Two Minutes

 I Love sharks the way most people love dogs and cats. To me there is nothing more majestic and beautiful than a big shark.  I have played a game of 'fetch' with a 900 pound female Tiger Shark  named 'Emma".  She is a sweet creature that has never showed any aggression to me despite my high vulnerabilities underwater.   Countless times I have hand-fed sharks bigger than me and pet  them, inverted them into tonic immobility and gently released them.   

 My favorite shark is a Great White Shark named 'Spots'.  Her massive 3,500 lb body reaching over 16 feet in length made her look ominous but she has always been wonderfully calm and inviting.  Over years I have come to know her personally and two years ago I had the rare chance to swim along side her holding her huge dorsal fin.  She was a perfect lady... never made me feel  threatened. As I rode alongside her for the camera she calmly watched me and swam slow enough for me to cruise next to her for nearly two minutes.  I will remember those two minutes for the  rest of my life.

 I Love Emma and Spots and many other sharks. I know them as individuals and I miss them between trips.  Over the last two years I have loved my memories of Spots and told her story at dozens  of speeches.  

 My Love for the sea and for sharks has led me down a path of being a Warrior to protect them best I can.   For fifteen years I have hunted poachers that illegally or (unethically) murder sharks, sea  turtles, dolphin, porpoise, endangered fish (Totuaba) and film them... often at great personal risk and almost always alone.

 My heart was hurting but calm enough to continue to gather images of the cowards killing these defenseless animals so I could get them prosecuted and imprisoned.  Often I would sneak out in the  sea at night and collect nets, long lines and traps and drag them to shore and burn them.

 Over the last five years I have worked with a few other people and I have tried to sell my poacher hunting missions..dubbed "rECOn"...as a television series. It is important work and, at the same  time, very expensive and time-consuming. It takes money to do rECOn Missions and I hoped a series would help pay for some of it which would increase my range and effectiveness. However,  most of my missions are still solo and paid for out of my own pocket.  

 Yesterday I heard that eleven of my friends were murdered in Baja... in my backyard. Eleven Great White Sharks that I have known personally for years as individuals off Guadalupe Island and  filmed for several shows... were 'legally' caught and killed for their fins and jaws.   Some were dragged ashore on my favorite beach in Loreto.   

 My heart was crushed when I looked at the picture of one of the dead White Sharks with people rejoicing in the background and thought I recognized my friend... 'Spots'. You see, those people who  film and study these beautiful sharks know them well. Their faces, their scars, their coloring and size are recognizable traits. That leads to them getting special names.  "Spots" was, as you may  have guessed, named for the unique spot pattern on her body.  From my view of the picture online, I feel certain it was her.

 Now her body rots in the surf-line without her fins (the same fins I lovingly held on to two years earlier).  Her massive fins on their way to China for a senselessly fashionable & tasteless soup.   Her  murderers were paid... and will kill again many, many more times... just to get a few dollars.

 I feel just as I did when my friend died in combat in front of me.  I know I am an effective warrior and very capable but my friend(s) have died nonetheless.

 This morning, I am sitting next to a beautiful aquarium at the Silverton Casino in Las Vegas... watching sharks and rays cruise by without concern.  I feel I have failed them all.

 Hunting Poachers, Polluters and Eco-Terrorists (PPETs) is costly and very dangerous. Sharks, dolphin, sea turtles and fish have behavior patterns that can be easily predicted and exploited.  Catching and killing these animals is easy. It takes no talent but it does (in my opinion)  require a severe deficit in a person's  brain to rationalize the act.  Now, with intelligent people applying  their  money-motivated energies, new technologies have arisen to make the murderous slaughter of these inoffensive creatures even more deadly efficient. Killing the innocent for financial or  political  gain is found in genocide, robbery, fratricide just to name a few.   

 Unfortunately, most networks are more interested in showing  wholesale slaughter on the open seas then in showing the opposite....conservation and mindful protection of the earth's limited  resources. What part of... "If the Oceans die... so does all mankind" ... does Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Outdoor, National Geographic not understand? 

 You ready for the biggest 'rub'? A fisherman is operating under the law, gets paid, is socially acceptable, insured, supported by many peers and is linked to big money on the end.   A  conservationist (which I am proud to be called) is often unfunded, unpaid, often considered a radical 'tree-hugger', has little social support, not insured, and is fighting against organized groups  alone (or nearly alone).  Nonetheless I intend to dedicate much more time and energy to stopping this mindless cruelty and globally unsupportable, ignorance (or arrogance)-based slaughter.  

 Perhaps I need to focus my efforts in one area of discipline first... say Mexico.  I am wondering... to get Mexico to stop supporting or blindly allowing this type of behavior... influence to boycott all of  Mexico including travel, goods and yes... even beer.  If an 'example' is made out of Mexico by hurting their economy... perhaps other countries will take notice when I set my eyes on them...

 My rECOn missions are now a part of Undersea Voyager Project.  If you are interested in helping support these missions please consider donating a few dollars through the website.  We now have  powerful sponsors who are stepping up to the plate with donations of equipment and time.  Our major sponsor, Luminox, is donating some of the proceeds of every Scott Cassell Limited Edition  Undersea Voyager Project Watch to our work.  Every dollar has more power now then ever before so every donation is appreciated.

 Not everyone can do this work.  Not everyone would want to.  It is challenging in every possible way. But everyone can help with their own gifts and talents. We are lucky enough to have dedicated  volunteers and donors.  Thank you all so much for your continued support.

 Being with Spots for those two minutes was a glimpse into her world...and it was vast, beautiful yet fragile.  Those precious moments were possibly the most spiritual of my life.  I will remember  her...and I will miss her.


 Scott Cassell

 CEO & Founder
 Undersea Voyager Project
 rECOn Missions

Update

The incredibly talented Peter Overstreet has created this video about the loss of the sharks.  There is a part of me that hopes the horrible picture Scott saw was of some other shark.....that he was mistaken.  He would be overjoyed to hear that Spots was still out there.  This is one time he would love to be wrong. But the point isn't just the tragic loss of ONE shark, it's about the tragic loss of SHARKS and the massacre occurring in the oceans of the world in the name of soup.  If, by some miracle, it wasn't Spots then it was another equally as important and beautiful Great White dead on that beach.

Please watch and share if you like the message.

Kerry Franciscovich

Executive Director

Read about the Great White's first Dive → Click on the photos below for Part 1 and Part 2 of the article.

                                  ↑ Part 1                                                                             ↑ Part 2

The Great White, UVP's own submersible, has been getting a make-over.  The previous owner had stored this beautiful machine outside and allowed it to deteriorate so badly that it took hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars to make her diveable again.  

On January 15th, 2012, in King Harbor, Redondo Beach a dedicated group of volunteers gathered to help put the Great White back in the ocean for the first time in over 17 years. The result of careful work, the team remained flexible and the day was a sucess.  She dove several times, caught the interest of a gathering crowd, and made the Undersea Voyager Team very proud. (The first dive is prominent in the Mission Album on the Homepage)

The Great White needs some small fixes and a few things added but she proved herself to be sea-worthy once again.  The following day she was packaged for shipping and sent to Switzerland in order to be a focal point at the Luminox Baselworld booth in March of this year.  Scott will be there to show her off with great pride.

When she returns multiple transects are planned in which the newly refitted Great White will be center stage.  Welcome back to a truly one-of-a-kind classic.

The Great White as she appeared at the opening of a production studio in Las Vegas.

Lake Hövsgöl, known as the ‘Dark Blue Pearl of Mongolia’, is a high altitude alpine lake located in northern central Mongolia.  Hövsgöl is known for its pristine clear and cold waters and is estimated to contain approximately 0.5% of the Earth’s fresh water supply.

Over the years, the lake has had a significant number of fuel carrying tankers and other trucks and automobiles containing dangerous pollutants find their way to the bottom of the lake where they may now or in the future cause extreme environmental damage.  The goal of this project is to locate, identify and remove these vehicles from the lake.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

-Albert Einstein

Space, The Final frontier. This is the starship Enterprise. Her five year mission to

seek out new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

- Star Trek

You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody

else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God’s creative

principal works in you.

- Paramahasna Yogananda

When man looks deep into the sea, he will see his ancestry staring back. We

are the aquatic ape, therefore the sea is our mother. Doesn’t that fact compel us

to protect her?

-Scott Cassell

These beautiful glass sculptures were hand made by renowned and celebrated artists Leslie Wilton and Scott Kempton.  Leslie and Scott have been working together for over 16 years creating unique art glass pieces and sculpture (for more info visit BlacksheepGlass.com, and LeslieWilton.com).

“I had been looking for a way to give back” says Leslie. “When I met Scott Cassell, I knew his UVP would be the perfect group to lend my talents to.  I broached the idea to Scott Kempton and showed him the logo and he was hooked!  We both enjoy creating unusual sculptures and what could be stranger than a squid attacking a submarine?"

Each glass sculpture is one of a kind and has a giant squid attacking a submersible and are 8” high by 10” in length.  No two are alike.

To fully appreciate the art form you must first understand that Leslie and Scott heat raw glass in a furnace until it melts at 2300 degrees, then manipulate the molten glass with hand tools just inches away!  Leslie and Scott work independently creating both the submarine and squid body simultaneously.  As the glass is being shaped, it is rolled in powered glasses to impart color.  Then hot bits of glass are added to create arms, propeller, dome port, and any self-respecting Giant Squid’s most notable feature…the eye.  At the precise moment, the squid and submarine are joined together and the squids arms are immediately wrapped around the submarine entangling it in it’s grasp.

        A Sculpture in progress.

UVP is the proud owner of these beautiful works of original art.  It is planned that they will be auctioned at a future fundraiser….if Scott can ever let them go.

Sid Loomis

         Sidney “Sid” Loomis got her first taste of the underwater world at the age of 6 when her dad took her diving in Fiji. She doesn’t remember much about that trip but she says the dive convinced her what she was meant to do with her life. Since then she has spent all her free time underwater in one way or another.

         She got her open water certification at age 12 and never looked back. At 13 she photographed a Six Gill shark at a depth of 1900’ in the Cayman Trench aboard the submersible Idabell. She also dove with and photographed Gray Reef sharks in Roatan,Honduras. At 14 she participated in the UVP mission to Lake Tahoe. She was on site every day of the mission and performed any and all tasks asked of her. During this mission she discovered a new species and piloted the Seamobile to depths of 165’. At 15 she was a member of the UVP mission to Catalina Island where she was in charge of the Youth Ambassador program. On this trip she dove in her third submersible, Antipodes, to 742’ and logged video footage for the team’s YouTube channel. At 16 she was the primary safety diver for Scott Cassell’s “30 Mile Dive”. Just before her 17th birthday she went ice diving in a high altitude (7450’) lake near Lake Tahoe. Sid is a Red Cross certified water front lifeguard, and holds CPR and title 22 certifications. She is a first responder for El Dorado County. All the while, maintaining a 3.5 GPA.         

         Sid is also an all-state softball catcher and first chair tuba in the high school symphonic band. After high school she has plans to attend a dive industry internship before starting herlife’s work of saving sharks through photography and outreach to young people around the world.

Shelby Higginbotham

             Shelby Higginbotham is an advanced  SCUBA diver with an underwater video specialty.  During the 30-Mile Dive she was a support  diver/underwater videographer. She established the  Undersea Voyager Project and 30-Mile Dive  Facebook pages, and she also helped develop the  Kickstarter page for the 30-Mile Dive. She joined the  Youth Ambassador program in 2011, but has been  involved with UVP since 2010. Shelby hopes to  someday be an underwater videographer with a  speciality in shark filming.

Jeffrey Sanderson

            Building the video interface board for the Great White.  He followed some very detailed instructions.Jeffrey placed all the components in the correct polarity and the board worked the very first time it was powered up.Dad was there to help out now and again, but he was pretty busy taking pictures.Jeffery can't wait to get the Great White finished so he can learn how to pilot the vessel. He plans to be the youngest submarine pilot in the Guinness Book of World Records (One of his favorite books).

Joey Highshoe - Social Media & Website

Joey Highshoe is a young, ambitious teen. He just recently joined the Youth Ambassador program in 2011, when he became involved with the social media aspect of UVP. He currently is working on UVP's website, twitter account and facebook page. He soon wants to become a SCUBA diver and get more involved under water with the UVP and all of their missions soon to come. 

Sharks are the basis for many fears in mankind... including myself.  My fear however, is not of being attacked or eaten by a giant shark but rather of a sea without them.  Over the past forty years I have come to love sharks the way most other people love beautiful dogs.  My love affair with sharks has led me to hand feed grey reef sharks off the Bahamas, petting them, rolling them over and even petting them.  A 900 pound Tiger shark played fetch with me off Tiger Beach using a Louisiana car license plate with a 6 foot piece of line for nearly an hour. She would swim off to pick up the license plate and swim near me again so I could grab the line and yank it out of her mouth, toss it away like a frisbee only to have the process repeated again and again.

Read more...

Download Newsletter

An event to bring the Oceanic health of our beautiful coast into your living room, classroom and the world in 3D. A team of dedicated explorers push the boundaries of science and human endurance to show what is possible.

Read more...