TV & Web TV

Sharkquest Arabia

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• Adventure
• Inspirational

SHARKQUEST ARABIA

There are not many places in the world where you can dive and film where no one else has been before.  Our films will take you on an epic on-camera voyage of discovery documenting what it takes to reveal new and emerging information about sharks and other marine life from throughout one such region.

Sharkquest Arabia is an un-precedented exciting blue-chip documentary project producing 2 x 50 minutes films about Arabia's shark stories from throughout the still largely unexplored waters of the seas surrounding the Arabian peninsula. 

Arabia is currently perceived as a missing link with virtually no data or information that can help scientists understand the status of marine life and sharks. Sharkquest Arabia is an underwater adventure on camera that explores the waters of the Arabian Sea, Arabian gulf, Gulf of Aden and Red Sea through a series of live aboard diving and filming expeditions with a team of international shark specialists and film crew. 

Throughout the world, our oceans have lost upto 90% of some shark species due to the high demand from Asia for shark fins. Some 70 to 100 million sharks are killed every year to meet that demand. Increased shark research and conservation concerns about our ocean's apex predators is helping to create awareness of just what is happening in most parts of the world. However, despite an active shark fisheries going back more than 30 years (supplying as much as 8% of the fins reaching Hong Kong alone), the Arab world has largely remained un-explored and void of data concerning sharks and other marine life issues. 

This is a project looking for answers to questions that are baffling scientists around the world. Such as, why do whale sharks form single sex aggregations that are 96% male? Where are the females? Where do whale sharks go to give birth? Some of our answers raise questions of their own! Such as, why are most records of whale sharks in Arabia of females? Why are virtually all records of our whale sharks juveniles? Since it's inception in 2009, Sharkquest Arabia has inspired and supported scientists to get out into the field with a growing number of PhD's and other academic research. Other quests include determining the nurseries and pupping sites of globally threatened species such as the giant hammerhead, the sawtooth shark, silky sharks and the oceanic white tip. We are even trying to determine whether great whites are frequenting the waters of Oman's southern Dhofar region and parts of Yemen. But perhaps the greatest revelation will be determining if the Northern Arabian Sea is in fact a principle pupping ground for whale sharks.

We started filming Sharkquest Arabia with a generous grant from the Emirates Foundation and with additional support from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). To date we have mounted filming expeditions to Sudan (Red Sea), Maldives (Arabian Sea), Djibouti (Gulf of Aden) and the Musandam Peninsula (Oman). Despite this great start resulting in almost 60 hours of HD footage, the economic climate has slowed down our production to the point where we now need to look for alternative sources of funding.

These films will help the world to better understand the natural history and conservation needs of a number of threatened species. A lot of our work will highlight new information that will also influence decision makers in this region to make more informed decisions about the conservation of sharks. We have a great interest from the regional media, so this is an ideal opportunity of how a beautifully filmed blue-chip natural history documentary film can help inform viewers about a region they no nothing about whilst also supporting the science that can help us understand more about our natural world.

RAISING THE BUDGET

As many of you will know, RocketHub is not an investment or charity. It is an exchange: funds from fans for rewards from us. It's an All & More funding mechanism: if we don't reach our financial goal we get to keep what we raise. But if we do reach our goal, we get access to exciting opportunities thanks to you. 

So with that in mind, we will be offering you a series of rewards based on what level of support you can offer us. Make no mistake, we appreciate any contributions and will honor our commitments fully. 

If we raise this Rocket Fuel budget target, this money will be used to fund our most important expedition of the project. We need to spend 3 months filming in Oman and Yemen. In that time, we need to charter a live aboard diving support vessel and dive support boats, along with all the logistics and cover the field production costs of our 5 man team as well as support 2 scientists during that period. This includes 2 over-land expeditions as well as marine filming/surveys designed to get our cameras to some of the remotest hotspots that we need to cover. The expedition will include a return to the Musandam Peninsula at the Strait of Hormuz, down to the Daymaniat Islands, the Muscat region, down to Sur and along the coast of the Arabian Sea to Masirah Island, before reaching the Hallaniyat Islands and the Mirbat coastline in southern Dhofar. From here, fly into Yemen to film the shark markets at Hodeidah in the Red Sea and Mukkallah i the Gulf of Aden.  

If by chance, we raise more than our target, we plan to use the funds to support another expedition to Qatar to film whale shark aggregations inside the Arabian Gulf, adding another new story only surfacing thanks to research that has been ongoing over the last few months.

REWARDS

Pledge $50 or more

And get an HD Digital download of all the completed films by November 2012 and a Sharkquest Arabia (SQA) wallpaper image right away, as well as a big thank you all over social media. If you add another $20, you will receive digital downloads of all SQA promos now.

Pledge $100 or more

and get a signed DVD of the finished films you helped make happen. This includes a 15 minutes featurette thanking all our supporters and showing you how you helped us create these films.

Pledge $250 or more

and not only do you get the DVDs and downloads, you also get 5 emails to exchange comments and ideas about our project, but also an hour Skype conversation with SQA Director and Founder Jonathan Ali Khan; on any aspect of SQA as well as advice about natural history filmmaking, conservation, awareness and diving in the MENA region. 

Pledge $500 or more

for the 'Ultimate Fan Pack' - by making these films happen, you are helping to enlighten a whole region about the issues facing sharks and our marine environment This level of donation shows just how much you believe in the project, so in addition to the SQA Fan Pack, we will send you a personal guarantee that you will receive a unique special edition pre-release framed blu-ray of the blue-chip version of our films. These copies will not be available to anyone except early supporters like you! Grab a bit of TV natural history!

Pledge $1000 or more
Now you are talking! Welcome to the project, you just became an Associate Producer in the credits. You will receive all the benefits available from the Ultimate Fan Pack, including a signed version of the DVD with a personalised message from the SQA Director and Founder Jonathan Ali Khan.

Pledge $5000 or more
If you want to see these films as badly as we do, we want to meet you! In fact, we will invite you to join us on one of our filming expeditions for one week diving in Oman, or join us for the Dubai Premiere Screening at next year's Dubai International Film Festival in December 2012. Hang out with the team as you watch your name up on the screen as well as all the other rewards.