With much excitement, we would like to announce the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation as our first Featured Donor. This exciting partnership boosters RJD educational outreach efforts and advances the RJD research sector. In 2011, GHOF awarded funding to RJD for the research project “Assessing the Cascading Ecosystem Impacts of Marine Apex Predator Declines.”

“The ocean’s top predators are under unprecedented pressure from unsustainable fishing practices and changes in the ocean chemistry”, says world renowned marine artist and biologist Dr. Guy Harvey. “Dr. Hammerschlag’s research will give us great insight into how their removal will impact the entire marine ecosystem.” This project builds on previous research funded by the GHOF to promote the conservation and enhancement of the world’s pelagic fisheries.

Guy’s vision for his foundation resonates strongly with the efforts of the RJD Program. Together, these organizations are working to secure a brighter future for our oceans and the communities that depend on them.

The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation will help ensure that future generations will enjoy and benefit from a naturally balanced ocean ecosystem where fish and other marine wildlife flourish. Through the support of the Foundation’s visionary friends, leading scientists will develop new strategies for sensible fisheries management, encouraging the cooperation of commercial and recreational fishers, and educators will create novel instructional programs to stimulate future scientists and new stewards of the marine environment.

Congratulations and thank you for your ongoing support of RJD and leadership within the marine conservation community.

For more information on the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, please visit their website.

Each month, SRC will be honoring an artist whose work strives to raise ocean awareness, inspire a conservation ethic, and captivate audiences worldwide.

This month, we honor Jim Abernethy – award-winning underwater photographer, filmmaker, author, shark ecotour pioneer, and passionate conservationist. His shark encounter expeditions are like no other, and come with strong recommendations from all SRC staff, students and volunteers who have accompanied any of his trips.

Below is an excerpt from Jim’s website, highlighting a few of his numerous accomplishments:

Jim Abernethy, award-winning underwater photographer, filmmaker, and author, is a pioneer in shark encounters, without a cage. Starting at a young age, scuba diving served as an inspiration for his life’s mission as a conservationist and has enabled him to interact with some of the most notorious sharks. For decades, he has been running photography/video expeditions to engage with the world’s largest predatory sharks-Abernethy pioneered shark encounters without a cage (day and night) with tiger sharks, great hammerheads, oceanic white tips, bull, and lemon sharks. It should be noted that Jim is best known as an extremely passionate crusader for their protection.

His award-winning marine life images are often featured in top photography magazines such as Wetpixel and Nature’s Best Photography. Jim lives at sea, in the Bahamas, running shark expeditions and wild dolphin encounters year round on his boat, “Shear Water.” His dive business, Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures Inc., is based in West Palm Beach, FL.

Abernethy has hosted many of the world’s top nature filmmakers and magazines such as IMAX, National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Animal Planet, and the Discovery Channel. He owns the “Marine Life Art Gallery” in West Palm Beach, FL, where his captivating images and educational books are available. When he’s not below sea level, Jim is often seen piloting his flying inflatable boat (ultra-light), “Oversear,” in order to capture nature at sea with his lens from an aerial perspective.

While Abernethy is well known as a photographer and passionate conservationist, it’s his unique ability to bring divers up close to some of the world’s largest predatory sharks, turning them into strong passionate ambassadors to save them, which sets him apart from all others. His relentless pursuit of his life’s mission is to save the planet’s ocean creatures, starting with sharks, through his photography, books, films, and presentations.

For more information on Jim’s expeditions, please visit: http://www.scuba-adventures.com/

To view his photography gallery, please visit: http://www.jimabernethyimagery.com/

Congratulations Jim, and thank you for your sharing your radiate passion for our oceans.

Although we use specialized fishing gear designed to minimize bycatch, we do occasionally catch large predatory animals other than sharks. This beautiful goliath grouper, more than six feet long and estimated at over 300 pounds, was caught last weekend. As goliath grouper are a Critically Endangered species (according to the IUCN Red List) and are protected by both state and Federal rules, we released it immediately. RJD media specialist Christine Shepard took this picture as the grouper was swimming away.

3/3/2012

So, when I started working with the RJ Dunlap Program, back when we were still the South Florida Student Shark Program, are team was essentially all girls, except for Dr. H and Capt. Curt… sorry guys! Now, we’ve brought in quite a couple of our male counterparts, and yes, it has proved a great advantage and they have added IMMENSELY to our program BUT can I just say how awesome it was for us to dominate not only a usual 46ft scuba boat but a brand-spankin’ new 61ft beaut our wonderful Capt. Curt has provided us with? The lovely ladies of Our Lady of Lourdes High School, an all girls private school, and Miss Sara Brenes, local Shark Saver (doing some incredible things in the world of shark advocacy) were here to join us today, allowing us to truly strut our girl power.

Everyone was incredible. Everyone helped pull up lines, everyone worked fast, efficiently and correctly on every endeavor of the day. It was truly AWESOME. I’ve had the pleasure of working with these girls last year when we did an overnight trip to Broad Key, but I was honestly surprised at how much they remembered, not only of their duties to be performed that day, but the array of knowledge of our current research they had collected since last time. So today, yes, everyone was on top of they’re game. Some girls even got on top of their shark… Needless to say, we did get some bites.

 

Read more