Marine Campaigner, Ben Birt, is currently in southern Africa taking part in the Shark Swim Challenge, our amazing awareness and fund raising adventure for shark conservation.
Follow his journey from Johannesburg and Mozambique to Swaziland and Zululand, through game parks and conservation reserves towards the ultimate challenge of a cage dive with Great White Sharks.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world’s governments, including Australia’s, came to the realisation that animals in the sea are just as worthy of conservation and protection, and used CITES for highly threatened marine creatures such as sharks and bluefin tuna?”
Well what a first day. There’s nothing like seeing a group of eight white rhino then moments later a herd of more than 500 buffalo to forget about the after effects of travelling half way around the world and wash away the jet lag.
Only hours off the plane and the world famous Kruger national park has already blown all expectations – multiple sightings of impala, wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck, warthog and bird species too numerous to mention.
The drive into the park was so game-filled that we ended up arriving late at the camp, having to erect the tents before darkness brought with it the inevitable cacklng of hyenas from just beyond the fence.
The next morning brought two more of Africa’s ‘Big Five’. Only minutes out of camp, scanning the bush, we almost missed the leopard lurking by the side of the road. After a quick but elegant pose for the cameras, he melted away – always leave the audience hungry!
The elephants came next – in full feeding mode, breaking branches off trees like they were snapping tooth picks. Now matter how many times you see an elephant, their sheer size is always hard to fathom – a constant surprise. Elephants are, to date, one of the continents great conservation sucess stories, brought back from the brink of extinction by a worldwide collective effort through the machinery of CITES [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora].
Elephants are a reminder that CITES can work. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world’s governments, including Australia’s, came to the realisation that animals in the sea are just as worthy of conservation and protection, and used CITES for highly threatened marine creatures such as sharks and bluefin tuna?
Fish as wildlife, not simply seafood – how’s that for a concept – one that we will hopefully be seeing put into practice as we head for the Mozambique coast in search of the largest fish in the world – the whale shark.
Blog post from nccnsw.org.au
