James Moskito of Shark Diving International and Great White Adventures, has been friends with Zapata for several years. Each year when his business gets back to the waters that they love so much they look forward to seeing their friend Zapata again. He usually shows up just in time to welcome adventurous divers to the area.
Recently however instead of seeing Zapata for the new year Moskito and his crew received a phone call instead. The other captain told Moskito that he had 4 -5 sharks around his boat. One of the sharks he recognized as Zapata however this year Zapata was sporting something he'd never had before, a gunshot wound to his dorsal fin. Moskito was shocked and saddened. "This is a shark who creates a relationship with the divers," Moskito says. "He will swim right up to the shark cage and give divers a high five with his fin. He has personality and likes to show off; he is curious and never aggressive. He is a sort of an Ambassador of sharks. It's tough to see that someone actually shot him."
Moskito and his crew are now working with the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary to protect the sharks like Zapata. They are addressing this such as how to protect sharks from poachers as well as how to safely do research on them. "While I am 100 percent behind shark research and the data it provides," Moskito says, "I do have a personal problem with how it is being conducted. We have to set guidelines that will protect the sharks."
Moskito is asking that anyone who can attend the meetings of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary do so and add their voices to his in terms of setting research guidelines. "We need to ensure the safety of these majestic animals as we research ways to protect them."
For more info on Shark Diving International and Great White Adventures visit www.seesharks.com or www.greatwhiteadventures.com.
For more info on Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, visit farallones.www.noaa.gov ■
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