Guadalupe Island Sky Watch

It’s been 30 days without satellite monitoring of Guadalupe Island. Our satellite overwatch program for illegal fishing of great white sharks was sidelined by a lawsuit from Nautilus Liveaboards in Canada.

Nautilus is suing an estimated 20 additional shark divers and their own clients.

We are currently spending the entire budget we had set aside to protect and monitor these incredible animals to fight this frivolous lawsuit in Canada.

Please read this article and comments below.

Conservation efforts for these magnificent animals must continue we cannot just walk away

Shark-dive operator brings libel suits against clients Nautilus Liveaboards and its CEO Mike Lever have already served, or are in the process of serving, legal papers to more than 20 named people, including former

Guadalupe Island tag tracking research has revealed many of these California young of the year were pupped from Guadalupe female white sharks.

Monitoring of the island for potential illegal fishing is a top priority now Guadalupe has been closed.

https://abc7.com/juvenile-great-white-shark-sharks-guadalupe-island-cal-state-long-beach-lab/2445607

Californian swimmers are frequently amongst great white sharks, drone research reveals One of the first studies to quantify human-shark overlap found 97 percent proximity to sharks — but no bites

Happy World Oceans Day

We NEED to employ all efforts to protect and monitor species under threat. We are hoping that we'll return to monitoring Guadalupe Island sometime soon.

Today marks the 8th day of the 8 month monitoring season we will not be able to watch Guadalupe Island for potential illegal fishing now the island is closed to tourism, film and tv, and more.

Why We Are NOT Monitoring Guadalupe Island

https://divernet.com/world-dives/north-central-america/shark-dive-operator-brings-libel-suits-against-clients

When a Dive Operator Sues Their Own Clients - Industry Watershed

Here is one of the first of many media pieces that are in process about what happened at Guadalupe Island, why the island closed to tourism, and the fall out NOT refunding your divers when an entire industry did.

Mr Lever. We are going to give you a chance to correct your falsehoods and misrepresentations in this article.

Starting with the FACT that that other operations at Guadalupe Island DID REFUND all their divers.

You did not, setting up a literal storm of diver discontent, your divers. This is fact.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g152515-d15639261-r886968339-Nautilus_Liveaboards-Cabo_San_Lucas_Los_Cabos_Baja_California.html

"Asked what he had thought on hearing that the other three Guadalupe operators were issuing refunds to disappointed guests, Lever told Divernet: “I was upset at the false information being put out there – none of the operators gave refunds.”

Mr Lever was also VERY aware of the Guadalupe Skywatch Program, we have emails to him notifying him of that fact.

Shark-dive operator brings libel suits against clients Nautilus Liveaboards and its CEO Mike Lever have already served, or are in the process of serving, legal papers to more than 20 named people, including former

Guadalupe Skywatch Program is Closed - We’re Sorry

To the shark conservation community: we are very sorry that we must deliver this message.

We, along with you, were looking forward to the launch of the June 2023-January 2024 Skywatch program during the active great white shark season at Isle Guadalupe.

Sadly, a Guadalupe cage diving operator has sued our media marketing company, its CEO, 16 scuba divers and others (including some of their own customers) for defamation over comments made online. Our good-faith efforts to come to a speedy resolution of this matter have failed, leaving us no choice but to retain the services of an attorney to defend ourselves.

As it is now a matter of public record, we will be clear:

WE ARE BEING SUED FOR PERSONAL DEFAMATION BY ICARUS AVIATION DBA NAUTILUS LIVEABOARDS, AND CEO MICHAEL LEVER IN VANCOUVER BC CANADA. CASE NUMBERS S231198 AND S232611.

We really tried to resolve this without needing to retain an attorney. The operator is demanding our silence and non-participation in conversations online that highlight issues of public interest, including: the facts about the Guadalupe closure, shared customer service experiences, refunds (or lack thereof) for canceled trips, a cage breach in 2016 and the alleged death of a protected great white shark at the Guadalupe Biosphere in 2019.

https://fb.watch/kBeVGixsuX/?mibextid=v7YzmG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmqchw_qgCM

We were not seeking to elevate these discussions into the wider industry space. Our comments were confined to a small Facebook group dedicated to great white shark diving at Isla Guadalupe. For us to be transparent about the driving force behind the discontinuation of the Skywatch program, we feel compelled to go public with this information.

None of us who are currently being sued want to be in this fight. It is not only a waste of time but has caused the affected parties a great deal of anxiety and emotional distress.

Defamation suits of this type are sometimes brought by large and well-funded entities against smaller entities or individuals as a strategy to silence their critics.

It’s a weaponization of the legal system designed to instill fear and compliance in others.

In the weeks since this lawsuit was filed, others have come forward to share their similar experiences with this operator in both the USA and Mexico. It is shaping up to look like a pattern of behavior.

Free speech matters. As we are now forced to defend our right to such - all budgets, media campaigns, satellite tasking and staff are now being redirected to fight this suit in Canada.

This is not the outcome we wanted. The sharks at Guadalupe need our help and without us watching, they are vulnerable.

If you have questions or concerns and would like to contact us directly, please do so by reaching out to Patric Douglas at [email protected]. Thank you.

Posted with release by our attorney.

Good Morning Skywatch Team,

We will have an official announcement on Tuesday May 16th about the future of the Guadalupe Skywatch Program set to begin June 1st until January 15th.

As you are aware the media marketing agency behind Skywatch and CEO of Skywatch, along with 16 scuba divers, industry members and others are either being sued by, threatened with legal action, or in the process of being served with legal documents by an operator at Guadalupe Island.

Guadalupe Island was closed permanently by Mexico citing specific reasons for the closure to tourism. This closure has sent shockwaves across an estimated $83 million USD industry, putting shark divers across the world into uncertainty, operations out of business, and cratering an entire film and tv industry at the Biosphere.

The Value of Guadalupe Shark Tourism

https://sharkallies.org/valuation-reports/guadalupe-white-sharks-valuation-report

On Tuesday May 16th we will lay out all the facts of our case and the the impact this case is having on the Guadalupe Skywatch Program which is the only program that has been proposed and initiated after the closure of Guadalupe Island Biosphere to help guard against potential illegal fishing for the protected great white sharks here.

We created Skywatch out of a sense of duty to the animals that we have enjoyed and encountered for the past 22 years.

These animals have given the world so much in terms of shark research, education, and understanding. We owe them our time and diligence. It is the least we can do.

Please join us on May 16th. To our NGO community we would like you to join us here as well.

To our friends in Mexico we will be sending you this invitation.

See you then.

We have bad news. The primary individuals and marketing agency behind the Guadalupe Island Skywatch program are being sued by an operator at Guadalupe Island.

We will be posting an official announcement in two days detailing the lawsuit, who is involved, the background of the closure of the island with available links and citations, media articles, and more.

At this stage with this lawsuit and the 16+ others named in the suit, along with legal threats to businesses, we are unsure if the funding or bandwidth for this important shark conservation project can move forward.

For now all expenditures on websites and satellite tasking starting in June-Jan of 2023 are on hold as we scramble to figure out a plan to help the sharks at Guadalupe Island.

We are sorry for this news. It's not what anyone wanted.

Hopefully we can get this resolved. The sharks at Guadalupe need our help. This is a terrible setback.

Why Monitor Isla Guadalupe?

In 2022, responding to the closure of the island to commercial traffic, we tasked commercially available satellites to watch over the areas where white shark are most abundant during the peak migration season.

We observed several vessels of interest during that time. While none appeared to be harvesting sharks the data we collected proved satellites can be an effective tool to watch over this fragile location for illegal fishing.

Please join us as we go into the 2023 season by liking, sharing and following this page today

Thanks for the boost Shark 🦈 Doc!

Guadalupe Island Sky Watch The Guadalupe Sky Watch Program tasks global satellites to monitor Isla Guadalupe, Mexico for illegal

Our next steps for the Guadalupe Island Skywatch program is a new website rollout with media deck and NGO partnership page.

The new site will feature interactive satellite uploads and daily reporting from the island.

Exciting things are on the way, stay tuned, we will be ready for 2023.

Please like, follow and share this page today

We field tested the Guadalupe Sky Watch program in 2022 when Mexico first closed the island to tourism and ground level illegal fishing deterrents.

The initial investment in satellites and monitoring time proved this system was successful in observing vessel traffic and intent at the island.

We will be scaling this project this year to monitor the entire island from May - February on 2023. Join us.

Please like, follow and share this page today

THIS is why we created Sky Watch at . I.2 tons of dried shark fins sourced from Mexico.

The trade is alive and well. Guadalupe Islands great whites are at risk. Join us today!

Please like, share and follow this page.

Customs seize over 1.2 tonnes dried shark fins at airport Customs said they seized over 1.2 tonnes of dried shark fins of endangered species valued at HK$40 million at the airport on Friday. Customs officers inspected an air consignment that arrived fro...

Tracking Vessels at Sea Guadalupe Island

By expanding our satellite lens we can track individual vessels offshore of the island up to 200 nautical miles. On this day on Oct 2022 we tracked this sailing vessel (low resolution) moving away from the island over three days of transit to Ensenada.

Being able to spot traffic before it comes to the island and back to home ports will be an important conservation tool for identifying illegal fishing for great white sharks.

Please like, share and follow this page today!

Thank you Shark Experience - Bluff all the way down in NZ for liking our page. Mike and his team have been leading sustainability and cage diving for a number of years now at Stewart Island

Thank you Shark Angels for the shout out we love the media messaging you do for sharks all over the planet!

Guadalupe Island Closure, What's Next For Great White Sharks?

In 2022 we launched the Guadalupe Island Sky Watch program in response to Mexico’s closure of the Biosphere Reserve to tourism vessel traffic.

Liveaboards operations collectively provide a barrier to poachers and illegal fishing activities as they are present during the six months that protected great white sharks visit Isla Guadalupe each year.

Since 2008 there have been two well documented cases of shark tourism operators halting targeted shark fishing within the Biosphere.

With no plan in place by Mexico to monitor the island we field tested a novel idea, tasking commercial satellites to watch over the entire island and known shark aggregation sites.

The system works.

We were able to follow three large vessels that entered the Biosphere in October 2022. Two of these vessels we tracked back to Ensenada giving us unprecedented low and high resolution images of these vessels and crews over several days.

With the permanent ban on shark tourism and vessel traffic it is imperative the shark conservation community, dive community, and film and tv community come together with monitoring solutions to keep the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island safe from illegal fishing and poaching.

It is not a matter of if these animals will be harvested by when.

The Guadalupe Sky Watch program is a powerful tool to monitor this remarkable Biosphere Reserve.

Please join us on our mission to protect the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island by liking, following and sharing this page today!

October 2022 Satellite Monitoring Guadalupe Island

This vessel, seen here at low resolution imaging, caught our attention. As you can see it has two separate smaller vessels attached to it. As we investigated in higher 10k resolution one was a standard soft sided single engine tender and the other a smaller sportfishing vessel with regular fishing gear (trolling).

We determined this vessel was a pleasure craft and not fishing for great white sharks after observing this vessel and crew for three days.

Please like, follow and share our page today!

Thank you to the O'Seas Conservation Foundation for liking our page and our mission of providing 24/7 satellite monitoring of during the critical great white shark migration months against illegal fishing.

Thank you!

Thank you Abenaki for the shout out. For years your team have told the ongoing story about and your dedication to the great whites here. We appreciate you!

Thank you!

Thank you Alison Towner for the shout out and liking our page. Your work in SA with white sharks is amazing and we love seeing you on Shark Week. Thanks for the support at

Thank You!

Thank you Craig O'Connell for liking us and the shout out. We love your work with sharks and Shark Week the team here appreciates your help at

Thank You!

Thank you Paul de Gelder Page for liking us. You know many of the great whites personally at with Shark Week so you know what’s at stake here. The team really appreciates your support for the great whites.

Thank you!

Sky Watch Team

Adult female white shark tracked for 288 days and 7,100 km in the NE Pacific Ocean.

The shark, tagged with a real-time satellite tag off Guadalupe Island, Mexico in October 2006, remained around the island for 3.5 months but left in early February 2007 for a 3,900 km westward migration.

Figure 1. Usage of the marine environment off Guadalupe Island by shark... Download scientific diagram | Usage of the marine environment off Guadalupe Island by shark 40788. Different shades of blue represent depth, darker color greater depth. Black star shows tagging site. Dashed horizontal and vertical lines arbitrarily define four quadrants. The data show the female sha...

Vessel Tracking at Guadalupe Island

Low resolution images from allow our team to identify potential illegal fishing on a daily basis. This vessel is a 90 foot pleasure yacht observed at the island on October 2022.

At higher resolution 10K our team can identify crew on deck, clothing, gear on deck and much more.

Please join the Sky Watch team by liking, following and sharing this page today!

Secret great white shark social club discovered off Mexican coast The first rule of Shark Club is: "You do not talk about Shark Club."