Felix Leander 3/11/15 Felix Leander 3/11/15

Stuart Cove's Being Bad

We have come to expect more from Stuart Cove's - particularly when it comes to shark encounters and the handling of the animals...or maybe not. The video titled "Hammerhead shark tries to attack diver" shows a Stuart Cove's shark wrangler clearly teasing and antagonizing a Great Hammerhead with a piece of fish. He goes on to give the guests a "show" by grabbing on to the shark's head multiple times further exciting her with the fish. Circus and rodeo come to mind...

Whatever happened to keeping things simple.

Great Hammerhead Shark - keeping it simple.  Image by Wolfgang Leander, 2007 — Great Hammerhead Shark - keeping it simple. Image by Wolfgang Leander, 2007

And while no one was hurt - once again the shark is made to look like the villain, just one example - the video is featured on Yahoo with the following description:

"A dramatic video has emerged of a hammerhead shark trying to attack a diver in the Bahamas. In the footage, captured during a scuba diving trip in the Bimini Atoll in late January, the shark can be seen circling a diver before lunging forwards several times. Fortunately, the experienced diver was able to push the shark away and survived the experience without any injuries."

The description is completely laughable as is the "experienced" diver.

For more details on the story you can read Mike and Martin's blogs.

Stuart Cove's has been quick to criticize other dive operators for not adhering to high standards - it's time they look at their own.

Felix Leander 3/1/15 Felix Leander 3/1/15

Anatomy of the OceanicDreams Logo

In 2003 we commissioned a friend and colleague at the time, Guto Nicolucci, to develop the OceanicDreams brand and website. The logo went through many variations, none of which really captured the essence of what we wanted it to communicate. I challenged Guto that the logo needed to represent freediving with a focus on sharks. We supplied him with a lot of photographs and hoped that the next round of creative would be on target…it was.

Guto combined elements of two images (see below) - the first is that of my father freediving in The Bahamas during the 70s approaching a large Great Hammerhead shark. The original photo was taken by a friend of the family - Lyn Nelson somewhere close to Nassau. The second element was taken from a photography my dad took in the Galapagos during one of his trips of a Galapagos Shark.

Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s.  Image by: Lyn Nelson — Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s. Image by: Lyn Nelson

Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands.  Image by: Wolfgang Leander — Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands. Image by: Wolfgang Leander

Both elements were traced and are the silhouette of actual subjects - in this case Wolfgang Leander in the 70s and a Galapagos Shark. The circle around both represents the connection between Wolf, the ocean, and sharks… and that is how the logo came to be.

OceanicDreams logo by: Guto Nicolucci

Felix Leander 2/24/15 Felix Leander 2/24/15

Logan Mock-Bunting Captures Freediving Competition

Came across a Wired article about freediving yesterday that features the photography of Logan Mock-Bunting. Logan was in the Bahamas late last year to document the 2014 Vertical Blue freediving competition. He captured the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of the participants - from the celebrations to the black outs.

Shallow water black-out.  Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting — Shallow water black-out. Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting

Be sure to check out his work at www.loganmb.com.

Felix Leander 2/18/15 Felix Leander 2/18/15

William Winram The Watermen Project

William Winram freediving with South African Tiger Shark.  Image by: Felix Leander — William Winram freediving with South African Tiger Shark. Image by: Felix Leander

William Winram has been around for a while in the freediving world and over time (last six years) he has been reinventing himself and using his skill set to positively impact the ocean through education, setting up a foundation, speaking engagements, photography among others - oh and by the way he is still setting freediving world records.

Good for him - I met Will in South Africa in 2008 while freediving Aliwal Shoal - at the very start of his transformation. I have been following his adventures ever since - his projects have lead him from Mexico (tagging white sharks) to the Bahamas (tagging great hammerhead sharks). William is genuinely a nice guy and great to be around - his heart, mind, and soul are in the right place.

The Watermen Project is a NGO founded by William that is centered around "to be involved with any activity aiming at marine conservation. Our NPO therefore actively contributes to scientific and empiric research whereby the goal is to study the marine environment in order to protect and conserve it. More specifically, any activity aiming at protecting large marine species such as sharks, whales, etc. " - complete mission statement and goal. Most of the work at the moment seems to be centered around scientific expeditions / helping the scientific community tagging sharks.

Will is currently in Bimini tagging hammerheads, hanging out with Richard Branson, and he finally had the opportunity to meet Doc. Keep up with Will on Twitter or Instagram

William Winram  Image by: Laurent Egli — William Winram Image by: Laurent Egli

Please be aware of the fact that diving with sharks can be potentially dangerous. Do NOT closely interact with sharks, touch them, feed them unless you are very experienced and know exactly how to interpret their body language. While it might look easy and harmless to interact with sharks the way we do, we do NOT encourage this type of underwater activity.