Top Shark Conservation Organizations;
Acknowledgments;
About the Author
By edRogers
[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]
Postscript: Whatever Happened to Charlie?
I’m Juan Reyes. My family and I sold our house and moved into Margot Rosenburg’s home, which was deeded to me by a mutual friend. Thanks to that friend, my kids are both at the University. My son is studying to become a lawyer and my daughter a doctor. For once in my life, we caught a good break.
It has been almost three years since my friend came by with the deed to the house, jeep, and motorbike. Along with the property, he gave me a hundred thousand dollars. He said he had cleaned out Margot’s bank account and was leaving the country. At first, I tried to turn down the gifts, but he convinced me there were no strings attached, and it wasn’t like I didn’t need everything he was offering.
There may not have been any strings but there was some baggage. Inspector Araya paid me visits weekly for a year, always asking about the friend.
A few weeks ago a strange car pulled up to the gate. I let the car in and watched the driver get out of his car and wondered if this was the day I would have to pay for those gifts. The man looked American, but he also looked like a cop. It made no difference what I wore or what he wore, once a cop always a cop. It was the way a cop held himself, the way a cop walked, and how their eyes were always on the lookout. It wasn’t something I ever got rid of, nor had the stranger coming up the hill toward me.
He had his hand out in front of him as he asked, “Juan Reyes?”
I took the man’s hand and said, “Yes, I’m Reyes. What can I do for you?”
The man smiled and seemed to relax. “I’m happy to meet you after all these years. I’m Agent R.J. Morris, with the D.E.A.”
I exhaled – whatever this was, it had nothing to do with me. I smiled back at Morris, who was a full head taller than myself. “Come in, Mr. Morris.” I opened the door and we entered the house.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“A cold beer would be nice.”
I removed two beers from the refrigerator and as I opened them I inquired, “Then…this is not an official visit?”
Morris took the beer and followed me out the back door to the porch. “No, this has nothing to do with the D.E.A. I have lost touch with an old friend and I thought maybe he might have returned here for a visit.”
I took a long drink from my bottle and placed it on the table beside my chair, a flash of memories flooding my brain – memories I had fought hard to forget. Without being conscious of the movement right then, I ran my hand across my chest where each bullet had hit me.
“It’s been at least three years since I dropped him off at the marina. We shook hands and he walked down the pier and boarded a sailboat named ‘Shelley Renée,’ which was flying a Canadian flag, if that helps.” I took another long drink. “I didn’t see him leave, but I have always believed he sailed off into the sunset.”
Morris laughed. “That he did do. Last time I saw him he was in San Diego – that was more than two years ago. He had sailed his boat from Honolulu and was in port for a major retrofit.”
I finished my beer. “Are you ready for another one, Mr. Morris?”
“That would be nice, and my friends call me RJ.”
I walked into the house to get the beers and ran into my wife, Carla, who whispered to me, “Who is that man?”
I opened the beers and tried to step around Carla, but she blocked my path.
“Please, Carla, he is just a friend of a friend.”
Fear suddenly appeared in her eyes. “You promised you were finished with all that.”
“I am. The man is wanting to know where his friend is, that’s all, and I don’t know, so there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
I eased around her and walked back outside. “Sorry, my wife sees strangers and thoughts of the good old bad days come to her mind.”
“I can understand that.”
“So how come you and he got together in San Diego?”
RJ gulped a third of his beer. “I’m sure you must have heard that Tomas Morales put out a five hundred thousand dollar bounty on him, dead or alive.”
I laughed. “I heard about that but always thought it was a lot of money to offer with no proof who it was that killed his kid.”
RJ set his bottle on the table and shook his head. “Well, Detective Araya believed he knew who it was, and that was good enough for Tomas.”
“Was he hiding out in San Diego?”
RJ smiled, picked up his beer, and took a swig. “On the contrary. He was looking to take the fight to Tomas. He called me and asked if I could meet him with any information I had about Tomas’s movements.”
I was puzzled. “I thought Tomas was on your payroll.”
“No, he was never on our payroll. We would turn a blind eye ever so often, as long as we got his cooperation on projects that were of utmost importance to us. However, there was no partnership between the Morales Cartel and the D.E.A.”
“So what happened? Did the cooperation stop?
RJ grunted, “Something like that. After Victor’s death, Tomas went crazy. He never was very stable, but after the death of his only son, he started a bloodbath. He was killing people for no reason at all. The entire border area was a war zone. So when I got the call about meeting in San Diego, I didn’t see where we had anything to lose.”
“So you threw him to the wolves?”
“He was going after Tomas, with or without my help. With my help he had a chance, without it he would be one more dead gringo buried in the sands of Mexico.”
I thought back to when I heard of Tomas Morales’s death. “I remember reading that Tomas was blown up in his SUV?”
“In his armored SUV – it was built like a tank. Tomas had a compound outside of the Sonoran Sea Resort, close to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico,7 across from the Baja peninsula. We had a satellite tracking his movements for months. Once a week, at eight on Tuesday morning, he would ride into Puerto Peñasco for the fresh shrimp the boats would bring in.”
“Tomas would go shopping for shrimp? How damn crazy is that?”
RJ took a drink and half smiled. “There are habits people cannot break, and those are the ones that get you killed.”
“So what did he use to blow up the SUV?”
RJ began to laugh. “It was a three-inch artillery shell, or that is what the Mexican police say it was, and I have no reason to doubt them.”
“You’re talking about a shell that is three inches across the base, and a large casing, right? Where the hell did he get an artillery round that big and how did he shoot it?”
“He didn’t shoot it, he buried it with the nose pointing up and set it off by remote. The police believe what happened was that Tomas’s SUV was coming down Boulevard Pase de la Duna at eight o’five, and as it approached a turn-off road, a bullet struck his driver’s side of the windshield and, without thinking, the driver turned onto the turn-off, a small dirt road. One hundred feet from the boulevard, a tree blocked the road and before the driver could reverse, the artillery shell went off, sending the explosive round through the floor and demolishing the inside of the vehicle, killing Tomas and the driver.”
“How the hell did he get out of Mexico?”
“I don’t know. By the time I got back to San Diego, he was gone. I haven’t heard anything from him since that meeting. Then last year, a bomb in Taiwan took off the top floor of a building owned by the group that controls the shark finning. The bomb killed twenty people, including all the top mafia bosses”
“Did he have something to do with that too?”
RJ finished his beer and set the bottle on the table. “I don’t know. I may be getting as bad as that detective – like him, I see you-know-who’s face in everything.” He stood and put out his hand. “I have taken up far too much of your time. I’m retiring next month and hoped to find an ending. I had hoped for a happy one but I guess whatever happened to him will remain a mystery.”
I stood and walked RJ to the door and put my hand on his shoulder. “After the big shake-up here, the Costa Rican government put a stop to bringing fins into the country, so the Taiwanese now bring in large ships that station outside of Costa Rican waters and the shark finners take their fins to the boats. They no longer come to shore and no one knows how many sharks are being killed. But one of the ships sank four months ago. Like you – my first thought turned to mi amigo.”
RJ smiled at the thought. “Keep a candle burning in the window – he may show up yet.”
I watched the car back out and drive away and wondered out loud, “My friend, where the hell are you?”
After the agent left, I walked back in and picked up the manuscript lying on the bar. It had been delivered the day before. It bore the title, “Unspoken War*.”
I don’t know if my friend is a hero or just a cold-blooded murderer, but he remains my friend.
The End
Top Shark Conservation Organizations to Support
If you enjoyed reading this book and were moved by the plight of sharks, please do what you can to help protect them. Any of the major shark conservation organizations listed below can use your support. The following list comes from the We Love Sharks website [https://welovesharks.club/top-10-shark-conservation-organizations-support-2017/].
1) Project AWARE Foundation. USA, UK, Australia
This group works with scuba divers across 182 countries around the globe to protect underwater environments. For over 25 years now, the Project AWARE Foundation has been steadily increasing as more scuba divers are signing up to protect the oceans and its inhabitants. They mobilize individual scuba divers to help stem the threat arising from two major ocean issues: shark conservation and marine litter. Also, divers and water enthusiasts get the needed training, tools and online resources that will allow them act in their own communities to protect the ocean.
Contact: https://www.projectaware.org/contact
2) Oceana. Headquarters: Washington, USA
Oceana is devoted to marine conservation and advocacy and it remains the largest organization globally that does this exclusively. It was established in 2001 by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Oak Foundation, Marisla Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Oceana merged with the American Oceans Project (founded by actor Ted Danson) in 2002. Their vision is to “make our oceans as rich, healthy and abundant as they once were.” Oceana’s strategy is to use targeted policy campaigns to get their message across. By combining policy, advocacy, science, law, different kinds of media, and public pressure, they aim to prevent the impending collapse of fish populations. Such populations also include all marine mammals and other sea life. Industrial fishing and pollution remain the greatest threats to these creatures. Each of their campaigns is designed to produce clear, identifiable policy changes within a 3–5-year timeframe. Recent campaign victories from Oceana include the halting of Shell’s plans to drill for crude oil in the Arctic Ocean in 2014. Others include upholding of shark finning bans in California, Maryland, and other areas.
3) Shark Angels
Though just five years old, Shark Angels is already making waves in shark conservation. This organization harnesses the power of a new generation of conservationists. By using modern technological tools, education, media and local grassroots campaigns, they are actively saving sharks. For instance, one of their very successful programs was the Fin Free program, with the tag line “Say No to Shark Fin Soup.” In addition, their ‘shark adoption’ schemes are effective at getting kids involved and giving them a voice.
Contact: http://sharkangels.org/contact-us
4) Shark Savers (Merged with WildAid). San Francisco, California, USA
Shark Savers was founded in 2007 by a group of six long time divers with a shared passion to end the slaughter of sharks and manta rays. Presently, this group has grown to more than 25,000 members spanning 99 nations worldwide. Their aim is to motivate people and educate them on why they should stop consuming sharks and shark fin soup. Also, they work for the creation of shark sanctuaries in different locations. Shark Savers also empowers divers to act as advocates and citizen scientists for sharks. The Shark Savers website has lots of articles and interesting tips on what you can do individually to help the cause.
Contact: https://www.projectaware.org/contact
5) Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Headquarters: Burbank, California
Sea Shepherd is widely known for its frontline work in protecting marine mammals; e.g., whales. However, it also has a broader mandate to protect all other ocean creatures including our beloved sharks. This group was founded in 1977 by Captain Paul Watson and it has a hard-line activism approach to protecting sharks and other sea animals that may not be to everyone’s taste. They frequently pursue and harass illegal whalers, long-liners, and sea cullers. As part of their activities, they organize rallies that end up annoying complacent governments and fishing consortiums. As a result of these actions, the Sea Shepherd crew are commonly deported, locked up, even threatened and roughed up on several occasions. Yet, they still believe this direct style of getting their message across is more important than ever. That’s in view of the continuous wholesale slaughter of the ocean’s sharks and whales. More recently, they were very vocal in calling for the ban of the West Australian shark cull.
6) Predators in Peril
Most of us know a lot about great white sharks and whale sharks for instance, but what about the other little-known shark species facing extinction? Well, Predators in Peril Project creates awareness about these more obscure species. They aim to draw attention to the plight of some of these highly vulnerable shark and ray species. Though these animals are largely ignored by conservation movements because of their inaccessibility and lack of data. They work directly in the field with local shark fishermen and scientific researchers. Hence, they are able to get live images and video footage of rare, little-known and endangered elasmobranchs in their natural habitats. Each Predator in Peril field expedition is a time of intensive media campaigns. Such campaigns include public exhibitions, magazine articles, and numerous internet promotions. Also, television and radio interviews. Furthermore, they have a gallery showing the widespread destruction of shark species, but be warned some of the pictures are disturbing.
7) Shark Friendly Marinas
The Shark Friendly Marinas Initiative aims to reduce worldwide shark mortality. To achieve this, this group implements a specific and successful plan. By working with local authorities, they prohibit the landing of any shark at participating marinas. By earmarking specific marinas as “Shark Friendly,” they discourage the killing of sharks for recreational purposes (mainly by private/charter boat users). Consequently, this initiative could save tens of thousands of sharks every year. Also, they have numerous celebrity endorsement from people like Steve Bartkowski, Elizabeth Berkley, Josh Madden, Patrick McDonnell, Alec Baldwin, etc.
8) Shark Research Institute. Princeton, USA
SRI became an entity in 1991 at Princeton, USA. It’s a scientific research organization that was created to sponsor and conduct research on sharks and promote their conservation. Their focus is conservation, education, and advocacy. The Shark Research Institute works to change numerous misconceptions about sharks and actively stop the slaughter of millions of sharks annually. Their popular Global Shark Attack File is a crucial resource that provides the media with accurate data about sharks. As a result of this, they can counteract the unnecessary and exaggerated negative hype about shark accidents. They also seek to involve young people in their projects. As a matter of fact, they involve children actively in learning about shark conservation.
Contact: https://www.sharks.org/about/contact
9) White Shark Trust South Africa
This South African based shark conservation group was founded in 2002 by Michael Scholl. Prior to that time, he had been conducting research on Great White Sharks since 1997. White Shark Trust seeks to promote and conduct research and education about the great white shark. In addition, they spearhead conservation projects for the great white sharks. They do this in collaboration with the South African tourist industry and other organizations.
10) The IUCN Shark Specialist Group
Our list would not be complete without mentioning the IUCN. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was formerly called the World Conservation Union. They are the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network cutting across a wide range of animals and natural resources (and that’s an understatement). Their frequently updated IUCN Red List has become a global alarm keeping us all aware of the status of shark species and other animals as well. The Shark Specialist Group is a unit under the IUCN with 128 members from 35 countries.
Contact: http://www.iucnssg.org/contact.html
The We Love Sharks list concludes with the statement:
Other shark conservation groups that are worthy of mention include Shark Alliance, Shark Trust, Institute for Ocean Conservation Science (founded by Ellen K. Pikitch, PhD), and Oceanic Defense. Remember that supporting these groups is not always about donating money. Often, all they require is that you participate in a petition. Or you can help copy and paste a prewritten email to key government officials in your region. So, do get involved today. It’s surprising what we can achieve if we all rise up and do our own bit to help shark conservation efforts no matter how small.Acknowledgments
I gratefully acknowledge my wife, Janie, and thank her for being the rock that is always there to hold onto.
I am grateful to the people of Costa Rica and the town of Puntarenas, where I spent a lot of time in preparation for writing this book.
And, as always, a special thanks to Morris Dean for his indispensable help and diligent work in editing this book and creating its cover.
edRogers is the nom de plume of Ed Rogers, whose other published novels include the action & adventure thrillers
Boystown: The Cocaine Highwayand the action & adventure political thriller
Boystown: The Return
Unwanted President.He has also published a collection of reminiscences titled Tadpole Creek & Other Stories: Children of the Soil.
Ed has been a certified NAUI scuba diver since 1971 (National Association of Underwater Instructors). He has lived in Washington State and has dived in Puget Sound, the Caribbean, and Greece. His love for the sea and the life within it fills him with untold joy.
The action & adventure thriller Finsoup represents Ed’s entry into writing for a cause, one that he became passionate about while living in Costa Rica for four years this decade – the urgent cause of ending shark finning.
| Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers |
You-Know-Who's book ends, but he continues to fight shark finning in unspoken war. FINSOUP only gets better with rereading.
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