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The High Stakes of Communicating About Sharks

 
By Colin Ruggiero, Filmmaker/Photographer

 
Shark Week is upon us, those seven days every year when the Discovery Channel uses dubious tactics and a misunderstood predator to boost it’s ratings. In light of that, I thought I’d reflect briefly on fear of sharks and a recent lesson I’ve learned about conservation in the age of soundbites and sensational media.  
Not long ago I got news that a large tiger shark had been killed on a small island in the Bahamas where I’ve spent a lot of time. Many of the locals there have a general policy of killing any potentially dangerous sharks that they find near the island in shallow water. They go out with a bang stick, which is a long pole spear with a high-powered firearm round at the tip, kill them and drag them back to the public beach.…

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Artist overcomes fear with curiosity and wonder

By scientific illustrator DJ Jackson

Science, nature and art have been passions of mine for as long as I can remember. Growing up on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, there were plenty of animals to spike my curiosity. Catching Green Anoles, observing alligators, and watching dolphins play as a child engrained my passion for nature. I was always bringing animals I found in my backyard in for show and tell, frightening my teachers with snakes, spiders and praying mantises. As I grew up, I began to pursue art. I was constantly drawing animals in class. At first, my teachers thought it was distracting me, but soon found that it helped me focus. As my art progressed, I found that I was able to learn a lot about animals through drawing them.…

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Gills Club Interviews Dr. Sylvia Earle

Our partners at the Gills Club recently interviewed Mission Blue founder Dr. Sylvia Earle. Learn more about the Gills Club and their amazing work on their website.

Why did you start studying marine biology?
My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was three years old and I got knocked over by a wave. The ocean certainly got my attention! It wasn’t frightening. It was more exhilarating than anything else. And since then life in the ocean has captured my imagination and held it ever since. I started out as a kid and never did grow up. The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids. They ask questions and have a sense of wonder.…

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Protecting Sharks and Marine Ecosystems

From our new partners at Shark Team One:

Shark Team One is proud to partner with Mission Blue!
For millions of years sharks have inhabited our planet’s oceans. However today, due to factors such as overfishing, finning, bycatch in commercial fisheries and habitat loss over a third of all shark, skate and ray species are threatened with extinction. In response to the rapid decline of elasmobranchs around the world, Shark Team One has mobilized to create a team of scientists, conservationists, divers, filmmakers, photographers, partner organizations, ocean ambassadors and concerned citizens who are fighting to help save sharks and our oceans.
Headquartered in South Florida, Shark Team One brings shark conservation awareness to local, national and global stakeholders, schools, colleges and government institutions via conservation initiatives, partner programs, educational seminars and outreach events.…

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Exploring the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

By Dr. Richard Pyle

September 27, 2014: Back to French Frigate Shoals
After leaving Pearl and Hermes, we had scheduled two and a half transit days to get back to French Frigate Shoals, which would have allowed us one and a half days of diving. However, the crew of the Hi’ialakai made better-than-expected headway in transit, arriving early enough at French Frigate Shoals that we were able to get in two full days of diving. Even before the bubbles cleared after plunging into the clear blue water for my first deep dive yesterday, I was startled when I turned around and saw a Galapagos Shark bearing down on me. I managed to turn my video camera on just in time to capture its closest pass, and from that point onward, we were obviously the subject of much interest among about seven or eight larger-than-usual Galapagos Sharks.…

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TBA-21 Academy hosts Shark Symposium at UCLA

August 11, 2014
For those seeking to find balance during Shark Week, Francesca von Habsburg and her foundation, TBA21 Academy hosted a groundbreaking science and advocacy based symposium, Pelagic Research & Conservation Project for Isla del Coco & Shark Conservation Initiatives in the Eastern Pacific, at UCLA in Southern California last week.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21,) was founded in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg. It pioneers experimental programs that don’t fit into traditional categories. Their mission is to be “a fellowship organization bringing artists, scientists and thinkers together at sea and on land. We commission projects that compliment the itinerary of our flagship vessel Dardanella – (within) unique geographical contexts that raise ecological, economic and social issues. TBA21 Academy is an adventurous institution exploring critical geographies.”…

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Gills Club Connects Shark Girls and Women Researchers

The Gills Club is proud to be onboard as new partners at Mission Blue! We were founded in January 2014 when folks at The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a non-profit based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts realized how many young girls were fascinated by sharks, but were lacking strong female role models in the arena.  They saw that by putting these young girls together with women shark scientists, they could be inspired and empowered to act on their interest in sharks by becoming marine biologists, or even take up a different STEM field of their choice.

Each month, The Gills Club publishes a newsletter featuring two female shark biologists, who tell why they’re interested in sharks, what institutions or organizations they’ve found helpful to them personally, and what particular area of shark research they’re working on now.…

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Photo of the Day ~ High Five for Sharks

Possibly our favorite shark photo – Eli Martinez receives a stylin’ High Five from a smiling lemon shark named Taxi off the Bahamas. We love it because it shows what many shark/human interactions are really like. That said, sharks are individuals, and you’ll want to exercise reason and caution dealing with any wild animal.
To keep things in perspective, you are more likely to be killed by a vending machine than by a shark – and even more shocking, by your family toaster!
Photo: Paul Spielvogel
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Photo of the Day ~ Great Hammerhead

Up close and personal in the Bahamas with a Great Hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran.) Many theories have been put forward about the function of the hammer – amongst these, the most popular are that it helps the great hammerhead to scan larger areas of the ocean floor for food, and that it maximises the area of the sensory organs (known as the ampullae of Lorenzini) that can detect chemical, physical and thermal changes in the water, as well as electric fields.
Photo: (c) Bill Eastwick…

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Hong Kong Kids’ Aerial Art Encourages the Public to Respect Sharks

Each year, up to 73 million sharks are killed for their fins. Most end up in shark fin soup, a delicacy in both Hong Kong and Mainland China.  However, the last few years have seen a sea change in Hong Kong’s attitude toward shark finning—and an event early this month demonstrated how far the island territory has come.
On November 8th, nearly a thousand children, their teachers and ocean community leaders gathered on Repulse Bay Beach on the south side of Hong Kong Island. They were there as the culmination of Kids Ocean Day, an educational program that links students to the ocean environment, and raises awareness of human impact on the ecosystem.
Directed by aerial artist John Quigley, the kids lined up to form a shark with a severed fin, accompanied by the words “Save Me” in Chinese.…

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