Review: CrumplePop ToneGrade color correction plug-in 
By Steve Douglas
Last Update: 01 February 2012 07:42 AM
Author: Steve Douglas
It was inevitable that third-party software companies would begin to update their plug-ins for Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X as soon as they could. Some already have, but with limited success, as adjustable parameters in previous sets are not always found in the Final Cut Pro X versions, and I have found that some are not as stable as they may have been in legacy versions of Final Cut Pro.
While CrumplePop has updated their split screen plug-in previously reviewed here and actually made improvements to it in that, for the Final Cut Pro X update, you can add color corrected clips to the many split screen options which will retain the color correction, this review will focus on CrumplePop’s completely new plug-in, ToneGrade for Final Cut Pro X.
There are some similarities to other plug-in packages on the market, but CrumplePop’s ToneGrade comes in at a fraction of the price of their competitors, is completely stable with Final Cut Pro X and offers many advantages in its simplicity of use, the diverse footage types it can be applied to, and how much it can improve your imaging results.
While I wouldn’t quite call ToneGrade a color grading application like Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks or a touch up app like Digital Anarchy’s Beauty Box, I would say that ToneGrade can provide you with the tools you need to make the subtle changes to your images color tone that can smooth out the wrinkles in skin or simply make your image pop just the little bit it needs to stand out.
In a nutshell, ToneGrade uses an image processing technique which simulates the properties of high dynamic range photography, quickly allowing you to dial in the small amounts of tone mapping to your image while expanding the details in both your highlights and shadows. Unlike full color grading applications which often soften or smear fine details, I found ToneGrade to be able to grade the image of my clips while retaining or even punching up the small details stylizing it for a greater dramatic appearance.
In Final Cut Pro X, ToneGrade, once installed, can be found in your effects browser under ‘Basics’. Scroll down to the bottom of your folder and ToneGrade will be there waiting for you to apply it as you would any effect in Final Cut X. Making sure your video inspector is open and set to Video, drag ToneGrade on to your clip. You will then see a short list of ToneGrade adjustable parameters for you to use. There are not too many so as to confuse or overwhelm you, but just what you need to accomplish the task at hand. We’ve all seen some effects parameters that really don’t accomplish a whole lot for the image. However, each one of the parameters provided in Tone Grade actually can make a huge difference.
The first parameter, Depth, adjust the mid-tones and highlights. I found that, in its own way, it separates certain details from others creating just what it says, depth. At the same time it crushes shadows a bit, but you can use the depth slider or ToneGrade’s own Exposure slider to bring the blacks back up and balance out the image to your liking.
The Fine Detail slider does an excellent job on bringing up the smaller details like hair or, should you want it, the cragginess in an individual’s skin.
The Coarse Detail parameter is similar, but focuses more on the larger outline details. From my testing, this was the only parameter that should be used parsimoniously as bringing it up too much made the image look rough and somewhat cartoonish. Then again, any parameter adjustment to any plug-in should not be done to the extreme for a well graded and color corrected image.
The Shadow Depth setting further helps to avoid crushing the blacks too much maintaining details even in the darker areas of the image and worked quite nicely.
The Saturation parameter works as any saturate/desaturate tool might work.
ToneGrade can be used to simply smooth out the wrinkles and blemishes to a face as well as sharpen details. The Skin Smoothing slider does just that; it helps smooth skin appearance out without creating a cartoon effect. Use it in small amounts to maintain realism.
Both the Color Cool/Warm and Cool/Warm Intensity sliders adjust the overall tone of the image without effecting the image details. Drag the slider to the left for a cooler effect and to the right for a warmer look.
Usually I avoid using sliders as I don’t find them to be as precise as I like and wind up typing my settings in. Not sure why, but the sliders for ToneGrade were very easy to move about in Final Cut Pro X.
I found that just applying ToneGrade to a clip improved the image with its default settings. Below I applied ToneGrade to a clip of a Sand Tiger Shark on the wreck of the Spar in N. Carolina.
Third party creation of plug-ins strictly developed for Final Cut Pro X was inevitable, and CrumplePop has produced the first plug-in devised only for Final Cut Pro X.
They are to be congratulated on doing a great job of it. Some real thought and effort have obviously gone into bringing this plug-in to the Final Cut Pro X community. On another note, I am known for frequently commenting on a company’s website and its user friendliness. As I have noted before, CrumplePop has always maintained excellently produced video tutorials for any of their plug-ins. The three separate video tutorial for ToneGrade were all well done and easily accessible. CrumplePop even has a couple of other plug-ins I didn’t know existed called ‘Paul Irmiter: Dacar set for light looks, and an interesting set of ‘Noir Moderne’ dramatic lighting effects. If their quality is as good as ToneGrade, I will have to check them out myself; soon.
CrumplePop’s ToneGrade plug-in for Final Cut Pro X was provided to the reviewer free of charge for the purpose of an objective review. In no way, is the reviewer obligated to provide either a positive or negative review. It is available to purchase from CrumplePop for $75.00.
Steve Douglas is a certified Apple Pro for Final Cut Pro 7 and underwater videographer. A winner of the 1999 Pacific Coast Underwater Film Competition, 2003 IVIE competition, 2004 Los Angeles Underwater Photographic competition, and the prestigious 2005 International Beneath the Sea Film Competition, where he also won the Stan Waterman Award for Excellence in Underwater Videography and 'Diver of the Year', Steve was a safety diver on the feature film "The Deep Blue Sea", contributed footage to the Seaworld Park's Atlantis production, and productions for National Geographic and the History channels. Steve was a feature writer for Asian Diver Magazine and is one of the founding organizers of the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition. He is available for both private and group seminars for Final Cut Pro and leads underwater filming expeditions and African safaris with upcoming excursions to the Cocos Islands, Costa Rica, and Hawaii. Feel free to contact him if you are interested in joining Steve on any of these exciting trips.
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Comment(s):We would like to extend our prayers to the person bitten by a shark and their familiy. We also pray for you to have a speedy recovery and this incident doesn’t have too much of an effect on your life or effect your family.
We have formed an organization for Shark Attack Survivors operated by Shark Attack Survivors at http://www.sharkattacksurvivors.com.
We are the only organization that provides resources, information, and assistance for past, present, and future shark attack victims and their families.If you were involved or know someone who was involved in a shark attack, Please visit and contact us at http://www.sharkattacksurvivors.com.
If there is anything your fellow shark attack survivors can ever do to assist you or your family in any way, Contact Us!SharkAttackSurvivors.com also has pages and pages of shark attack information to help others avoid being attacked, visit us.
Director
Al Brenneka
Shark Attack SurvivorsPosted by sharkattacksurvivors on 02/25 at 08:10 AMMan bitten by shark off Broward is dead
Posted on Mon, Feb. 25, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY
A 50-year-old diver bitten by a shark in waters off Broward County Sunday has died, according to Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard.His identity has not been released by the Coast Guard.
The man was diving off a 70-foot commercial vessel named Sheerwater about 50 miles east of Fort Lauderdale on Sunday when he was bitten.
It’s unknown what type of shark bit the man.
‘’He got away before anyone was able to identify it,’’ Petty Officer Nick Ameen said.
The Coast Guard received a mayday from a Sheerwater crew member at around 10 a.m.
The crew of a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter took off immediately from Air Station Miami.
The diver was safely hoisted and flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Posted by r.m.jackson on 02/25 at 09:32 AMFrom the UK: Shark dive tragedy
A 50-year-old diver has died after being bitten by a shark in the northern Bahamas on 24 February. He had been diving on a remote coral reef which had been baited for shark diving.The man was part of a group of Austrian divers on boad the Shearwater, a liveaboard that operates out of West Palm Beach in Florida and specialises in shark diving. He was bitten on the leg during a dive in which a crate of dead fish was placed on the reef to attract sharks.
He was taken to the surface by a fellow diver and received emergency treatment on board the Shearwater. The Florida coastguard sent a helicopter to airlift him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he was subsequently declared dead.
The Shearwater is well-known in the diving world for its shark diving trips, and has attracted prominent filmmakers and photographers from all over the world. Owner Jim Abernethy said he was shocked by the death, which he described as a ‘terrible accident’. ‘At this time my heart goes to his family and loved ones,’ Abernethy told DIVE.
Shearwater’s baited dives are carried out in remote areas of the northern Bahamas, where the crew has established an array of sites. Other divers on the trip have said the man was bitten by a bull shark at a dive site called ‘The End of the Map’.
The death is being investigated by Florida police.
Posted by stargazer on 02/25 at 11:40 AMupdate from the Sun-Sentinel (clipped for newly added info/opinion): The company offers shark trips to the Bahamas for enthusiasts and photographers hoping to interact with hammerhead and tiger sharks, according to its Web site.
Operators for the company stir in fish and fish parts to “chum” the water and attract the sharks, reads the itinerary. “Please be aware that these are not ‘cage’ dives; they are open water experiences,” states the Web site.
Abernathy had been told by the Bahamas Diving Association to exercise caution with more aggressive sharks such as mako, lemon, tiger and hammerhead sharks.
The association, a group of 36 charter businesses that operate in the Bahamas, sent a letter to Abernathy and other boat owners in the past year recommending a cease and desists to conducting “open-water non-cage Shark Diving experiences with known species of potentially dangerous Sharks,” said Neal Watson, the association president.
Attempts to reach Abernathy by phone were not successful.
“Most operators do a safe dive behind cages. But Abernathy, for whatever reason, simply refused to comply with the safe diving practices in violation of our standards in the Bahamas,” said Watson, who operates a diving company out of Fort Lauderdale.
It is tempting to offer a cageless option to customers: both the photographs and personal experience would be enhanced. But the risks are too great, Watson said.
“Him working with tiger sharks and bull sharks uncaged is totally irresponsible and dangerous,” he said. “It wasn’t a matter of ‘if,’ it was a matter of ‘when.’”
Posted by stargazer on 02/25 at 01:32 PMThanks for all the comments and news items so far. Please include a link to the specific article if you post snippets.
Posted by Eric Cheng on 02/25 at 04:00 PMB Section of the Orlando Sentinel—At the top of the page today (I’m at a conference):
“Inside: Shark-baiting turns deadly near Bahamas, B3”
The headline of the article on B3: “Man dies from shark bite after open-water dive in bloody waters”
Apart from the gratuitous sensationalistic headlines, the article does not add much information to what is already posted here. However, they did get through to JASA and got a “no comment”. I’m on one of the free internet terminals at my conference so I can’t even open a second screen to provide a web link to the article, should one exist. I’ll post again in a minute if I find it.
Mike
Posted by MikeO on 02/26 at 04:34 AMWell, it appears that the article I just referenced in the Orlando Sentinel is from the AP and pieces and parts of it are everywhere at this point—online and elsewhere. The headlines appear to be the work of the Sentinel itself . . .
Posted by MikeO on 02/26 at 04:45 AMSitting in my conference center again—CNN’s “This American Morning” show is advertising a feature (to be shown at some point later this morning) on “Why people are jumping in the water to swim with sharks”. The anchor went on to say that they are even doing it “after the water is seeded with bits of fish. Divers say it really isn’t dengerous. I don’t know, how does a shark even know the difference between a diver and piece of chum?” I’m not going to get to see the piece as I need to run into a session, but they showed a teaser video—anyone know the video source?
Posted by MikeO on 02/27 at 05:09 AMHere is a video interview with Rob Stewart that ran this morning on CNN’s “American Morning”:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/02/27/intv.rob.stewart.shark.cnn
Mike
Posted by MikeO on 02/27 at 09:06 AMThe situation has become absurd:
Posted on Wed, Feb. 27, 2008
Shark-dive boat operator in a tight spot
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY AND EVAN S. BENN
Jim Abernethy, the charter boat operator whose passenger was fatally mauled by a shark near Grand Bahama, could lose the right to lead tours in those waters, Bahamian authorities said Tuesday.
But he also faces a more immediate concern: a criminal investigation by Miami-Dade homicide detectives.Abernethy issued a brief statement Monday expressing condolences for ‘’this unfortunate accident.’’ Attempts to reach him Tuesday were unsuccessful.
As officials sorted out Sunday’s fatal adventure, divers across the world lit up online message boards about the controversial practice of cageless shark diving while baiting the predators with bloody chum.
Markus Groh, a 49-year-old Austrian lawyer, died at Jackson Memorial Hospital Sunday after being flown there on a Coast Guard helicopter. He was bitten during a shark-diving excursion with Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures from Riviera Beach.
A Miami-Dade police spokeswoman said the investigation is routine, pending definitive autopsy results. ‘’We’re involved because once the shark attack occurred, they brought him to shore and he died at Jackson Memorial,’’ Detective Nelda Fonticiella said. ``Our role is to wait for the medical examiner to make an official ruling.’’
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s office listed Groh’s mode of death as accidental Monday, but the autopsy report was not yet finalized Tuesday.
A Bahamian Ministry of Tourism spokeswoman said authorities there are trying to determine whether Abernethy violated any of the country’s charter-diving guidelines. ‘’We have rules for diving,’’ said Nalini Bethel, the tourism department’s senior director of communications. Abernethy had been warned by the Bahamas Diving Association not to lead cageless dives in chum-baited water with tiger sharks, hammerheads and other potentially aggressive kinds.
The Scuba Adventures website said the purpose of Groh’s six-day trip on the 70-foot Shear Water was specifically to find tigers and hammerheads. Bethel said it was a tiger shark that killed Groh.
She also said Sunday’s incident could lead Bahamian authorities to forbid Abernethy from leading shark-feeding dive excursions there. It’s already illegal off Florida’s coast. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission banned shark dives with chum baiting in 2001—sending operators like Abernethy toward the Bahamas.
In the shark-diving community, Abernethy, 50, has always evoked strong opinions—and now more so than ever. Some consider him a pioneer of cageless diving and a protector of shark ecology. Others disagree with his methods.
Patric Douglas, a California diver who runs the blog sharkdivers.blogspot.com, said in an interview with The Miami Herald he has long considered Abernethy’s cageless dives to be reckless.
But Eric Cheng, editor and publisher of the diving-photography website wetpixel.com, posted a litany of supportive messages from divers who have been on trips with Abernethy.
Even if the official investigations result in no criminal charges, maritime experts say Abernethy could have a legal headache awaiting him.
‘’I would sue the operator, sue the people involved,’’ said attorney David Neblett of Miami Maritime Law.
It would be far from an open-and-shut case, Neblett acknowledged. Like nearly all diving companies, Abernethy likely has his clients sign waivers, which are legally binding, according to attorney Michael Karcher, an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law. ``The waivers try to be as absolute as possible.’’
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© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.comPosted by r.m.jackson on 02/27 at 12:06 PMHas anyone actually established that the shark bite is what killed Mr. Groh?
TR
Posted by timrock on 02/27 at 01:14 PMNo one really knows everything yet. That is why it is do disheartening to see the “news” oulets publishing inflammatory statements from others with axes to grind and something to gain from this tragedy.
Posted by MikeO on 02/27 at 01:20 PMCNN stated that the examiner’s office said the death was a result of “blood loss.” But who knows. I don’t believe anything I read anymore.
Posted by Eric Cheng on 02/27 at 02:06 PMFirst, my family and I send our most sincere condolences out to the family of Markus Groh. Even though we did not know Mr. Groh he obviously had an admiration for the great sharks of our great blue ocean. Once he participated on a shark expedition aboard the Shearwater he joined a unique group of enthusiasts and I consider us all to be family. Our prayers are with the Groh family.
Our hearts and prayers also pour out to Jim and the crew of the Shearwater and the staff at JASA. Jim is a very good friend of ours and everyone at JASA are truly family to us as we have been diving almost exclusively with JASA and on-board the Shearwater for more than 12 years now when my wife first got certified. I have personally been on four separate expeditions aboard the Shearwater, my wife on two and my kids on two. I am very disheartened at the irresponsible and derogatory comments that are being made by some members of the dive community, clearly before any substantiated information was available. It is very disappointing and it will most definitely affect my decisions, and those of the dive community that share our understanding of sharks, to whom we will patronize in the future. Mr. Watson - you are way off base and should know better and you definitely will not be visited by my family for any dive excursions nor will those that support your statements and position, which is clearly an opportunistic one. Sorry Eric – I will keep it positive from here on.
In my opinion I have never been diving with a more safety conscious dive operation than JASA especially during the shark expeditions on-board the Shearwater. Preparation is meticulous and unmatched by any other operation that I have been diving with. Safety preparation does not stop after a briefing, it is continuous. The crew is always watching out for the divers and constantly pointing out where divers can improve and ensure their safety. We all as divers understand the inherent risk we take when we step off the stern and into the wild of the ocean. At no time, EVER, during all of the diving I have done on-board Shearwater did I feel caution and safety was being thrown to the wind. I have personally made hundreds of dives with Jim Abernethy and have been in the water with him during some of my most memorable dive moments. The most special has to be about 5 years ago when my son at 10 years of age made his first voyage on the Shearwater for a shark and dolphin expedition. The video I have of my son standing at 60 feet deep at the site known as El Dorado surrounded by dozens of reef sharks and other species is absolutely incredible. I still get chills thinking about it and it is all because we have a person like Jim whose passion is infectious and makes these wonderful trips available. You also realize that as long as you don’t do something stupid underwater you can be with these magnificent creatures safely.
I am a very advanced diver and even with all the time I have spent in the water with Jim he has never hesitated to get on to me when I am doing something wrong or being a little to adventurous and sacrificing safety. You have to respect that and everyone should know that safety is priority one with him. We will not hesitate to make future trips aboard the Shearwater even after this unfortunate accident.
Jim – I know you heart is with the Mr. Groh’s family at this time and I am sure you are asking yourself how this could have happened. This is probably killing you inside. We all get it and know what we are signing up for. It is a tragic accident and I am sure you realize that. Keep doing what you do and don’t lose your passion.
Sean Field
Dive PiratePosted by sfield on 02/27 at 07:16 PMHow terrible for Mr Groh’s family and friends. How terrible for Jim, and the crew and divers on Shearwater. How ridiculous the response, as expected, in the media and from the lawyers.
The mortality from climbing Everest is, proportionally, huge. The mortality from diving with sharks is, proportionally, tiny. I would support, with all my heart, all my effort and all my passion for diving, anyone who knows the risk and undertakes either adventure.
I fear for the sharks, both in the Bahamas and worldwide.
Tim Priest
Posted by tdpriest on 02/28 at 06:39 AMI have been watching this discussion for a while now and am suprised to see how one-sided the discussion has become. I think its a shame to see such an obviously environmentally aware community miss the one salient point. Wild anamals anywhere should not be fed. This is a lesson that we have learned time and again. Its not good for the echosystem, its not good for the animals and its not good for human-animal relations. We have learned long ago that a fed bear is a dead bear. Sharks and bears are no different in this respect. Teaching animals to associate food with humans is a bad combination, not only for safety but also for the health and behaviour of the animals themselves.
I admit I have not been on one of Jim’s trips. Given all acounts, I grant that he is an extremely careful and safe dive operator who has taken all the precautions that are possible to mitigate the risk of shark diving. I grant that he loves the animals more than anyone and has the best of intensions in mind for the preservation of sharks. I also grant that diving itself is inheriently dangerous and that the assumption of risk lies with the participant, I’m sure that Mr. Groh fully understood the risks involved. These are the same risks that I happily accept in other sports like climbing, whitewater kayaking and mountaineering skiing. The participant has the right to participate in inheriently risky activities. It is still a tradgedy and my heart goes out to his family. Further, I am realistic and understand that shark diving could not exist without baiting sharks. They simply would not come and the amazing photos would not be possible. I also recognize that preserving the species is a noble and necessary thing and that sharks are threatened worldwide as are all large predators and that interacting with animals is the best way to engender support for saving them.
I am certain that Jim did nothing wrong in this particular incident and by all acccounts did everything right in handling the accident. He clearly went to extraordinary lengths to get the patient the best care possible. I would hope to have such a responsible dive operator when an accident happens to me.
It matters little what species of shark is being baited or weather cages are involved. Teaching animals to associate people with food only makes it more dangerous for others who are not involved in the practice and ultimately harms the species. Who hasn’t been to a national park where you are pestered by squirrels begging for handouts with their hair falling out from cheetos. While it may be adorable, its not the natural experience I came for. For years people set up bleachers and stadium lights to watch the bears at the garbage dump. However, photographers have long since learned ways of interacting with animals and spreading the conservation message without interfering with the echosystem directly--think of the McNeil River bear expeditions for example. These should be the model of successful shark diving operations in the future.
Go ahead and flame me if you want but I don’t see how you can reconcile on the one hand promoting a natural experience, AWARE, leave no trace values, and preservation of the worlds oceans with interfering with a species in such a direct and destructive way.
Posted by UWphotoNewbie on 02/28 at 11:46 AMUWphotoNewbie - no one is going to flame you for rational thoughts about the incident. There are obviously going to be differing opinions about this event, and about shark diving in general.
I don’t think anyone thinks that this is a natural experience. Yes, it’s an experience in the wild, but it is definitely manipulated.
Most of the discussion is about whether shark diving in the Bahamas should be regulated arbitrarily. On this board, the opinions are definitely one-sided about that issue.
Posted by Eric Cheng on 02/28 at 12:13 PMUWphotoNwb -
Yours is an intelligent and thoughtful point of view - something sorely lacking in affairs like this thus far. Open & honest debate is what issues need, and I still have some hope that that will happen where shark diving is concerned; sadly, most of what occurs is a few impassioned defenders of the animals and our interactions with them being horribly outshouted by masses of incredible arrogance & ignorance.
If we can debate honestly however, we can get somewhere.I truly hope this doesn’t spell the end of Jim’s operations in the area, but my expectations here are understandably low.
Posted by pterantula on 02/28 at 01:21 PMUWphotoNwb -
I do appreciate your point of view ,however as it pertains to sharks specifically, I am not aware that there is any data that ‘Teaching animals to associate people with food only makes it more dangerous for others who are not involved in the practice and ultimately harms the species’. If you have such data I would be happy to change my mind. My observation of shark chumming and feeding operations on the ShearWater and at Stuart Cove’s specifically, is that though the sharks may associate feeding with certain times of day or even the sound of a boat as has been previously mentioned. I have not noticed however that they specifically associate the feeding or chumming with people - in other words if people get in the water without food, the sharks do not approach them, and when the food is withdrawn, they tend to disperse.Posted by loftus on 02/28 at 02:20 PMMy condolences to the family of Mr. Groh.
As an expat compatriot of his, I still read online versions of Austrian newspapers. I can tell you that it was despicable how the population of our land-locked country turned into shark “experts” and “diving psychologists”, condemning him on the bulletin boards. It is refreshing to read an intelligent discussion on the subject here.
I think there are 3 points here:
1. Is shark-baiting an extremely dangerous activity? Given the large number of such dives, carried out for many years with few accidents, it does not seem so.
2. Is this activity detrimental for the ecosystem due to an alteration in shark behavior? Possibly so, but are there data for this? Are there any studies? Has anyone who has worked for years on a boat involved in baiting observed changes in behavior?
3. Is this activity useful, in that it promotes dive tourism as an alternative to shark finning and other destructive acts? In that it lets people see and appreciate these sometimes threatened animals?Any effort to regulate shark diving should take all 3 points into account.
Posted by Klausi on 02/28 at 06:28 PMDanke Klausi.
Does anyone know if autopsy results clarifying whether the cause of death was the bite, embolism, or something else? I have not been able to find much objective reporting in papers like the Miami Herald.
Thanks.
Posted by danclem on 02/29 at 01:54 PMLoftus, you are correct about your comments. Even for the case of the bears in Yellowstone which were dump bears for many many many years I do not believe there was ever an incident that lead to the death of a park visitor. Probably a few near misses. However, what happened was there were bears that instead of searching for food in their natural surrounding had now associated food with human surroundings. This is known as habituation. The same has already happen with sharks. A boat shows up, the sharks come a swimming. The only difference between the two is the bear is an apex on land and the shark is an apex in water.
I personally do not look at the issue that feeding sharks will lead to them thinking humans == foods. The same as for all bears thinking humans == food. It is human activity that is the problem. However, what will happen are accidents like this one, or like the one last summer where an young boy was mauled to detah by a black bear in our local mountains. (There are animals where humans are food but that is a natural matter). And there will be the cases where a shark will visit a spear diver with game just like bears have visited hunters with game.
I take the issue to a more fundamental level. In what kind of environment do I want to observe the fauna? For me I want it to be as natural as possible to the point that I have sat out dives on live-a-boards when baiting was used. For me part of the thrill is in the “hunt”, i.e. learning about an animals habits. I have hiked for miles and sat on my butt for hours trying to get a shot of big horn sheep. My shots are few an far between but those that I have have meaning. Just like my experiences with many other critters. We bait for sharks should we bait for other critters? Where does the line get drawn? This is the more fundamental for me.
I think UWphotoNewbie is making a similar argument.
Posted by allen on 02/29 at 10:43 PMUWphotoNewbie
Having made over a hundred shark feeding dives--the real point is that “feeds” make friends for sharks--and sharks from the media flurry attendant to this incident--NEED friends. With finning out of control and the only animal on earth of which there are to many--bi-peds--the shark feed is really the only realistic chance that most divers will ever have to encounter sharks up close. Whether you equate the experience as “zoo like” or whatever--the important fact remains that in my experience when divers encounter sharks on their first feed experience, they become ambassadors for sharks. Their smiles in finding that sharks are not mindless killers IMHO outweighs any loss of natural contact that would probably never occur in the wild.
Posted by murderone on 03/01 at 07:21 AMMy name is Jeb Corliss and my job is risk evaluation. It’s what I do for a living. I get paid to figure out how to do things in a safe way that appear very dangerous. Out of all the activities I do shark diving is by far the safest. It’s what I do to relax when I have time off work. I have learned through my 16 years diving with sharks that they are actually far from the evil monsters the media portrays them to be. I have found that they are actually very intelligent and cautious hunters.
When doing any activity there are rules that must be followed in order to do them in a safe way. Rather it be playing football, riding a motorcycle, jumping from an airplane or driving a car. If these rules are not followed any one of these things can cause injury or death. Shark diving is no different. Jim Abernethy has one of the most amazing understandings of how these animals work. He has come up with a set of rules that he lays out the instant you set foot on his boat. You fallow his rules and you will have a safe and breathtaking shark experience. You brake his rules and you increase the risk of injury exponentially.
Jim watches his clients very carefully when underwater to make sure the rules do not get broken. If you brake the rules once you get a poke with a stick while underwater and then a very strong talking to when you get to the boat, reenforcing what the rules are and why they are important. If you brake them twice you are done diving. Jim had to give me the talk because I broke one of the rules. People who take pictures underwater have a tendency to focus on taking pictures and forget they are in the water with sharks. I was focusing to hard on what was going on in my view finder and letting sharks sneak up on my back. You must pay attention when you do these kinds of things. But lucky for me Jim was there to poke me with a stick and get my attention :)
I learned more from Jim in 7 days then I did from 16 years of shark diving. The man is probably the best qualified person I have ever come in contact with when it comes to Tiger Sharks and diving with them. Before I met Jim I thought diving with tiger sharks without a cage was impossible. He quickly showed me how wrong that perception was. If you do very specific things then you can spend hours underwater with these amazing animals in an environment safer then driving in your car to work.
If you look at Jim Abernethy’s safety record it speaks for it’s self. Over 20 years of taking people in the water with sharks and this is the first accident? You can’t get those kind of statistics with any other activity. Driving to the market to pick up some milk becomes more dangerous when you compare the stats.
Jeb Corliss
Posted by JebCorliss on 03/01 at 09:15 AMI have never been on one of Jim’s shark excursions but have been leading dive trips around the world for many years and have been in on too many shark feeds and similar excursions to recall. I have no doubt in my mind that Jim leads proper and safe adventures. I also have no doubt in my mind that sharks, as well as almost all animals in the wild, are unpredictable. And like the inherent risk in skydiving or scuba diving, one must be willing to face and take those risks. It is not Jim’s operation that is at fault, nor is it the sharks who are at fault. It was an accident, period. No blame and no litigation can change that.
Steve Douglas
http://www.worldfilmsandtravel.comPosted by steve on 03/01 at 02:08 PMThe Times Online has a story today. Only interesting in that is is the first place I’ve seen a USCG person quoted as saying that they strongly advise tourist to avoid trips like this:
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3458341.ece
MIke
Posted by MikeO on 03/02 at 08:06 AMIn Mid 2007 we at Shark Attack Survivors learned of shark bites taking place at Aliwal Shoal in South Africa on shark viewing/feeding dives. We began to ask questions about the bites.
At first we learned that there was an unknown operator that had 2 people bitten in 2007, but paid the persons bitten to keep quiet.
Then we contacted others involved shark feeding operations at Aliwal Shoal via shark discussion boards to try and learn more about the bites.
NOTE: These are comments made by South Africa shark viewing/feeding operators. These were comments made in mid 2007 which is prior to the Bahamas incident. The comments and problems are those in South Africa shark viewing/feeding dives not the Bahamas.
First answer from Patrick Douglas at SharkDiver.com about bites and problems at Aliwal Shoal South Africa.
Second answer from Mark Addison http://www.bluewilderness.co.za
Sorry but the responses and comments exceeded the character limit so here’s a link to the Aliwal Shoal, South Africa shark feeding/viewing problems PDF.
http://www.sharkattacksurvivors.com/index_files/shark_feeding.pdf
If shark viewing/feeding in the Bahamas has problems similar to those in South Africa let us all learn how to better the industry, protect our fellow humans and sharks.
Al Brenneka
http://www.sharkattacksurvivors.comPosted by sharkattacksurvivors on 03/02 at 09:58 AMSee the following regarding witch hunting:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/crime_scene/2008/03/another-shark-t.html
Posted by r.m.jackson on 03/03 at 06:55 AMI have been diving from Palm Beach county based dive charter boats since the mid 1980’s, and was even instrumental in gaining recognition and a large increase in dive tourism for Palm Beach diving…This occurred as I helped get the dive operators of Palm Beach county to work together to market the diving here “hand in hand” with the hotels and with County tourism. I had to spend a tremendous amount of time diving on as many of the Palm Beach county charter dive boats as possible, in an effort to “categorize” each boat, so I could then help divers find the “ideal boat for them”. This was one of the functions performed by the South Florida Dive Journal ( http://www.sfdj.com ), the internet’s first diving Magazine. Now with over 2 decades of familiarity with Palm Beach dive charter boats, and their captains and crews, I can state categorically that at no time in the past 20 years, or today, has any other Dive charter business or captain in Palm Beach county ( or Florida) done more for raising the standards of the Dive Charter business than Jim Abernethy.
Jimmy Abernethy has always found a way to add more safety ideas and concepts in his pre-dive briefings, yet also create more excitement and “expectation of adventure” than any other operator I have ever been out with. From the first moment you hear Jimmy in his briefings, you can immediately tell that this is a man who truly loves diving, and he has had this love affair with the ocean for over 20 years now. When other dive operators had put in their 5 years and were starting to get tired of the whole life, Jimmy was just getting even more committed to bring his love of the oceans to even more people.
In the context of the shark attack which occurred recently on a Shear Water dive trip, it is hard to get beyond the tragedy—the death of Markus Groh, and the pain his family will now have to live with… However, this incident has created a huge controversy, over whether negligence, wrongdoing, or different laws need to be addressed…To this, I must say “ABSOLUTELY NOT”. As I have said, I have never been on a dive charter boat with a more professional or better crew than on Abernethy’s boats. I wish the dive industry could learn from him, about how to brief for safety, how to plan it, yet still deliver pure fun and adventure. I see competitors of Abernethy trying to gain market share by attacking Jimmy now in the news, while none of them could ever have come close to the level of quality dive experience JASA has been putting out since it’s inception.
If a potential investigator “could” fine a way to experience a JASA dive trip, they would immediately experience how baseless the claims of Jimmy’s competitors are---and that safety and extensive planning are handled with amazing professionalism. What would also become dramatically obvious, is that the divers who go on Abernethy shark dives on Shear Water, are extremely advanced divers, typically serious photographers or videographers, who have searched far and wide for the ability to get the photo experiences that Jim delivers with virtually every trip. This is why National Geographic, Discovery channel, Ron and Valerie Taylor, and virtually every top talent in shark photography or videography will be found to have been diving with Jim. You will also hear from these experts, that no one runs a safer or better trip, than does Jim Abernethy.
What should also be clear, is that JASA does NOT run it’s shark trips for novice divers. This is marketed to advanced divers, the divers are screened, and proper planning and diver behavior is enforced.
This is not a population of people that you could imagine suing someone because they were served hot coffee, without a warning it could burn them….These are people that are keenly aware of the danger of diving with sharks, they knew the risks, and they paid huge money to do these shark dives with Jimmy. These divers all feel they have THE RIGHT to be able to dive with these sharks, and that the non-diving public of America should NOT have the right to determine what kind of diving is “safe” for these advanced divers….I submit, non-divers or novice divers do not have the requisite experiences with sharks to know anything about what kind of dive with sharks is safe or not. Sharks showing up at a natural feeding event, such as a dead whale, do not have their behavior effected by the other fish which show up ( like groupers, barracuda, etc) , or by humans who show up as “incidental visitors”. There really is no reasonable parallel with land based wildlife—this has nothing to do with “feeding the bears”, as the natural feeding event occurrence in the ocean has NO similarity to any feeding behavior of apex predators on land ( bears/lions/etc). Yet too many of the non-diving public, or non-diving lawmakers, are more than happy to make a determination that “Don’t feed the bears” is somehow “instructive” for diving and shark encounters. Even forgetting that JASA just scents the water—they don’t actually have food being eaten by sharks in their form of a shark dive, the land based ideas of how a predator finds food , just don’t apply in the ocean.
In any event, in this my testimonial, I would like to make it clear that I believe Jim Abernethy runs the highest quality dive operation that there is…that I know of no diver operator more concerned or more capable of planning and executing a safe, adventure dive than Jim….and that Jim’s customer base should be the confirmation source for the assertions I have made in this testimony.
I would further add, that with any tragedy like this diver death, lawmakers can find themselves compelled to find a scapegoat—and here, I believe strongly that intelligent lawmakers would determine that scapegoating the JASA operation would be much like blaming Burger King for a customer burning themselves with hot coffee—and asserting they had no idea that hot coffee could burn them. JASA should NOT be the “scapegoat” used to make people happier.
Regards,
Dan Volker
http://www.sfdj.comPosted by dvolker on 03/03 at 06:59 AMWell, the Miami Herald has an article today on the “debate” around cageless shark diving. You can add your comments there if you wish as well:
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/441726.html
Of course, you have to register (free).
Mike
Posted by MikeO on 03/03 at 07:27 AM“There really is no reasonable parallel with land based wildlife—this has nothing to do with “feeding the bears”, as the natural feeding event occurrence in the ocean has NO similarity to any feeding behavior of apex predators on land ( bears/lions/etc). “
Dan, there is no “natural feeding event”. Chum is being introduce into the water to attract sharks. Whether is for scenting or feeding it is not natural. This is the same as leaving a cattle carcass out for a attracting bears, lions, or tigers. There are two issues, first, does the introduction of “chum” habituate sharks to a human presence, second, does the introduction of “chum” increase the chance of a negative shark human interaction. For the former I think it is clear sharks like bears in some areas have become habituated to a human presence. The latter, I think is not clear.
So the above statement is simply an opinion based on observation just as those who have compared sharks to bears.
Posted by allen on 03/05 at 11:50 AMHere’s a link to an editorial on this topic:
http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/editorials/0000120.shtmlPosted by Tom Demerly on 03/10 at 11:59 AMI received my “Undercurrent” e-mail today and it contained the following:
“Diver Dies From Shark Bite in the Bahamas : By now, you have surely read about 49-year-old Austrian Markus Groh who died from a shark bite during a Bahamas shark-diving liveaboard trip with Jim Abernathy’s Scuba Adventures. For years, Abernathy has been offering cage-free dives with hammerheads, tiger and bull sharks that Abernathy attract with chum. Undercurrent will write more about this in the April issue, but the question of liability will be a big one. Apparently, Groh signed a standard waiver releasing Abernathy from liability – the kind we divers hate to sign. While waivers have held up well in court, with the high profile of this death, expect an all-out attack on the waiver’s validity. In a letter last year from the Bahamas Dive Association, all companies operating in Bahamas waters were told to cease and desist openwater, non-cage shark diving with potentially dangerous sharks. Neal Watson, the association’ president, confirmed the letter was targeted at Abernathy’s company, which was viewed as an “accident waiting to happen”. Abernathy has refused to comply. In the March issue of Undercurrent, we write about this topic in “Please Don’t Feed the Fish” – read about the hazards of fish-feeding and shark-baiting here.”
Perhaps a few e-mails before Ben goes to press with his issue woul dbe warranted. We might at least point out he’s spelling Abernethy incorrectly . . .
Posted by MikeO on 03/11 at 05:59 AM
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