All posts tagged: sharks

PWC Ocean Awareness Week: Saving Sharks

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PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) kicks off their second annual Ocean Awareness Week on Sunday, 19th November 2017.  In the spirit of ocean advocacy PWC’s employees are showing their love for the ocean and commitment to ocean awareness by competing with one another in a series of Ocean Friendly Challenges.  Bonus! This year, they are extending an invitation to community of the Cayman Islands to take the challenge to raise ocean awareness whether as an individual, with friends and family or with your colleagues.  In addition, PWC’s Ocean Awareness Week would like to use this opportunity to raise awareness for sharks.  In particular, they would like to highlight the dedicated hard work and commitment to protect sharks by the Cayman Islands Department of Environment through their Cayman Islands Shark Project. Cayman Islands Shark Project By Dept. of Environment and Marine Conservation International. The Cayman Islands Sharks Project provides information leading to a greater understanding, both locally and regionally, of the need to conserve these species and the environment on which they depend. With the help of acoustic tags, …

A Call to Action: Help Shark Conservation. Adopt a Shark.

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As custodians of our stunning coral reefs and charismatic marine life, for over 30 years the Cayman Islands Department of Environment (DOE) has been protecting our island’s precious marine environment by establishing marine parks. Since 2015, the DOE increased marine protection by designating Cayman’s waters as a sharks and rays sanctuary, under the National Conservation Law. In part of DOE’s shark conservation efforts, shark research is an ongoing project to gather data about Cayman’s shark populations and monitor their behavior and patterns. Additionally, CayBrew’s Whitetip Fund supports DOE’s shark project with a focus on tagging sharks to improve shark research and conservation efforts in the Cayman Islands. The shark project utilizes four methods as a means to comprehensively gather pertinent data about Cayman’s sharks. The methods used are: tagging with an acoustic transmitter, BRUV (baited remote underwater video) surveys, photo identification of individual sharks and shark sighting logging. To read more about this ongoing project click here Sharks are of significant value to our coral reefs and other marine environments. According to a report by …

Sharks of the Cayman Islands

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The Cayman Islands are known for being a popular diving destination in the Caribbean with over 365 dive sites. Some of the main attractions of dive sites in the Cayman Islands include wreck diving at famous shipwrecks such as, the Kittiwake, the Balboa, the Oro Verde as well as our biodiverse reefs. In order to help maintain our status as a diving destination hotspot, the Cayman Islands for over 30 years, has been protecting its marine life and reefs with Marine Parks. In 2015, the Cayman Islands increased their ocean conservation as the National Conservation Law effectively put protection measures in place for sharks and rays. Sharks are an apex predator, at the top of the marine food chain, as a result they regulate the species at lower down the chain levels, helping to keep marine ecosystems such as reefs balanced. Sharks therefore are a considerable asset to our islands reefs and other marine ecosystems. Additionally, sharks are beneficial to ecotourism as many visiting snorkelers and divers are keen to see large charismatic marine life, …

Working with Sharks

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Ever wondered what it would be like to be a shark researcher for a day? Today’s feature is a Q&A with Johanna Kohler, Shark Project Research Officer at the Cayman Islands Department of Environment.  Johanna Kohler is an accomplished Marine Biologist, specializing in shark behavior and ecology, currently based in the Cayman Islands. She has gained valuable experience from both, working and traveling, all over the world, giving her an impressive portfolio in the field. As an advocate for ocean conservation, Johanna Kohler is passionate about protecting and preserving sharks. Her respect and love for sharks is evident through her commitment to study sharks in order to gain valuable insight for the betterment of shark conservation. Sharks are majestic creatures that have unfortunately been misunderstood. As a result sharks are mostly portrayed in a negative light, resulting in them being wrongly feared. In actuality what we should be afraid of is an ocean without sharks, not an ocean with sharks. Sharks play a vital role in regulating the health of the ocean and keeping marine …

Spotted: Shark Conservation in Action

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In 2009, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment (DOE), in partnership with Marine Conservation International (MCI), began studying Cayman’s sharks.  This initiative was originally sponsored by a UK Darwin Plus grant and by CayBrew’s, Whitetip Fund.  The Darwin Plus project has recently concluded and subsequently, since the beginning of the year, the project is now fully supported locally by CayBrew’s Whitetip Fund and continues to focus on improving shark research and conservation efforts in Cayman. In recent developments and in part due to the hard work and efforts of both DOE and MCI, sharks and rays were included as totally protected species in the December 2013, National Conservation Law the provisions of that law effectively make the waters of the Cayman Islands a shark and ray sanctuary, since April 2015.  Shark research continues in order to monitor Cayman’s shark populations.  The research helps to better understand our sharks and the threats they face which results in better informed management decisions and ultimately more effective protection and conservation.  Providing a safe haven is key to effective …

The Cayman Islands: A Haven for Sharks & Rays

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Photo Credit: Ellen Cuylaerts The Cayman Islands has built its name and reputation primarily on being a renowned diving destination.  Pioneers in our local diving community over the last few decades contributed to building our diving industry into the premier operation that it is today.  They recognized the exquisite beauty our underwater landscape had to offer and have since then made it accessible for locals and tourists to recreationally experience and explore the beauty that lies below the surface for themselves.  With a desire to showcase our natural resources comes with a commitment to preserve them.  Our duty towards conservation for both land and the ocean is beneficial not just from an environmental perspective but also an economic one.  Our tourism industry is strongly tied to our island’s natural resources.  Ergo, an obvious reason to ensure that our natural resources are protected.  Last year on Earth Day (2015), the Cayman Islands officially became a Sharks and Rays Sanctuary.  The sanctuary expands across all three islands.  This is a positive step towards ecotourism as many tourists …