PLEASE WATCH THIS FILM
One of the starkest examples of change on our reef is the disappearance of the once ubiquitous sharks.
Teddy Tucker has been described as a Bermuda National Treasure. Peter Benchley, author of Jaws and The Deep, described his close friend, Teddy as a walking encyclopedia: 'A master of every discipline having to do with history and the ocean. One of the great autodidacts in the history of science.’
Teddy mused that: ‘a day not spent in the underwater world, a day not spent diving, would seem to me a day lost, wasted and empty’. This love of the ocean was married to a hunger for knowledge, a sharp mind and a photographic memory.
Teddy Tucker, best known as a shipwreck hunter and underwater explorer was first and foremost a fisherman. On a fishing trip in 1994 he was asked for his thoughts on changes he had witnessed over his time fishing off Bermuda. One of the starkest examples of change on the reef is the disappearance the once ubiquitous sharks.
Other fishermen and hunters share their observations of further change they have experienced over the past 30 years. Together with Teddy they stand as witnesses to the decline in Bermuda's marine environment gleaned over years of consistent free diving and scuba diving on the island's reef.
Jean-Pierre Rouja > Nonsuch Expeditions Founder: “The almost complete disappearance of sharks from Bermuda’s eco-system as highlighted in this film, simply can’t be ignored.
Despite all of the ongoing debates regarding how much of, and how best to protect the remaining life that we have left in our waters, there should be no question that we are far worse off now than we were a generation ago.
However, the challenge with personally observing changes in the ocean is that each successive generation has a shifting baseline of what is normal, and even then we don’t always notice gradual changes over time. Whilst those of us who spend time on and under the water will have seen changes within our lifetimes, predominantly for the negative, (though at times positive with recoveries possible when reasonable rules are put in place and enforced), no one can deny the fact that we no longer have sharks on our reefs, along with the cascading impact of losing these Apex predators…
Though obviously not to the same degree, I personally have seen this, which is one of the reasons I am so involved in ocean conservation today. I spent my teenage summers in the late 70’s’s working on one of the last large fishpot vessels, and at the time after hauling up our offshore Argus and Challenger seamount fish pots we often had to speed to the next location to get away from the sharks that were following us for fear that they might accidentally interfere with our gear when we dropped it back over… Even at that time though, we rarely, if ever, saw them on the reef platform.”
* The original post was made in March 2024
Our condolences to the Tuckers for the passing of Edna.
