GUY TALK
ANOTHER BUSY YEAR Even though there are still a couple months left in this year, the first 10
blue shark, and are significantly understudied. With the current pressure these
months have been busy and productive for the Guy Harvey organizations.
animals are under from commercial longliners and the shark fin trade, we’re
We’ve continued our vital research on sharks, billfish, and roosterfish, I’ve made
planning on documenting their movements to better understand their behavior
presentations to literally thousands of people about marine conservation, and
in order to save them from further exploitation. Luckily, Caribbean countries,
we’ve continued to spread that message via Guy Harvey Magazine, social media,
including the Cayman Islands, have designated their entire waters as shark
and all of our digital platforms. In between everything, I’ve still been able to find
sanctuaries, making it a great place to start to discover where else this pelagic
time to pursue my passions: fishing, diving and, of course, painting!
species travels.
One programme that we’re extremely excited about and is showing great
In addition to studying silky sharks, the GH Ocean Foundation worked with
promise is our roosterfish study in Panama. There’s really very little known about
two major fishing tournaments in Grand Cayman this year—the Kirk Slam Dolphin
these beautiful, pelagic predators except that they’re an adrenaline rush to catch
Tournament and the Cayman Islands International Fishing Tournament—to
and can bend a rod to the breaking point. In an effort to gain meaningful data
provide support for an ongoing research project to study oceanic whitetip sharks
to conserve this fabulous sport fish, we implemented a long-term tagging effort
(OWT) in the Caribbean. Although these two tournaments target dolphinfish,
through our partnership with Tropic Star Lodge. In 2017, we tagged 82 fish and
billfish, wahoo, tuna and marlin, they often hook oceanic whitetip sharks
will continue to collect data and monitor the population well into the future.
incidentally. When this happened, anglers radioed researchers already stationed
I was honored to received the award of Honorary Chancellor and Doctor
in the fishing grounds, for them to take the shark and attach a satellite tag. GHOF
of Humane Letters from President Anne Kerr at Florida Southern College in
researchers were thrilled to deploy five Smart Position or Temperature (SPOT) tags
Lakeland, Florida, earlier this year. And, I gave the keynote address at the Science,
during the two events, one of which was attached to a 7.5-ft., 200-lbs. OWT. Teams
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) fundraising luncheon
that assisted with the research were rewarded $1,000 for their efforts, including
for the Palm Beach State College Foundation, where 700 corporate leaders and
the boats Runaround 3, Down the Hatch and Bloodline. Once the most abundant
professors came to hear me emphasize the growing threats facing our oceans.
large predator on the planet, oceanic whitetip shark populations have been
My daughter Jessica and I, along with a team of volunteers, launched a new investigation on the silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis) from our home base in Grand Cayman. Silkies are the second-most caught shark globally, following the
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reduced 98% in the past 30 years, so our research is increasingly critical to saving this species. We’ve also had two major victories for billfish and sharks this year. NOAA
