Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Campaign Launch - Deep Freedive for Sharks


It started towards the end of last winter, I had just returned from another disappointing trip to Egypt, I was disillusioned and not really overexcited about deep diving.
I had just started dating Lesley Rochat, executive director of AfriOceans Conservation Alliance and we went to dive with the sevengill cowsharks in False Bay. We started to discuss the sharks and Lesley showed me her documentary Sharks in Deep Trouble.
While I was obviously sympathetic to her and the shark's problems, I was not really in any hurry to do anything about it. I had been way too wrapped up in myself for so long that I was not really able to consider anything outside of myself.
I guess that is where Lesley went to work on me. I also had long discussions with my father about the shark problem. Slowly as the months passed,  I began to realise that it would not be possible for me to simply walk away anymore.
Eventually, on Saturday the 19th November the day we buried my father, I realised that this fight had chosen me.
So now I wanted to wreak havoc, I wanted to take out all my frustration on the foreign fishing vessels that are annihilating the sharks out in our national waters. Lesley was at hand again, she pointed out that while all my freediving competition had been utterly pointless over the years, I now had an opportunity to use it for something greater than myself.
By the end of December I had decided what I wanted to do and presented her with my plan, she liked it and we started to build the campaign on 31 December.
It took a lot of reflection, introspection and prayer. God-willing, I now pray that we are successful.

To go to the new campaign website click on the link  "Deep Freedive for Sharks"  on right hand side of this page, under "favorite links"

No comments: