Future Expeditions

- ADRIATIC.  A one week expedition is planned in the Adriatic for the end May/early June 2008 with daily twelve hour chumming periods and nights spent ashore. The object of this exercise is to prove or disprove a Blue shark pupping ground/nursery area near Kornati National Park. The results from the expedition will be given to Dr. Alen Soldo and all sharks encountered will be return tagged. The expedition will last seven days so participants need to plan for nine days to allow for travel time to and from Croatia. The expedition will be based in Jazera on Murter Island and the nearest international airport is Split which is one hour from Jazera by road. The cost per participant will be between £350 - £500 which includes contributions to boat charter, shore base rent, chumming materials (sardines), equipment and incidentals.

Participants will have to find their own way to Croatia and pay for their own food in addition to the expedition contribution fee. Food and drink can safely be budgeted for at £20 - £25 per day and last year B.A. were charging £200 for a return air fare to Split thus the total cost of participation is likely to be in the region of £850. Dates will be June 1st to 7th inclusive for the expedition with participants arriving on May 31st and leaving on Sunday June 8th. Any potential participants who have not been on our expeditions before will be interviewed. Two teams of four will work on two boats in order to give a thorough cover of the area in question thus the expedition will comprise eight volunteers and Jacqui and Richard.

- SYRIA. We recently made contact with the Syrian authorities to apply to carry out a similar expedition in their waters to that which we carried out in the Adriatic in 2005. Richard will be travelling to Damascus at the end of July for further discussions and as soon as we have an expedition date it will appear on this website.

- QATAR - Progress has now been made with the authorities in Qatar to mount exactly the same operation in their waters as described above under "Kuwait". The likely time for this expedition to proceed will be Nov/Dec 2008 and this decision will not be made until after October 2007 once Richard has completed his discussions with the Qatari authorities.

- SCOTTISH SHARK SEARCH. A ten-day chumming exercise of waters off Scotland's west coasts. This will be a shore based expedition with daily run outs. The base location will be Ullapool and we hope this expedition will take place in summer 2008 but this will depend on Richard and Jacqui's Shark Cornwall commitments.

- LIBYA - We hope to be able to get permission from the Libyan government for a two-week shark search expedition in Libyan waters. Compared to many coastal areas of the Mediterranean, Libyan waters are likely to represent a healthier marine environment, as they have not been over exploited by fishing activity and pollution. If this were shown to be the case, it would provide a valid contrast with the Adriatic which is still hugely over fished. Now that real progress has been made with the expeditions planned for Syria, Kuwait and Qatar being realistic it is likely that if an expedition goes ahead in Libyan waters it will be in 2009.