MORE WILDLY SUCCESSFUL BIG ANIMAL EXPEDITIONS!

'Wildly Successful' pretty much sums up this year so far. Our 2014 expeditions have been wildly successful! As I mentioned in my last update, we found the Killer Whales we were looking for in Norway, we had two amazing Great Hammerhead weeks in the Bahamas and we swam with hunting Sailfish and False Killer Whales in Mexico. Since then. we've added two more great expeditions to our list of successes. Read on to find out more:

SOCORRO & ROCA PARTIDA

We enjoyed a great week of world class encounters at Socorro Island and Roca Partida aboard the MV Southern Sport.

Not only did we see Giant mantas, Galapagos sharks, scalloped hammerheads, silvertips and whitetips in abundance, this year we had an (out of season) whale shark circling Roca Partida to the delight of everyone on the liveaboard. All the action and some great images can be seen here: Socorro and Roca Partida 2014

INSANE TIGER SHARK ACTION AT TIGER BEACH

This was our best year ever for tiger sharks at that infamous sand bank in the northern Bahamas that has come to be known as Tiger Beach. There were so many sharks that it was impossible to keep track of them all but at one point I counted at least 5 tiger sharks, a handful of nurse sharks, more than a dozen lemon sharks and countless Caribbean reef sharks. If you want to see the images of that crazy adventure, please follow this link: Tiger Beach 2014 Trip Report

PREDATORS IN PERIL BAJA 2014

After Tiger Beach we headed down to California and San Felipe in Northern Baja, Mexico. This was partly a scouting trip for California shark species and partly an opportunity for me to take more shark fishing pictures for the Predators in Peril Project.

While in Long Beach, California, I went out chasing makos with expert shark tagger Keith Poe and Captain Chris Wade who will be our host for our California mako shark trip this September. The water was amazingly clear compared to other places where you can sometimes see makos and we saw at least ten different shortfin mako sharks in a single day. It was great trip and I'm looking forward to coming back for our Big Fish Expeditions California Mako Shark Adventure. Join us in Long Beach this September!

After California we continued into Baja. Mexican shark fishermen head out of sleepy San Felipe to gill nest for a number of different food fish. Unfortunately they inadvertently pull up a number of different sharks that they collectively refer to as Cazon or Tollos. The bycatch generally includes a number of smoothhound shark species plus Pacific sharpnose sharks, mall blacktips, juvenile hammerheads and tope (soupfin) sharks.

Some of these species are heavily fished and are in danger of depletion in parts of their range. Our intention was to find out what species they were catching and at what times of year. There is virtually no accessible catch data available so a field trip was the only way to gather this kind of information.

As I have come to expect, the fishermen were cautious but approachable and I managed to talk my way onto one of the fishing boats to get a broader understanding of their efforts. While I was onboard I saw a number of grey smoothhound sharks come up in the nets. Sadly only one was still swimming and after a quick negotiation with the Captain I returned it to the ocean and took a few images as it swam off into the jade green waters of the northern gulf.

We left San Felipe with the intel and contacts we needed to plan a second trip that will hopefully result in some images of new species and the release of far more sharks.

A BUSY SUMMER AHEAD!

May will be a busy month at Big Fish Expeditions HQ on Vancouver Island because at the beginning of June we launch into an insane summer season of back to back shark trips. Here is the run down if you are looking for a great adventure:

FALSE BAY SHARK SAFARI June 1-8. 1 SPOT AVAILABLE

Flying Great Whites, Sevengill Sharks, Catsharks and Blues and Makos!

THE SOUTH AFRICAN SARDINE RUN June 8-18 4 SPOTS AVAILABLE

Baitball action with Bronze Whalers, Blacktips, dolphins, feeding Brydes Whales and diving birds.

SCOTTISH BASKING SHARKS June 22-28 SOLD OUT

Migrating basking sharks around the Isle of Mull, Scotland.

ALASKAN SALMON SHARKS July 6-12. 1 SPOT LEFT, July 12-18 2 SPOTS LEFT.

Salmon Sharks, Bear watching, Salmon dives and exploratory reef diving in pristine Alaska.

MEXICAN WHALE SHARKS July 20-25 5 SPOTS AVAILABLE. July 25-30 SOLD OUT

The largest aggregation of Whale Sharks on Planet Earth.

CANADIAN BELUGA WHALES August 3-9 2 SPOTS AVAILABLE

Encounters with thousands of friendly Beluga Whales in Hudson Bay.

MEXICAN CROCODILES August 17-23, 24-30. SOLD OUT

Snorkeling with American Crocodile at Chinchorro Banks, Mexico.

CALIFORNIA MAKOS AND BLUES August 31 - September 4. 6 SPOTS AVAILABLE

Makos, Blue Sharks, Angel Sharks, Horn Sharks and More.

THRESHER SHARKS OF MALAPSCUA

As soon as the exhaustion has worn off from our summer expeditions, it'll be time to head to marvelous Malapascua Island in the Philippines. Monad Shoal (a 10min boat ride from tiny Malapascua) is the best location in the world to dive with thresher sharks.

Around Malapscua you can also find whitespotted bamboo sharks, banded bamboo sharks, coral catsharks and all manner of crazy macro critters like pygmy seahorses, blue ringed octopuses, mating mandarinfish and reefs ablaze with beautiful orange soft corals.

As I write this, we have four spot left on the expedition. Join us there! Thresher Shark Expedition.

LOOKING FAR, FAR AHEAD...

In 2015 we'll be back at many of these great locations, starting with another chance to swim with orcas in Norway, cavort with Melonheaded Whales in French Polynesia and enjoy two back to back Great Hammerhead trips in the Bahamas. All of these are either full or almost full so please email us if you'd like to snag one of the last spots.

There are opportunities to enjoy world class big animal dives with us throughout the year as we now have 20 expeditions on the schedule and more in the planning stages! To see what you can join and when, please visit our schedule page: BIG FISH EXPEDITIONS DIVE SCHEDULE

  

  

  

  

  

  

INTRODUCING THE HUMPBACK WHALES OF THE SILVER BANKS

I am very excited to announce that in March 2016 we'll be spending a week swimming with humpback whales and their playful calves at the world famous Silver Banks in the Dominican Republic.

News of the trip has already got out so if you would like to enjoy a world class adventure in the company of whales, please let us know as soon as possible: Humpback Whale Expedition 2016.

That's it from me. Time to break out my drysuit and enjoy some great Vancouver Island kelp forest diving while the visibility is still spectacular.

See you down there,

Andy

Andy Murch is a professional big animal photographer and the founder of BigFishExpeditions.com

New Sharks, New Ideas and a Fin Free Canada

New Sharks, New Ideas and a Fin Free Canada

BREAKING THE MOLD OF TRADITIONAL EXPEDITION COMPANIES

Most companies that run expeditions, find their niche. Its easier to run trips if you go to the same places each year. Thats not why I started Big Fish Expeditions. As I've said many times before: life is short, especially for divers! So rather than taking the easy route (even if its to amazing locations) I'm planning to look for new adventures with new animals every season. The only exception will be Tiger Beach. Its the perfect place to run shark photography workshops and after eight years I still feel that I have lots more to shoot there.

So, for anyone that has been thinking of joining me on one of the adventures listed on BigFishExpeditions.com , be warned! Most of those trips are now a one time opportunity.

In 2013 there will be a brand new selection. Some will be well known destinations like the South African Sharkoholic Tour that I have planned, and some will be so 'off the beaten path' that you may not even recognize the name of the destination.

I can't spill the beans on too many trips yet but in 2013 you can expect expeditions in and around Southern Africa, South America, French Polynesia and the arctic. As the trips take shape, I'll be blogging about each one between now and 2013 So bookmark this page!

NEWS FROM ELASMODIVER: THE DEEP SHARK SHOOT

If we're friends on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/andymurch then you've probably already seen the new shark species on Elasmodiver.com. For the rest of you, a couple of months ago I had the chance to join researcher Edd Brooks from the Cape Eleuthera Institute on an abyssal shark tagging project. It was a great trip that I will talk more about at a later date but from a photography standpoint, I got to jump in with three deepwater shark species and swim them down to depths where they could more easily get back to the abyss. The resulting images are of free-swimming animals that have rarely (if ever) been photographed by a diver. It was a fascinating shoot. You can read the new species accounts and see some of the resulting images here: Gulper shark, Cuban dogfish and Bigeye sixgill shark. Watch out for stories about the project in a couple of forthcoming magazines.

A deep sea Gulper Shark from the Cape Eluethera shoot.

2012 EXPEDITIONS

Malpelo

Many of next year's trips are sold out or almost full. There are two spots left on the Malpelo Shark Safari in February. Malpelo will be extraordinary - big sharks and lots of species including schooling hammers, Galapagos sharks, whitetips, silkies and possibly other requiem shark species and pelagics like whale sharks and giant mantas. Plus we're going at the right time of year to see smalltooth sandtigers which you won't see anywhere else. Here's a great pic of a smalltooth shot at Malpelo last year:

Socorro

The March Socorro Humpback and Manta Expedition has just one spot open. All the info about the humpback whale encounters and the amazing manta and shark diving around Socorro is listed on BigFishExpeditions.com but to make the trip that little bit more special, I've arranged a couple of days diving and accommodation at Cabo Pulmo before we board the boat to Socorro. Cabo Pulmo is a sleepy little village in southern Baja that has the best mobula ray encounters in the world. At that time of year, mobulas school in their hundreds (sometimes thousands) and jump out of the water in acrobatic courting displays.

This isn't actually part of the trip but most of the guests have decided to join me at Cabo Pulmo to chase these dynamic creatures:

Cat Island

The are two spots left on the Cat Island Oceanic Shark Expedition in April. This is unquestionably the best spot in the world for oceanic whitetip shark encounters. As well as scuba diving with oceanics in bottomless blue water, we're going after reef sharks and other inshore species such as tigers and lemons. That will make this a really well rounded trip but the operator recently told me that he has a spot where he thinks we can find silky sharks too. If we get them all, this will go down as one of the most diverse locations for shark diving in the Bahamas. It sounds crazy, but this is my last trip to Cat Island!

Silky Sharks are very curious open ocean sharks.

Isla Mujeres

In July we're heading to Isla Mujeres in Mexico to play with whale sharks. Four spots left right now. I've been amid scores of whale sharks in Holbox which is just down the road from there but I wanted a location with clear blue water, nice hotels, and easy living. If you want to relax and have a world class big animal encounter, this is the place. Whale Shark Expedition

Sharkfest 2012

Sharkfest was featured in the November issue of Scuba Diving Magazine. That generated a lot of interest so the boat is getting full already. This year's film list is looking good too with films from Africa, England, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Indonesia and more. If you haven't been to Sharkfest yet you really need to come sandtiger shark diving in North Carolina with us and enjoy talking sharks and watching brand new shark films with the rest of the shark junkies.

http://bigfishexpeditions.com/sharkfest.html

Sea of Cortes

If you want to see HUMBOLDT SQUID AND FINBACKS, PILOT WHALES & SPERM WHALES all in the same week long expedition, this is your chance. The Sea of Cortez Expedition was amazing last year so I'm running it again. We got to see everything we hoped for plus schooling hammers, whale sharks, hundreds of sea lions and some beautiful Mexican reefs. I've been so busy since this year's trip that I haven't had the chance to load the humboldt squid pics onto Elasmodiver.com until now. But if you want to get a better idea of these magnificent 2m long creatures, follow this link: Humboldt Squid Pictures

Isla Guadalupe

I've added a new trip to the 2012 rosta! Guadalupe Island is so famous among shark divers that it really needs no introduction from me. In September we are going to the best place in the world to see huge great white sharks. Crystal clear blue water, enormous sharks (by September the big females have arrived) and a spectacular backdrop with Guadalupe fur seals and Northern elephant seals. This is going to be a very special trip. The Up Close With Great White Sharks Expedition.

How close do you want to get?

Saving Sharks

Lastly, I wanted to chime in on the shark fin debate in Canada which is where I live. Our Prime Minister Steven Harper recently stated that he is not opposed to the import of shark fins as long as they are killed humanely. That's a very naive opinion expressed by a politician that is either ignorant of the facts or cares more about votes than doing the right thing.
As brutal as shark finning is, the real issue is that we're running out of sharks, not that they're killed in a wasteful, barbaric manner.
Many shark species are on the brink of commercial extinction or have already crossed that line. This is not just a protectionist opinion. Drastic declines in shark numbers have been clearly documented by numerous well respected researchers and independent monitoring agencies around the world.

This is a call to arms to support FIN FREE CANADA. We can't all be banner waving activists but we can all vote for change. Please sign this petition to ban the importation of shark fins into Canada:

http://unitedconservationists.org/what-we-do/fin-free-campaign/sign-the-petition.html

Also, a personal message can got a long way. Mr Harper understandably does not want to ostracize our large oriental community in Canada. However, he needs to be reminded how many votes he'll lose if he doesn't change his stance on this critical subject.

If you're Canadian, please let him know that he will lose your vote over this issue. If you're not, please tell him that the world is watching and is not impressed. Remind him how endangered sharks are and that any fins coming into Canada are not coming from sustainable fisheries regardless of how 'humanely' they are fished.
Please email Mr Harper with your message: pm@pm.gc.ca

For the sharks as always,

Andy Murch

P.S. Expect another blog post very soon with a great new 2012 location. Get ready for the cold when Big Fish Expeditions partners with Whites Manufacturing!

The Shark Tour Blogs: Back to Baja, Great whites and Makos

The Shark Tour Goes Full Circle

September 25, 2009 by sharkdiver

The Shark Tour Goes Full Circle

August 23rd 2009

We made it back to So Cal. After a four day drive across the USA from the far north east to the extreme south west we arrived in San Diego exhausted but ready for some serious shark hunting. I’m happy to say that our camper held up fine even at 12,000ft when we crossed the Rockies. After an epic 24,000km round trip from Southern Baja, up the west coast of California, across to the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, back to the Gulf, up the east coast to the very eastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula in Canada, down to Ontario and diagonally back to the Baja border, our VW (which now has almost 350,000km on the clock) is purring like a kitten.

The night we arrived in San Diego we jumped straight in at La Jolla shores to wash the desert out of our eyes and reacquaint ourselves with the leopard sharks. True to form, there were dozens of leopards swimming around in the surf zone, as well as a bunch of shovelnose guitarfish and some very cute pint sized bat rays.

We spent the next few days trying to figure out where the soupfin sharks were hiding but alas they eluded us. Cryptic reports of sightings came in from a number of local divers but other than a quick glimpse of a shadowy caudal fin, we free dove, scuba dove and snorkeled in vain.

After four days diving the cove our buddy Walter Heim (who I have dubbed ‘the shark whisperer’ because of the subtle way he attracts sharks to his boat) took us out to look for blues and makos. We already had some nice blue shark pics from the beginning of the tour so we were keen to top off our earlier succes with some shortfin mako shots. We spent two calm and sunny days with Walter drifting off the coast of La Jolla. In all, we attracted 3 blues and 2 makos. Not that many sharks compared to the glory days when scores of blue sharks would drive divers from the water but its not always about quantity.

Judging by his scars, one of the blues was a major scrapper. The others were sleek but timid and left even before I had entered the water.

One of the makos was also rather shy but the other was a serious player. It was the type of shark that makes up for every frustrating, half glimpsed, painfully short encounter that you’ve ever had while shark diving.

Initially he was quite shy but once he got used to us he came in close – VERY close. This little mako couldn’t get enough of my camera. I patiently bobbed around on the surface each time he disappeared wondering if he would return. After a minute or two he would show back up and I’d toss him one of the scraps that Walter had supplied me with. Then we’d both race at the bait and the mako would snatch it up and then turn and try to bite my dome port. The images below tell the tale. There are some even closer ones that I’ll share with you after they get published.

After shortfin makos with Walter it was time to go after the big guys with Lawrence Groth. Lawrence pioneered the white shark cage dives at Guadalupe Island and his Shark Diving International trips are probably the best in the world if you want to encounter white sharks. We met up with 13 other like minded shark fans and traveled together down to Ensenada where we boarded the Solmar V.

Guadalupe never disappoints. On this trip the sharks started lunging for the hang baits even before the crew had lowered the cages into the water. There were a few slow periods when the sharks disappeared to investigate other boats but over all the action was intense. On the third and final day, Lawrence’s favorite white shark named Zapata showed up. Zapata is a serious showman. Some white sharks (regardless of their size) are surprisingly timid but Zapata is as bold as his namesake. He repeatedly plowed through the water right next to us demonstrating that he could care less about the bubble blowing monkeys in the little cages. Not surprisingly all of my best images are of him.

In the evenings we had plenty of time to talk sharks among ourselves and enough time to schmooze with some old friends that we found working at the island. White shark researcher Mauricio Hoyos was there for a three month stint conducting his acoustic tagging study. Each year Mauricio lives in an old shack on Prison Beach near where the shark diving boats anchor. He leads a very primitive existence while in the field but he loves what he does and is totally committed to continuing his research into the movements of the sharks around the island.

Nat Geo shooter ABC (Andy Brandy Casagrande) and the crew of the piratical looking Captain Jack were also moored nearby shooting some out of the cage white shark action.

Last December I spent a memorable two weeks working with them in the very same spot so it was great to have a chance to catch up. Andy has an endless supply of shark and other big animal stories and he brought over a copy of his ‘Great White Shark Song’ which features him playing the guitar underwater while swimming next to a white shark. It sounds hokey when put like that but it has a strong conservation message and is well worth watching:

http://www.abc4explore.com/greatwhitesharksong.html

As the cages were loaded back onto the boat I sat and thought about our North American Shark Diving Tour. In the last four months we have driven full circle around most of the continent. We have encountered 33 species of sharks and rays (not including our dip in the Georgia Aquarium). We have collected an impressive variety of elasmobranch images including flying mobula rays, mating round stingrays, enormous whale sharks, tiny deep sea catsharks and two species of sharks that have never been photographed in the wild before.

We have met and worked with hundreds of people including divers, researchers and fishermen and seen sharks in all their splendour and witnessed their plight first hand. We have learned a lot and have been able to tell everyone that would listen about the problems of over fishing and the fragile state of North America’s shark populations. It has been an amazing adventure.

Officially, the North American Shark Tour is now over. But, in the greater context, the shark tour started long before we set out from southern Baja and it will never really end. The quest for images of rare and endangered sharks and rays has defined my role on this planet for the better part of a decade and if I can sell enough images to keep us solvent I expect that we will continue to chase illusive sharks for many years to come.

Right now we are on Catalina Island hunting for Pacific torpedo rays and working out a game plan for the next few months. Pretty soon we will head north to the beaches near Santa Barbara to take another look for swell sharks and angels. Then we’re driving up to Monterey, Elkhorn Slough and San Fransisco Bay to see if we can photograph grey and brown smoothhounds.

By September we will be up in Canada working on cataloging our images from the tour (a daunting task) and rebuilding Elasmodiver with a completely new feel (an even more daunting task). Here is a sneak peek at our new logo:

While we’re ’stuck’ on beautiful Vancouver Island we will make a concerted effort to document the few species of elasmobranchs that we’ve missed in the past. That means a lot of swimming around in muddy bays hunting for deep water skates which doesn’t sound that glamorous but to me it can be just as rewarding as finning along with 40ft whale shark so life will not be so bad.

We also have a lot of other things bubbling including a number of book projects, a few photography courses, some local shark campaigning and of course the planning of our next expedition – the continuation of the shark tour.

After so much time in the water I have a bunch of new species to add to the elasmodiver field guide and hundreds of new images to upload to the shark picture database so please keep an eye on the elasmodiver home page to see whats new.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their time, services, gear, boats, expertise and local knowledge to help us find the species we were after. Thank you also to everyone that emailed us with words of support and encouraged us to keep going through break downs and foul weather. We couldn’t have done it without you. As my dad (who passed away during the tour) liked to say “No man is an island”.

For the sharks,

Andy Murch