Carl Safina

  Carl Safina prepares to release a mako shark he has just tagged. Photo: D. Nemerson A bit of a splash erupted on the Web yesterday in the form of photos showing a boat displaying two hammerheads. One was a shark. The other was the celebrity, Rosie O’Donnell. The Web quickly lit up with attacks [...]

Guest Blog By Demian D.F. Chapman Tens of millions of sharks are killed each year to satisfy the demand for the Asian delicacy shark fin soup, a level of fishing that is not sustainable for most shark species given that they reproduce more like mammals than other fish. Upcoming decisions to monitor global trade in [...]

Yesterday the Associated Press ran a story about the Western Pacific nation of Palau, who announced today at the United Nations its ban of shark fishing. Carl Safina reflects on how shark populations have plummeted over the years and that Palau is making groundbreaking efforts to reverse this tragic trend: I and everyone I’ve ever [...]

 Our plan is to look at coral reef protection with a focus on sharks.  We’re going to spend a little time in Belize.  First we’ll go to a fish market, then to a protected atoll called Glover’s Reef.  We’ll be filming part of a pilot for a TV series called “Saving the Ocean, with Carl [...]

We’re headed in. Several of us stayed up until midnight last night, chumming for sharks and jigging for Humboldt Squid, and we caught exactly one of the former (a small Blue) and two of the latter. That might seem slow but the night was lovely and lots of small fish and a few smallish squid, [...]

Makos in the north, baby Blue Sharks in the South. That’s part of the pattern we’re seeing. Yesterday morning, our first set—in 900 meters of water only about 15 miles from Santa Monica Bay—garnered a Shortfin Mako of about 200 pounds and a five-foot Blue Shark. The Mako—a tough customer—got outfitted with the two kinds [...]

We’re now off Anacapa Island, under the first blue sky all week. Mainland mountains are just visible in the haze. Last night we spent a couple of hours jigging for Humboldt Squid and caught two “small” ones that were the largest squid I’ve ever seen alive. Today, no fewer than three of the Makos we [...]

DAY FOUR Just a few miles away, the high-rising shoulders of Catalina lost themselves in low-hanging overcast. The dawn sea looked pewter—moody and lovely. Fishing was excellent but catching was slow, to paraphrase an old joke. Our morning haul-back brought just two small Blue Sharks. We did see an Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) and glimpsed [...]

The day dawned on a calm and overcast morning, my favorite sea weather, easier on the eyes than a million shards of sunlight shining like broken glass up from the water. We’ve moved to a spot about eight miles southeast of Catalina. Where we fish is pre-determined by a sampling regime, not necessarily because we’re [...]

We’re still operating near San Clemente Island, between 5 and 10 miles from the shore. We’ve seen some Bottlenose Dolphins and distantly breaching whales. These waters between the islands and mainland, relatively sheltered as they are and well-lardered with small prey like mackerel and squids, serve as nursery to the sharks we seek. We set [...]