Richard Vera is a dive guide on the Aggressor II dive boat. He saved Kaffe’s life when she forgot she was human after 40mins at 33m with 27 hammerhead sharks. (Sphryna Lewini).April 16th noon. 2009. Near Wolf Island, Galapagos.

 

 

 

 

 

Elke Hartman is an Italian Peruvian artist who came to Galapagos for love in the 70’s. She was Kaffe’s translator and fixer on Santa Cruz, introducing her to Captain Tito Menguez, showing her  Bahia Tortuga  and the salt lagoon, taking her to work on Isabela Island and always always translating. Elke has recently left Galapagos to go live with her daughter Audrey,  in Lima.

 

 

Captain Tito Mengues is a fisherman who has lived on Santa Cruz, Galapagos since he was 9. He took Kaffe out to sea to show her how he can hypnotize a shark. They went out twice but never found one. However, she did make some great recordings. Locally he is campaigning for better rights for fishermen whose activities have been considerably reduced due international fishing boats in reserve, fish numbers dropping and Class A tourism. He also works with the Migramar team to help them find and tag sharks

 

César Peñaherrera is the first shark scientist Kaffe had ever met. From Ecuador, he is an Associate researcher at the marine station at the Charles Darwin Foundation, also working within the Migramar team to understand migratory patterns of sharks. He also introduced Kaffe to the tagging systems they use and the realities of being at sea, catching a shark, tagging it, and returning it to the water unharmed. See day three.

 

Dr Alex Hearn is Kaffe’s link to the ongoing Migramar research  after her initial Galapagos trip. Working out of the Biotelemetry department, UC Davis, California, she went out to California to meet him and the team April 2011. He has been continuously supportive and has facilitated her access to information, inspiration and shark tagging data.

 

 

 

Dr Peter Klimley directs the Biotelemetry Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, and has to be one of the world’s most respected shark scientists. Having been researching and free-diving with them since the 70’s, Kaffe was as inspired to meet him as she was to encounter her first shark. He has supplied her with the frequencies he uses to attract and repel hammerheads for the composition. Check his “The Secret Life of Sharks”.

 

James Ketchum is a marine biologist and researcher at the Biotelemetry department, University of California, Davis. Also active within Migramar. He has generously supplied his tracking data, collected via acoustic tags,  for Kaffe to make this composition.

Photo of James tagging  a hammerhead in Galapagos by Cesar Penaherrera, Feb 2009.