Donna Barrett's Page

When I volunteered to take photos for DivePhotoGuide.com at the 2009
Annual Ocean City MD Shark Tournament, I must admit, it was, initially,
a bit self-serving. What better way for a "Newbie" in the underwater/
Oceanic Conservation photography community to get a "foot in the
Door", in order to broaden one's horizon, than to invest time in
Documenting, both in pictures and words, and something you already feel
strongly about.

I was not prepared for the brutality and, more importantly, the
ignorance, that seems to define these tournaments.

To provide some context; I arrived at the "weigh-in" dock on Thursday afternoon, and despite
my hopes of good weather, following many days and nights, and days and
nights and days and nights of rain in Ocean City (getting the
picture?), the rain continued, in buckets, continuing until 3:30, the
first day of the tournament.


Upon my arrival, it seemed rather quiet, was I in the wrong place?

NO.

I soon learned that the reason the dock was vacant was
because most contestants chose not to go out that day. The Rules: "The
contestants must choose two of the three days of the tourney to bring a "fish" in."
Because of the EXTREME rain on Thursday, most guys decided to stay
in and drink" *(Quote from waitress at Micky Finns, the Bar/Restaurant
at the official Tournament Site)

However, it didn't keep the "creative" and "welcome" sign masterminds from
their message.

As I arrived, ready for my "mission", this was
what I saw on one of the fishing boats, sitting at that dock: (photo attached):

"The floating Slaughter Wagon is Ready to Roll!!

Sharks!! Tunas!! Blues!!

Its Killing time People!!"




I suppose I could stop here and just share my images and we, who are
all on the same page, would just nod, cluck and shake our heads, knowingly, right?





Those of us who are fanatics about our cause, we know who we are,
could just show this and could stop here, BUT, how do we affect true change and not just piss
and moan to each other ???

My OC experience gave me some thoughts, I'd like to share:

Here's what a learned from this experience:

Awareness and Education is Paramount, agreed; but we cannot fight an uphill
battle with those that already have strong beliefs installed, (yep, we may be on the side of right and justice, but I think we have all experienced coming up against the proverbial "rock and the hard place"; these guys and gals who have been doing this horrible thing may be difficult, if not impossible, to "move" from this sort of activity...not saying that we should throw in the towel, however...I still believe that through awareness, we can bring SOME around..


All kidding aside, As you can see from many of my images here, the
CHILDREN were SO excited about seeing and touching ANY thing about
the sharks, innocent as they were.


Wouldn't it be great if we could
create learning opportunities/communities where our NEXT GENERATION
has a stronger appreciation for seeing and experiencing these magnificent creatures in
their native environment, as opposed to the excitement I witnessed
and photographed, of them, hanging dead, gutted, and with the fins
being passed around for the youngsters to "Touch"???


Maybe we all should re-evaluate our target audience for change; they are
MUCH younger than we are, but much more important", in the long term.

Donna Barrett