Recently, just last August, Shark Rescue joined the mounting chorus, a new kid on the block that launched their activities by “drawing a line in the sand from the heart of the shark-fin trade to the [Hong Kong] Government House.” That line in the sand was when Shark Rescue’s founder, Ran Elfassy, submitted his first call to action.

“What people don’t realize,” said Ran as he stepped through the crowds in his shark costume, “is the sheer magnitude of the shark trade. It’s big business with highly-invested interests clinging to keep the business alive and well. But,” continued Ran, “this industry is big money with a side that’s simply impoverishing things for everyone.”

Standing in his silver costume, arms bound to his side as an echo of the millions of shark carcasses discarded by an insatiable trade, Ran eyes the shops behind him, chock-a-block on Des Voeux Road. Each store is packed with burlap bags of fins, each shop a warehouse of expensive and profitable shark cartilage.

“This is it,” he continued, heading towards an establishment called Shark Fin City, “this district is the heart of this unsustainable action.” Hong Kong is undoubtedly the major player in the shark-fin trade, as a 2007 report found that over 55% of the shark fin trade passed through the Chinese metropolis.

Not only is the city a huge consumer of shark fin and other shark products, but the Asian powerhouse is the greatest engine driving the shark trade. “Which is why Shark Rescue was founded,” explained Ran. “I looked at where I was, asking myself what activity would have the greatest strategic impact in marine conservation.

By using sharks as a proxy for marine conservation in such a strategically important place, our mission of bringing real conservation to the world’s seas and oceans has the greatest chance of success.”

Walking from storefront to storefront, pausing in many to raise his silent protest, Ran faced retailers who lacked the values of conservation that would make such a trade impossible. “Although this street is arguably ‘ground zero’ of the shark trade,” mused Ran as he left the district to head for the Government House, “Shark Rescue is not limited to the activities in Hong Kong. Part of our mandate is also to raise awareness that the West is also guilty of decimating sharks.” Ran noted that if shark fin was arguably a cultural practice that Asian cuisine had to drop, so too did the fish-”n-chip shops in the UK, Australia and elsewhere. Too often, the “fish” at the fish-”n-chip shop is flake or so-called reef-cod – AKA shark meat. Then there’s the substantial shark oil and other derivatives for supplements, shark teeth for fashion and more.

As Ran conducted his one-man protest from Des Voeux Road to the government house, he came face to face with Hong Kong office workers, each in their own world and sometimes faced with a man painted and grey, silently reminding anyone who would see him of a grim reality often carried out at sea in the name of a banquet, a festive meal, a celebration.

Walking through down town, Shark Rescue’s spokesman finally alighted at the steps of the Government House, where he submitted the first of Shark Rescue’s many calls to action. At the heart of Shark Rescue’s “fashion with teeth” campaigns is the simple message to the city’s leader: Please do the right thing and lead Hong Kong towards protecting sharks and the health of our oceans.

By Delian Gaskellhttp://www.sharkrescue.com/

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The Sand Tiger sharks form part of the 33,000 expected population of aquatic animals in Dubai Aquarium. Also known as Grey Nurse sharks, Sand Tiger sharks are large bodied animals, reaching up to 11 feet (3.5 metres). They are a docile, non-aggressive species. These sharks can grow up to 30,000 needle-like teeth in their lifetime which they use to grab small prey. They are found in warm or temperate waters throughout the world’s oceans, except the eastern Pacific and have a tendency towards shoreline habitats.

Mr Yousif Al Ali, General Manager, The Dubai Mall, said:

‘With the largest viewing panel in the world, Dubai Aquarium is a fascinating attraction that will appeal to visitors. Apart from its leisure aspect, the aquarium will also educate visitors on the fascinating array of aquatic life. The Sand Tiger sharks are among the 85 species to be hosted in the aquarium.’

Mr Paul Hamilton, Curator of Dubai Aquarium said: ‘Total care was taken in the transportation of the sharks which are now adapting to their new environment. The management of marine species for Dubai Aquarium involves careful logistical planning and we are working with a highly qualified and vastly experienced staff. Sand Tiger sharks are amazing creatures and their arrival to the aquarium marks a major milestone for the project.’

The methodology employed in transporting, housing and maintaining the selected species within Dubai Aquarium comply with all relevant international and regional government permits, including CITES. The planning and setting up of Dubai Aquarium is in accordance with the guidelines of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), and abides by a comprehensive Code of Ethics and Animal Care with respect to the acquisition and display of the selected species.

Other attractions at The Dubai Mall will include the region’s first SEGA indoor theme park covering 76,000 sp ft; the world’s largest indoor gold souk with 220 retailers; a 440,000 sq ft fashion precinct with 70 flagship stores dedicated to haute couture; the Middle East’s first Galeries Lafayette department store; KidZania, a 80,000 sq ft children’s ‘edu-tainment’ centre; a 22-screen Cineplex; an Olympic-size ice rink; and The Grove, an indoor-outdoor streetscape with fully retractable roof.

Christopher Tallman, 34, from San Francisco, California, was retrieved from beneath the boat by divers.

He had a pulse when brought ashore, but could not be resuscitated.

Casey Scott LaJeunesse, 35, from the American state of Maine, and 37-year-old Kenneth Roque, from Moss, Norway, were pronounced dead when rescuers brought them ashore.

Tallman and LaJeunesse, had been in South Africa for about a week and had planned to fly home today, said a friend, Jeandrë Horn, a systems analyst living in Pretoria.

Horn met LaJeunesse about two years ago when they worked together on a project in Angola.

He said LaJeunesse loved South Africa and had visited many times, last week bringing along his best friend from the United States, Tallman.

Horn was on holiday with the pair, but said he opted out of the shark-diving trip because he tended to become seasick.

His friends, however, were excited about shark-diving.

“We were up (on Saturday night) talking about this until two or three in the morning.”

Horn said LaJeunesse was an honest, career-driven person who loved to travel, “just an all-around great guy, very loved by his family and all his friends”.

Tallman “was a great person as well, very funny and intelligent”.

Officials at the American consulate-general said they were in touch with Tallman and Lajeunesse’s families and working on arrangements for the handling of their remains.

According to the Norwegian embassy, the family of Roque was in shock and had not yet decided what should be done with the body.

As is customary, three inquest dockets have been opened.

They are being investigated by the Gansbaai police.

Shark Team was righted using a crane in Gansbaai harbour on Sunday night and taken by trailer to Kleinbaai, where the shark-diving operator White Shark Projects was based, said Mariette Hopley, industry spokesperson and chairperson of the Great White Shark Protection Foundation.

The boat had been inspected on Monday by the SA Maritime Safety Authority, police and an insurance broker, Hopley said.

brian.indrelunas@inl.co.za

This food is meant for the yellowtail and the sea bass — the Aquarium of the Pacific feeds sharks via poles from dry land, not wanting them to associate divers with food for obvious reasons — but this particular leopard shark is having none of it.

It circles the professor in a ravenous reverie. Prods her with its nose. Pushes her with its body. Then, to her great surprise, it slithers insistently beneath the belt of her dive vest which holds her oxygen tank hoping a face-to-face appeal will change her mind. Professor and fish are strapped together in a strange embrace, wriggling in the chilly waters of the Blue Cavern exhibit as a cloud of fish engulfs them.

“They really beat me up today!” Ilona Federenko says later, peeling off her dripping dive hood. “I’ve never had that happen before.”

Ah! Diving with sharks. What better way to relax?

The link between stress and bad health is conventional wisdom. But Federenko, an assistant professor in UC Irvine’s psychology and social behavior department, wants to understand the nature of that link — exactly how stress leads to what scientists call “negative health outcomes” and what role genes play in our ability to weather crises.

Federenko was born in Schwelm, a small town in western Germany that boasts it’s home to the world’s oldest piano manufacturer. Her father was a train conductor. The family traveled often. Federenko loved foreign languages and was curious about what made people tick.

She studied at the University of Trier and gravitated to psychology. Researchers there were probing stress; curious Federenko was keen to do some research. Soon she developed expertise in the fine art of inducing anxiety in the name of science.

It was about this time that she vacationed in Australia, home to the Great Barrier Reef. In those gorgeous, crystalline waters were whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles and more than 1,500 fish species. Federenko, however, was a landlubber. That alluring, mysterious, underwater world was beyond her reach.

That, she decided, would change.

Drawn to the deep

Federenko returned to Germany and began scuba certification classes — in cold, dark lakes where stones and cans far outnumbered fish. It was bizarre, this weightless, silent, nearly sightless world. It was disorienting when you considered not only what was in front of and behind you, but also what was above and below you. To think in three dimensions.

When she returned to the Great Barrier Reef, the effort paid off. Beneath the waves she discovered an entirely different universe, a treasure chest of jewel-toned fish and lacy coral and spears of sunlight slicing through an awesome blue — a universe that was stunning, breathtaking, overwhelming, serene.

Once, off the Monterey coast, a playful seal turned the tables and made her the object of curiosity. It followed her everywhere, like a wide-eyed, inquisitive, underwater cat.

After diving, she felt drained. Happy. It was a great stress reliever.

Federenko earned her doctorate in psychobiology in 2003 and came to America to do postdoctoral work on stress and pregnancy at UCI Medical Center. When a position opened in UCI’s department of psychology and social behavior, she became an assistant professor.

Federenko’s move west was, well, stressful. She didn’t know anyone in Orange County. She figured she would volunteer to help meet people, which led to the Aquarium of the Pacific. There, fish had to be fed by hand — slower ones would never eat otherwise. Animals had to be observed, so injured fish could get to the vet. Artificial coral had to be scrubbed clean — with toothbrushes, no less. The aquarium has a cadre of 160 rescue-certified volunteer divers, and dives occur every day of the week. Federenko joined them.

That was three years ago. But most Saturdays, Federenko can still be found submerged in a tank at the aquarium. She and her teammates do five dives each afternoon, feeding, observing, scrubbing.

Some might find diving with sharks stressful. Or consider it an opportunity for more research. Not Federenko. This is pure, unadulterated fun. There are no lecture halls of demanding undergraduates here. No studies to design, no permissions to obtain, no numbers to interpret. It’s all about this fistful of food and getting it into that fish’s gob.

It’s about freeing the mind from everyday worries. A key, clearly, to stress management and better health.

Federenko does not consider herself a mellow person. In addition to diving, she seeks serenity through yoga, long walks on the beach and the wisdom of her two cats. “They just lie down in the sun,” she says. “There’s a lot you can learn from them.”

The most recent shark attack occurred last weekend near Bellow Beach in Hawaii, where Harvey Miller, 36, felt something grab his left leg while he was snorkeling. Miller, who was rescued from the ocean by an onlooker, survived the attack.

“But we are just now getting into the summer season when we get the most activity between humans and sharks,” said Burgess. “We have been averaging 61 to 62 attacks per year for the last five years.”

Four fatalities resulted from 44 shark attacks last year, according to Burgess’ International Shark Attack File.

If you consider how many humans enter the water annually, relative to the level of reported shark attacks, these numbers are not that alarming, experts say.

“When you consider the great numbers of human beings in the water on any given day and the large number of shark predators that are in the same water, it’s actually very surprising there aren’t more incidents every year,” said Dr. Robert Hueter, director of The Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory. “I think that’s just proof that sharks aren’t targeting human beings because if they were, they must not be very good at it.”

Alarming or not, everyone seems to have sharks on the brain at this time of year, thanks to the annual onset of shark attack stories in the media and popular television programming like the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

Despite people’s perpetual fear of the animals, experts told ABC News that sharks are largely misunderstood.