Most trek to Palau to behold beneath its sea. Become a certified diver? Check. My EPA dive team colleagues warned it would be hard to top, until I\u2019m diving off Massachusetts this summer I can\u2019t say, but I\u2019ve likely been completely spoiled.<\/p>\n
I started caring about animals far earlier than usual. Natural instincts were supplemented by growing up outside catching pollywogs, and when indoors, watching a 1980s, taped, National Geographic special on whales and sharks, incessantly\u2026 (Where scientists test which wetsuit colors attract Jaws the most, I think it was a tie, and divers caress sleeping Tiger sharks?!) While Palau didn\u2019t have whales, it is the first country to create a shark sanctuary throughout its marine territory; and thank goodness.<\/p>\n
We probably saw 50 sharks on the trip, I lost count. White tip, black tip, grey reef! I never felt threatened as they gently swam by. Diving Blue Corner, seeing these beautiful creatures, catching a glimpse into their behavior, just feet away took my breath away. I wanted to dive deeper and watch them for hours.<\/p>\n
I heard of shark finning, seen atrocious images, but it really hit me there. How unnecessary to destroy these fascinating animals? Palau\u2019s shark population and diversity had been devastated by foreign vessels, but heroic efforts in the community over the past decade helped the government enact some of the toughest shark protection legislation in the world.<\/p>\n
Concerned Palauans had Ron\u2019s Leidich\u2019s<\/a> help (told you he knows his stuff) along with Noah Idechong, Delegate to Palau’s National Congress and founding member of the Palau Conservation Society. Local efforts were aided by the help of Discovery Channel\u2019s \u201cShark Week.<\/a>\u201d Both Ron and marine biologist Ethan Daniels helped the film crew capture the plight of Palau\u2019s threatened shark population by surprising a foreign vessel with holds full of shark carcasses and fins. While it wasn\u2019t yet illegal, the ship falsely declared the cargo as \u201ctuna and other permitted catch\u201d to Palau Customs officials. This captured for the world to see, caused international outcry and support to protect Palau\u2019s top, living, attraction. Dermot Keane, another friendly face at Sam\u2019s Tours<\/a>, who we met after diving went on to launch the Palau Shark Sanctuary<\/a> in November 2001, to continue the fight to end shark finning in Palau and around the world.<\/p>\n About the author: Jeanethe Falvey, EPA New England, on detail, EPA\u2019s Office of Web Communications.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most trek to Palau to behold beneath its sea. Become a certified diver? Check. My EPA dive team colleagues warned it would be hard to top, until I\u2019m diving off Massachusetts this summer I can\u2019t say, but I\u2019ve likely been completely spoiled. I started caring about animals far earlier than usual. Natural instincts were supplemented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}