In the Path of Traditional Shark Fisherman

One of the things I really care about is Wildlife and Nature Conservation, in particularly the Oceans, and my most favorite animal is a shark. That is why many of my journeys are not as you might think about diving with sharks or filming them, instead I had this feeling couple years ago that rather enjoying them in person I want to help them survive as species. Sharks in Peril.

This is not the story about what happened and why, it is just a piece of the puzzle that suppose to portrait of what we had to experience on a personal level. How important it was to understand what is really going on around us and in our heads.

Oceanic Black-tip Shark in the wild

Bull sharks fished out by Cars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkb2KwClEKM

Beach Shark Fishing, long nets with trawling weights are distributed around the beach by boats then hauled and pulled back by cars.
This kind of fishing takes out everything in their way, turtles, snakes, corals, fish — nothing is able to escape.

Shark on the picture is a pregnant female Bull Shark with 3 or more dead pups in her belly.

Tuna fishing in Indian Ocean — Traditional Shark fisherman in Oman are usually coming from families which are in the industry for many generations, following the footsteps of their ancestors. From father to oldest son, the command of the ship and responsibility not only for the vessel but to feed and sustain the whole family, usually reaching up to 20 to 30 people.

In Picture is the Captain of such operation, a younger son from the shark fisherman family. He is trying to catch a tuna, to honor a guest staying at his boat, a celebratory event for Muslims, especially those being out at sea for months without any options to leave it behind.

The Main vessel, not in picture is a wooden ship (A dow) with 5 to 10 crew man from Bangladesh, the Omani are the owners and managers while the hard work is on many places in Oman left to Muslims from former India, like Bangladesh or Pakistan.

A fisherman deck-hand from Bangladesh — he works in Oman to sustain his family back home which he haven’t seen in months

https://vimeo.com/40093698

Following is my reaction to experiencing all this, something moved that day and I wasn’t really the same from that day on.

Something shifted that day

I cried a minute after I finished filming the beating of the sharks by our hosts. I tried to hide it, you never know what reaction they might have being on a open ocean after all. When we came back to the main boat I took this picture of me.

One day I hope I’ll manage to tell this story and many others how they really should be told, but after two years of trying there is no hope for us to publish this story. It all started with a rumour on facebook that there are killing Sharks by beating them to death with a club over head, I didn’t believe it, yet I ended up finding it.

The problem with nightmares is when they become real, they will never stop hunting you.

Documentary Film and Photography Credits (c) Jan Husar / PSnine.org — Transterra Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puORLFECQ7w

UPDATE: 5th August 2014 — Video, Killing Sharks — There is no Excuse

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