Fred was in South Africa earlier this month for a photo shoot with freedivers Pierre Frolla and William Winram. The idea was to take pictures of them interacting with the tiger sharks of Aliwal shoal in Durban area.

On site, they joined Wolfgang Leander, the legendary shark enthousiast and conservationist.

Jerome Espla was filming the shoot for french tv channel, the 6min piece can be visioned here:
http://poissonlune.over-blog.fr/

The expedition's logistics was organized by Blue Wilderness.

Pictures: nektos.net

Another shark tagging expedition in Malpelo's sancturay took place in march.

William Winram and Fred were able to tag 46 hammerheads, 4 galapagos sharks and 3 odontaspis ferox.

In february during a trip in South Africa Fred had the opportunity to freedive with a great white shark.

The magical encounter took place on a reef 40km from Stuisbaai.

Fred could swimm freely without a protection cage with the shark for half an hour.

AIDA Deep Tank Freediver course at Nemo33!

The 3 first ever freediving courses in Nemo 33 will take place in may 2008!

Choice of 3 dates for the AIDA Deep Tank Freediver with Fred Buyle:

5th and 6th of may 2008
9th and 10th of may 2008
10th and 11th of may 2008

The courses will take place at Nemo 33, the world’s deepest pool over two days.
It includes classroom sessions, 4 pool sessions and AIDA Tank Freediver certification.
Freediving documentories and slideshows’s projection during the evening.
Price:
425 Euros for the 5th/6th of may and 9th/10th of may
450 Euros for the 10th/11th of may

For more informations, please contact Fred
fred@futurapnea.com

for bookings: fh@nemo33.com

The 34th Antibes World Underwater Festival took place from the 24th to 28th of october.

Two documentories featuring Fred were awarded:

-Princes des Epvaves with Pierre Frolla by Jérome Espla won Palme de Bronze (3rd place)

-Requins Sous Haute Surveillance by Christian Pétron won Palme d'Argent (2nd place)

This palmares shows the interest of general audience for freediving when the activity is treated in a different way than competition and performances.

For 2008, more documentories are on the way with Jerome and Christian.

Princes des Epaves
Requins Sous Haute Surveillance

Princes des Epaves is now available for sale on dvd. The documentory was released may 8th, the premiere took place in Monaco's oceanographic museum.
It'll presented in some of the best underwater imaging festivals in 2007. 

Jerome Espla's cameras dived with Pierre Frolla and Fred during their visits to some of France's most beautifull wrecks and freediving together with Comex's Remora 2000 submarine.

The dvd is sold on www.poissonlune.fr (http://www.poissonlune.fr/download/bon2commande.pdf)

In march 2007 Fred was back in Malpelo for some more shark tagging.
16 hammerhead were tagged with accoustic beacons by the team.
Also, Fred successfully marked two odontaspis ferox, both with satellite and accoustic tags. This is the first time ever these mysterious sharks of the depths were tagged when they are cruising in the 60/100m zone of Malpelo's waters in february and march.
Pictures of the sharks can be seen on:

http://www.nektos.net/show_images.php?IDcat=malpelo%202007%20hammerhead%20and%20odontaspis%20ferox

Two days in Crystal River with Pierre Frolla to play with these peacefull creatures.

The winter is almost there and the manatees are gathering near the warm springs.

Ocean Realm Society Global Anti Shark Buyer Email Campaign

The Ocean Realm Society will spearhead an email campaign, initiated by noted underwater shark photographer Wolfgang Leander, opposing the business practice of the online trader Alibaba.com, which provides shark traders with a method to buy and sell shark body parts.

Daytona Beach, FL (Scuba PRWire) Thu, 19-Oct-2006 - The Ocean Realm Society is initiating an email campaign opposing the business practice of the online trader Alibaba.com to allow the posting of shark parts wanted for purchase. According to the company web site, Alibaba.com Corporation is China's leading e-commerce company, operating the world's largest online marketplaces for both international and domestic China trade, as well as China's most popular online payment system, AliPay. Alibaba.com also owns and operates Yahoo! China, which it acquired in October of 2005.

According to founder Richard H. Stewart, the Ocean Realm Society will enthusiastically support an email write-in campaign initiated by noted underwater shark photographer Wolfgang Leander, who currently resides in Bolivia. Leander's "shark-finning" story is featured in the current edition of the Ocean Realm Journal, the society's publication for which he servers as a contributing editor.

"We are asking our members," said Stewart, "as well as those of other environmentally-oriented organizations, to express their outrage. This irresponsible action by Alibaba.com provides shark traders a method to buy and sell shark body parts."

A recent search on the Alibaba website turned up 71 postings by 335 companies listing 169 shark-related products. This type of business platform serves only to fuel the senseless slaughter of sharks, said Leander, further decimating a population that, by some accounts, is being reduced at the rate of one hundred million sharks per year.

"Eliminating demand is the only effective method for disrupting the supply line," said Stewart. "This effort to convince Alibaba.com that it's website contributes to a global problem, could have a positive effect."

To see the scope of global shark buying visit http://importer.alibaba.com/buyeroffers/Shark.html.

To see Alibaba.com management visit http://www.alibaba.com/aboutalibaba/management.html.

To locate the Alibaba.com office nearest you visit http://www.alibaba.com/aboutalibaba/contact.html.

To voice your concerns about Alibaba.com shark trade postings visit http://www.alibaba.com/trade/servlet/page/static/help/contact_us_answer.

For more information, please visit:
www.OceanRealmSociety.com

One breath, a reflection on freediving, the book by Emma Farrell and photographs by Frederic Buyle is now out.

For more information and/or order, please check http://www.pynto.com/onebreath/

Between the 25th of june and the 27th of august, Fred exhibited his uw photography in the ARTEspace gallery in Brussels. (artespace@skynet.be)

A selection of fuji Rag paper 90 X 60cm prints mounted on solid aluminium panels were displayed in a dedicated room creating a underwater atmosphere.

New website dedicated to my underwater photography work is now online and running.

WWW.NEKTOS.NET

All pictures were taken in freediving action.

A huge thank to Mozzi, the best webdesigner of the galaxy.

In march, I was in the wonderfull national park of Malpelo 500km offshore of Colombia.
I was hired to tag hammearhead sharks for a research project initiate by Fundacion Malpelo.
The opperations were supervised by Sandra Bessudo, director of the park and Dr Peter Klimley, the famous shark specialist of UC Davis. Responsibles from Galapagos park and Coco Island were present too.
19 sharks were taged while freediving with accoustic or satelitte tags thanks to a Teak-Sea speargun.
The listening station are now collecting datas and the the satelitte tags are programed to surface during the next 9 months.
This project is highly important for the protection of the sharks and of the Pacific ecosystem in general.
All the opperations were filmed in HD by cinemarine team.

Arrival in Malpelo on the Maria Patricia.

Setting up the tags, James Ketchum (left), Dr Peter Klimley and Sandra Bessudo.



The tags...



A big female



Schooling hammerheads

Fred and Pierre Frolla are currently shooting a documentory with Hexagone Video Productions.

The crew follows them during their quest to explore the famous and deep wrecks of the Mediterranean Sea.
So far, footage of the Rubis, a submarine at 40m, the Togo, a cargo ship lying in 60m of water and many others wrecks were taken.

Fred is taking pictures in apnea during these dives. Problably the deepest pictures taken on one breath so far. The next goal of the team is a plane wreck in the 70m zone, then a super tanker in the 80m zone.

Stay tuned for more infos in january and february about the project.

the Rubis


the Togo, -53m


the Prophete


Pierre is flying

In october, Fred has travel to Polynesia to follow his freediving friend Yoram Zekri around the archipaelago to dive with the Pacific Ocean's sea creatures.
Encounters with humpbacks whales in Rurutu, sharks, rays and turtles in Rangiroa.

Last weekend the pool discipline's world championship took place in Switzerland.
The level was very very high and it seems we enter a new age of freediving.
The men competition was won by Stig Severisen (dk) for the dynamic no fins, Sam Still (uk) for the static and Tom Sietas for the dynamic with fins.
For the women, Natalia Molchalova (ru) dominated all 3 disciplines and established 3 new world records....
She is competing next weekend in Nice for the constant weight title...

The 23th of july took place the IWC World Apnea Static Contest.

This brand new format of freediving competition was a success.

The athletes were opposed in duel in two legs and a final.

Stephane Mifsud, France, won the event with a 8min28 breathold, followed by Timmo Kinnunen from Finland and Eric Fattah from Canada.

Pierre Frolla dived 100m in no limits to retreive the Formula 1 Grand Prix's flag.
The dive took place in Monaco friday 20th may.
Lot of medias were present and the dive was successfull. The flag was signed by the 3 first pilots of the race, Pierre, Stephane Mifsud and Fred. The 60 open multihull's skippers joinned us on the water and signed the flag too. The flag will be sold later during a fundraising evening in Monaco. The money raised will be used by AMADE to build a scholl in Africa.
Saturday 21th, Pierre and Fred have been invited to race on the multihulls.

Fred was in the expedition to freedive the North Pole...here's the press release and some pictures he took.

Kristian “Kike” Curavic, 30 years old from Croatia. He’s been freedivin since childhood. Established several world class freediving performances under the since 2002.

Team: 2 safety freedivers, 1 underwater photographer, 2 safety scuba divers with video cameras. Onland shooting team of 6 persons for a documentory about the performance. 1200kgs of equipment. Logistics coordinated by Borge Ousland, the first human who reached the North Pole in total autonomy, a 81 days journey. Kike and him know each others for many years now. They have been training a lot together. These two athletes have a very strong mental combined with an extensive knowledge of the Arctic environement to maximize safety.

Departure from Longyearbyen, Spitzberg, with an Antonov 74 to “Borneo”, a Russian drifting station on the ice cap established a few kilometers away from the pole. The station drifts following winds and currents, the drift can reach 10km a day. “Borneo” is used for scientific research and as base camp for polar expeditions. 2 Mi8 helicopters were avaible to find the best diving spots and to carry the equipment.

Diving conditions: Outside temperature -24°c, wind 30km/h, ice thickness 1,6m, water temperature -2°c, total darkness under the ice but visibility can reach 100m with a light source. It took 5 hours to a 6 men crew to dig the hole in the ice used by the divers. Everyday, 10cm of ice is covering the surface of the hole and must be removed before the dives. Scuba diver’s regulators are freezing because of the extreme cold making the dives even more problematic. The freedivers and divers are linked to the surface by ropes. Kike uses a 6mm wetsuit and a monofin.

Curavic set the constant weight under ice record at 51m in 1min31sec and became the first man to freedive at the North Pole.