Shark Sampling Thailand

[Mermaid Melanie]

Hi guys

A friend of mine is currently doing a "shark sampling" expedition around the south of Thailand - including the Andaman Ocean and the Gulf of Thailand. I wanted to share with you the progress, pictures and updates from the project as well as little expeditions I have embarked on over the past year or so :)

My friend Shin was the first person to really open my eyes to the world of sharks and how important they are to the marine eco-system. I attended a workshop at my swim for sharks project where Shin taught us the basics and informed us on the issues surrounding sharks in our present day. We swam as mermaids to promote a healthy image for sharks, in Underwater World, Pattaya, Thailand. After this event I felt so strongly about the critical situation I had just learned about.

Being a diver, I was shocked by what I heard and the fact that it was news to me. This made me think maybe other people don't know about what is going on in our oceans.

I would like to share with you my current shark news and what is going on in the tropical waters of Thailand. I hope you can take a lot from this and share this information with others.

Here is an intro about Shin's Shark Sampling Trip in southern Thailand that has shown me just how dyer the situation is.


"After I was recommended by Dr. James True from Prince of Songkla University to Dr.Xiao Chen from Ocean University of China, a shark specialist, I started a new assignment as an assistant instead of getting back to work with my beloved New Heaven Reef Conservation Program (https://www.facebook.com/NHRCP?group_id=0)
at Koh Tao, the tropical paradise or help building up the growing Onnesse (https://www.facebook.com/Onnesse?group_id=0)
with my team in Bangkok. This assignment would probably last for a month, as we need to travel around the major fishing ports in the Southern Thailand both on the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand to collect elasmobranch specimens and tissue samples for Phylogenetic study. It's a good chance to learn more about Genetic that I have been avoiding since my Bachelor's degree, and Morphology which should be very useful for continuing my study. So.. I will keep updating this album through out this trip, there would not be so many pretty pictures, but still I wish you would look through this album and see what have been happening to the Oceans that we love"

I would like to add that there is a range of different marine life featured in these photos -


1st day of the Shark Sampling trip with Dr. Xiao Chen. The buckets are full of these little guys, all of them are smaller than 50 cm. Hopefully the Thailand fishery acts could be revised after all these years.
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Keep your eyes open for updates and some interesting pictures !

[Coradion]

That's a really cool project, can't wait for more updates. Gotta love your apex predators! What are your major species in Thailand?

[Mermaid Melanie]

Hey ! yeah its really exciting for us too its opening my eyes ! You know i did think it was limited to - whale shark, leopard shark, bamboo , black tip , and (Bull in the gulf ) but Shin has been visiting the fishing ports and he is finding all sorts of different species that we thought you didn't really get in thailand - the sad truth is we we have so many different kinds but some we never see diving because they are being fished so young! Shin found scalloped hammerheads which i think are on the endangered lists as quite vulnerable ! among other things ive never heard of being seen here ! The info is great but heartbreaking at the same time ! ill try and keep the photos coming with a post a day !

[Mermaid Melanie]

Little update from Day 2 of the Shark Sampling trip. I would like to add that these sharks the samples are taken from are all coming from various fishing ports around the south of Thailand.


2nd day of Shark Sampling trip. We are collecting some tissues for DNA analysis, gutting them to get rid of the smell, and preserving them in Alcohol.. These guys are not going home to be with their family today. Their journeys end here.

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Here is a small container with various different species ( all juveniles ) Guitar Shark and leopard shark among others

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Even beautiful Rays are being taken from the sea. Most of these will be exported to china.

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Its a sad truth in our current society that people with old traditions are misinformed on the scientific side of things. Sharks, Dolphin and Rays do contain mercury, poisonous to the human body. But it is still seen as a chinese delicacy to eat Shark Fin Soup. So many beautiful creatures killed before adulthood, well before sexual maturity leaving them unable to reproduce and keep the populations alive, just to feed the human ego. It makes me sick.

I hope that something can be done sooner rather than later, to help protect these amazing creatures that came from prehistoric times, before there are none left in our future.