross stuff he had half swallowed. Deer leg still in hand I grab him and secure him in our laundry room and start calling for Raleigh.

Raleigh finally comes and is not as bad as Theo but still has blood on his feet and around his mouth. When I try to get Raleigh into the laundry room they try to run through the house. This creates a scene of me grabbing Raleigh by the scruff of his neck and Theo by the collar yelling at them at the top of my lungs “WE WILL NEVER SELL THIS HOUSE IF IT LOOKS LIKE THERE’S BEEN A MURDER IN HERE!” Raleigh is whimpering and Theo is trying to escape and Bodie is terrified and goes into his submissive pose where he lies on his back to get you to stop yelling. So now I’m yelling at Raleigh and Theo with “good boy Bodie” mixed in every few seconds.

Okay, now what.

There is blood all over the laundry room (which has white cabinets near the floor), Raleigh and Theo are going nuts, Bodie is terrified, there’s blood all over me, and there’s a DEER LEG on my porch.

I do what anyone would do: I franticly call my mom. But she doesn’t answer. So I more franticly call Lynne. “RALEIGH AND THEO FOUND A DEER, THERES BLOOD, HOW DO I CLEAN THEM? WHAT SOAP CAN I USE THAT WON’T HURT THEM? WHAT WILL BE STRONG ENOUGH TO DISINFECT? DO I NEED TO CALL A VET? DO THEY NEED RABIES SHOTS? DO I NEED A RABIES SHOT?” Lynne is very calm and says “no, you’re fine, just get the dog bath soap for their bodies and the hydrogen peroxide for around their mouths” she says this like its absolutely no big deal. But she reminds me Theo has had an operation recently because he eats underwear and socks and can’t digest anything but dog food so I need to pour the peroxide down his thought to make him throw up.

I get Raleigh outside with a leash and tie him up. Then face Theo, bottle of peroxide in one hand other hand ready to grab him. I slowly go towards him then grab him and wrestle open his mouth which is slimy and slippery from the blood and pour the peroxide down his thought. This is not easy because I can’t tilt his head back or it might go down his wind pipe and he doesn’t like this so he’s thrashing his head back and fourth. I finally get the stuff down his thought and wait for him to throw up.

Ten minutes later Theo is outside tied up with Raleigh and the laundry room has hydrogen peroxide everywhere along with blood and now puke. Yummy.

Lynne had asked me to call her back and describe what he puked up, so I grab a stick (a real stick like made of wood from a tree- no hoofs) and poke through the puke and describe the concoction of skin, blood, fur, and bubbly hydrogen peroxide while trying not to puke myself. Lynne was satisfied and believed he had puked up everything and left me to clean up. 

So the rest of the story involves me gagging every few seconds and several rolls of paper towels and the laundry room getting water and soap poured all over it to add to all the other liquids already there and me scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing. Then going outside and scrubbing the dogs, and if you’ve ever owned a Golden Doodle you know they have hair that clumps easily so you can imagine the disaster in trying to get the blood and gunk off him.

So with the house and the dogs clean I took a sigh of relief until I remembered there was still a deer leg on the porch. Although when I looked at it again it wasn’t bloody or as bad as I thought so into a trash bag it went and all the bags of paper towels and the leg went to the garage trash.

…and I took the hydrogen peroxide and Dawn kitchen soap up to the shower. 

The "stick"

~

Interview with Luke Tipple

 Luke Tipple

marine biologist/ shark diver/ conservationist/ TV host

Phone interview took place on March 1, 2012 

What attracted you to shark tourism?

The ability to educate people about sharks, the access to sharks for science is actually what really what got me to it, I was actually studying whale sharks in Hindus and my tagging efforts were monitored by tourism, so the ability to take people out on the water, teach people about sharks, show them a great big shark and get them a great in water experience, and also fund my research is really what got me started in the tourism side of it and then tourism has since become a vehicle for everything from film projects, to scientific research, to just one-on–one interactions with people to educate them about the animals.

From what I understand, chumming or throwing fish bait into the water are ways to attract sharks to the boat, I understand that this has been made illegal in some places, as a shark biologist do you believe it is this harmful or disruptive to the sharks and if so, why?

No I don’t, but there are some caveats. I believe chumming can be done quite safely, there has been a few studies conducted, specifically in Australia and South Africa, which show very limited long term effects and behavioral changes from chumming activities. However, I don’t believe that chumming should be done in close proximity to recreational swimmers or heavily populated beaches or areas. Regardless of what the science says- in that a sharks long term behavior won’t be affected- its short term behavior can be, so I don’t think we should be exciting the animals or putting them into a feeding state when they may not have been actually been in that state close to shore. There are some areas in South Africa that I think are judgmental to chumming around people, but a majority of places, actually all the places that I have personally worked, chum. But very far away from swimming activities or recreational use of the water. And we do that specifically so that there is no possibility of the two actions being confused. It’s really important to realize that sharks are obviously a predator, they will feed when given the opportunity, and we just need to be smart in what environments we present them with feeding opportunities.

What prevailing beliefs does the general public hold prior to their experience shark diving on a guided expedition?

It depends on what type of animal they are going to go see. Particularly with Great Whites, because we cater to people who don’t have any diving experience, they don’t often have water experience, I don’t know if you know about the cage diving, but anyone can go. You don’t need to be certified, you don’t need to have any experience, the actual diving criteria is actually very limited, so you can enter the water- your in about 6 feet of water, we teach you how to use a regulator, and it’s very, very safe, there are no skills necessary. So on those trips we find a lot of people who are quite scared, we get the people who have phobias of sharks- people have phobias of the water even, the typical Jaws response where they saw the movie as a kid and have always been terrified and have that hatred and fear. That is definitely one part of the demographic. Another side of it is that we get the super shark enthusiasts- people with tattoos all over them of sharks, and they’ve got clothing with sharks and license plates with sharks and everything in their lives is sharks except they’ve never seen one. Seeing a shark is generally more exciting than anything they’ve ever seen before.  So we get the enthusiasts, the super scared, and then you get your pros- your photographers and people who regularly interact with these animals. We get those people with the great whites, but more so in the open water diving expeditions like with the whale sharks or the tiger sharks, we get a lot more experienced, more rational, more acclimatized people because there are generally professionals on those trips. The Great White trips are great social experiments because people from all walks of life- from the super scared to the super pros and you put them all in one mix and they all walk away ecstatic with having that experience and the same level of excitement.

How do their perspectives change after their dive?

The most significant change that we see is in people who come from that scared phobia school of thought. I remember, there was one diver who came out, who was a moderately famous actor and he was being asked to do a movie where he had to be in the water and he was petrified, he didn’t like the ocean, he was scared of sharks and really, really didn’t want to do the film in all that water without facing his fear. He was out there to face his fear and he walked away after a day in the water with the Great Whites wanting to get out of the cage, wanting to be close to these gorgeous animals, he was completely cured. That seems to be fairly common, and this is a common experience shared by the people who are very, very afraid. A lot walk away still very respectful of the animal, but with more of an understanding that it’s not some demon fish, or a vicious killer, or the things they had been led to believe by horrible media. That’s fairly encouraging.

Why do you think this view change occurs?

Change comes from being presented by the truth. Put people in an environment that completely counters the redirect that’s been presented by badly made TV and poor reporting from the media outlets and they are free to make up their own minds. Most of them come to a rational answer and conclusion. I’ve never come across someone who has entered the water with them and turns around and says ‘yes, I’m still absolutely petrified of them, they’re demons and they’re horrible animals’. They all walk away with a new found respect at the very, very least and they are usually very critical of the media who kept them believing and being misinformed for so long that something was the case and just it simply wasn’t. 

 

What can shark tourism do for conservation efforts?

Shark tourism can do a lot. Firstly, it can give people access to make up their own mind. In it’s very, very basic form it’s a business, which enables people to get out in the water, be exposed to sharks, and make up their own minds about the animals. Secondly, it can actually replace traditional methods of making money from the ocean. In some places, the ocean has just been a fishery, where the only source of income is from fishermen going out and killing sharks or killing other fish. But now they realize they can make money by keeping those animals alive, by being in tourism now. That’s also very encouraging when that happens. Tourism can also contribute to science by giving the researchers access to the water, it can also tourism groups will contribute part of their earnings to scientific research, which is quite common. They can also collect data, scientists can’t be on the water all the time and some of the most knowledgeable people about sharks are the tour operators. Even though they might not be quote on quote scientists, but they can make anecdotal sighting data that can contribute to research. In many ways, the more you have got knowledgeable eyes watching a finite resource, the more we can understand that finite resource and that’s really what’s opened up.

How has the media and pop-culture shaped opinions of sharks?

It’s done a lot of negative work over the years. You know the old media story if it bleeds, it leads. Well typically with the sharks, any news worth reporting has been coming with bleeds. So people have been lead to believe that sharks are out to get us, that there are dangerous things in the water, and that has led people to have very negative connotations when they think about sharks. The media very seldom tells the story of why we need them, so when they are constantly confronted with a negative opinion of that animal and no reason for why it needs to be there, it leads people to think ‘if we don’t need them, just wipe them out’. And that’s something that I’m forced to deal with, if not everyday, almost every day and in that sense the media has really done a dwindling population a great disservice, especially by categorizing them all in one lot. As you surely know, there are many species who don’t attack or are not even capable of attack. It’s something like 5% of total species group that attack, the rest are quite benign. But people only think a shark is a shark is a shark and that they need to be wiped out, and that’s really unfortunate.

How can the love of sharks and need to protect them be translated to the general public whom may not have the opportunity to shark dive?

By better media and better understanding and that not only happens on TV or in papers and news articles and stuff like that, it also happens in that type of conversations. I think people who don’t understand the ocean or don’t have access to it need to understand that some activities they do can still negatively affect it. People who eat food, which is harvested by non-sustainable and non-selective means can actually be also be hurting shark population. I think people need to understand more where their resources are coming from and that needs to be conveyed by people who just know better, people like yourself who are interested in discerning the facts rather than a bunch of fiction and teaching people is fundamental thing that needs to happen and a change of thought that needs to happen across an entire population and that’s not a quick thing to happen, unfortunately.

Have you seen a change in public opinion of sharks in recent years? If so, what is that attributed to?

Yeah, I have actually and that’s a slowly occurring but more frequent change and I think its happing on all levels- a lot of conservation groups which are doing work in the media, the social media side of things has really helped- you know, a lot of people having access through news feeds and statuses and petitions and that all that type of thing. That does have a nock on effect eventually, and so, I am seeing more and more of the positive articles coming out weather they be behavioral based saying, “hey sharks aren’t all that bad” or weather it being conservation based and saying, “we have a problem here and this is what we can all do to fix it”. There is a growing side which is changing, there is no way to actually say the cause of this is one thing because it happing on all aspects. We’ve got celebrities talking about sharks, we’ve got global groups talking about sharks, we’ve got locals on indigenous islands who are protecting their waters and their resources specifically because of sharks and the value of having sharks live in their oceans. It’s very encouraging. 

What benefits has your film SharkDiver had on the public?

Actually we didn’t get to complete the project, unfortunately, but our initial goal was to put a different spin on the shark story and to show the passion people have for sharks. The feedback I get from that is always very much the same, that we managed to show sharks in a very beautiful light while still giving the animal respect. We wanted to not go down the shark “huggie” trail where you get people who say, “sharks are our friends and they’re not trying to bite us and their all lovely” and that type of dial up to me is just nonsense because its not true, their a predator and we need to understand that, they defiantly aren’t our friends and they don’t like to cuddle as some people try to say, but on the other hand they’re not a monster and we need to give them their respect and show them in that light. I think it’s perceived in exactly the right way, and we really portrayed them in the way that I wanted to show them in that we portrayed the passion that not only I have, but a great number of people that I know who really feel a passion for these animals and the environment and the need to go out and explore more and see more of them and interact more. So the feedback has been quite positive and I’d like to do more projects like that. 

Learn more about Luke Tipple at luketipple.com

Photos from Google and Luketipple.com 

~ST

Why people fear sharks

Did you know people didn't always fear sharks?

In ancient times, Pliny The Elder described the canis marinus (shark) in his Natural History as “just as afraid of man as man is of it”. In fact, even the name he uses to describe the animal has a much different meaning than the term ‘shark’ that is used today. Canis marinus translates to ‘dog of the sea’ and was the primary word used in Europe for sharks throughout the Middle Ages. Using the term ‘dog’ suggests this beast is common and familiar, it was not until the sixteenth century when new words emerged to describe sharks in European languages: in Spanish, tiburón; in French, requin; and in English, shark that the connotations of ‘dog’ were discarded, allowing sharks to be reimagined as terrible monsters of the deep.

So how did we go from associating sharks with this:

To this:

It was not until 1916 that sharks became known as 'man-eaters'

On July 1, 1916 Charles Vansant, a 25 year old vacationing with his family in New Haven, went for a swim accompanied by his red Chesapeake Bay retriever. “As Charles swam toward shore, a bystander on the beach noticed something odd. A dark fin appeared in the water behind the young man… Someone on the beach cried across the waves, ‘Watch out! Watch out!’… The great jaws rose from the water, a white protective membrane rolled over the eyes, fifty triangular teeth closed with more than six tons of pressure per square inch, and the man and fish splashed in the spreading pool of blood”. Charles was pulled from the water by a lifeguard, but at 6:45pm, he died of shock and hemorrhaging.

On July 6^th, 25 years old Charles Bruder, the bell captain of the Essex and Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake, was attacked by the predator and lost large portions of both his legs and died of severe blood loss. 

On July 12^th, 11-year-old Lester Stilwell was attacked and killed by the shark while swimming in Matawan Creek with some other boys. Lester was believed to have drowned by the townspeople despite the other boys’ tale of the man-eating villain. Stanly Fisher went diving to rescue Lester’s body from the creek; as soon as Fisher located the body and dove to retrieve he called out “He got me!” A disturbance in the water and a huge tail was all that was seen of the stealthy killer as Fisher fought to escape. Fisher managed to get to shore, but he had lost a large portion of his right thigh and died from massive blood loss and hemorrhagic shock. That same day, 12-year-old Joseph Dunn was also attacked while swimming in the creek. Luckily, two men in motorboats saw the attack and rushed to the boys aid and were able to pull the boy to safety. Joseph survived with amputation of his left lower leg. 

Two days after the fifth attack, an 8.5-foot white shark was caught in Raritan Bay, about 4 miles from the mouth of Matawan Creek. Dr. Frederick Lucas examined the beast’s stomach contents and found a shinbone what appeared to be part of a human rib. No further attacks occurred and it was widely assumed that this was the creature responsible for the recent attacks.

Pop-culture immortalizes the fear of the Jersey Shore Attacks when Jaws is released in 1975

The Jersey Shore Attacks inspired Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws, which was later made into a film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film uses several techniques to allow the audience to make parallels to their own lives and experiences, which created the feeling that a shark could attack anyone on any shoreline. Jaws deliberately provokes emotion, but the audience suspends reality and completely immerses themselves into the story because they have identified with the characters and are committed to their survival as if it were themselves who were in peril. Humans are no longer running from saber tooth tigers, but the fight or flight mechanism still exists. Jaws extracts that primal fear of being hunted and eaten alive and people took the threat very seriously. 

Why are people afraid of sharks?

Most people describe the fear of the unknown, the fear of what is out of their control, and the fear of being eaten alive. From fear, attitudes are developed. Attitudes are described as, “a mental and neutral state of readiness organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”. Attitudes cause a person to make opinions and conclusions without actually taking into account factual information.

Attitudes towards sharks are enhanced and reconfirmed by the media through frequent images of shark attacks. The media reports stories that arouse emotions, particularly of fear. Another technique the media uses is repetition. Lead stories are often sensational and showed over and over, the more often people see something (such as a news story) about a particular topic (such as shark attacks) the person believes this is a common occurrence and that it is a threat. 

In the summer of 2001, the media heavily reported three shark attacks along the US coast and caused hysteria with no actual factual basis. In fact, 2001 was an average year for shark attacks in the United States and was below average by international standards. Even current television programs, such as Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, reconfirm viewers’ preconceived ideas by devoting a large portion of their programming to attacks and images of White Sharks jumping out of the water as they attack prey or causing the animals to go into a feeding frenzy rather than showing them in their natural state or educating the public about the reality of these extraordinary beings.

~ST