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Facts
Palau is renowned worldwide amongst scuba divers as a premier dive destination for close encounters with sharks in their natural environment. Oceanic currents and nutrient-rich up-wellings combine to create perfect hunting grounds for Palau’s resident patrolling sharks without the need for orchestrated shark cage dives or controversial baiting of sharks.
As a veteran Palauan guide says „Every dive in Palau is a shark dive!“ But there are big problems lurking just below the oceans surface… sharks are being killed at such an overwhelming rate that they face possible extinction in the very near future. According to a survey by Dalhousie University in Halifax, an average of 80% of all deep-sea sharks have disappeared forever over the last six years. This is not only a dramatic exploitation of the population but also a form of tampering with the largest ecosystem of the world.
Palau Shark Sanctuary was founded in 2001 in an effort to end the annihilation of Palau’s sharks as a result of rampant shark-finning at the hands of foreign long-line fishing vessels licensed by Palau to fish in their waters.
Palau Shark Sanctuary achieved a major milestone in September 2009, when President Johnson Toribiton declared the EEZ of Palau a shark sanctuary during a speech in front of the United Nations.
Links
Official website of Palau Shark Sanctuary: www.sharksanctuary.com
Shark Sanctuary Blog: http://sharksanctuary.blogspot.com/
Pacific Shark Research Centre: http://psrc.mlml.calstate.edu/
Shark Research Institute: www.sharks.org/
Palau Visitors Authority: www.visit-palau.com/
Note
All communication activities for Palau Shark Sanctuary are executed on a pro-bono basis by Tourism Unlimited.
For more information on Palau Shark Sanctuary, please contact Judith Hoppe, Tourism Unlimited, at contact [at] tourism-unlimited.com