12 days and counting until European Shark Week! And what a great week it’s shaping up to be. Shark supporters in fifteen European countries are coming together to show their support for sharks and to ask for more protection. We already know about events in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. With every day more people are getting involved.
From predator to prey
It often surprises people to hear about the threats to sharks – everyone thinks of them as large ocean predators, but the statistics paint a far more vulnerable picture. Tens of millions of sharks and closely related rays are killed each year in fisheries, either intentionally or as bycatch. Too often their populations are being fished faster than they can reproduce.
It doesn’t need to be like this
This year the European Commission adopted a Shark Plan which sets the stage for vast improvements in EU shark policies, including strengthening the weak finning ban. Its success depends on collaboration and action by EU Fisheries Ministers and the European Commission to follow through on the Plan’s initiatives and truly safeguard sharks.
Let’s face it, we don’t often hear someone say “I love sharks!” or “Since I was 5 years old I’ve been obsessed with sharks,” but then again the group of people we interviewed for our latest video aren’t normal people. They’re shark scientists. They work with sharks on a daily basis and this gives them quite a unique perspective on these often feared creatures.
The video forms part of our Rethink the Shark campaign and will also be shown as part of European Shark Week which runs from 10 – 18 October throughout Europe.
European Shark Week is fast approaching and it presents a unique opportunity for people across Europe to demonstrate their support for shark conservation and effect change. Most European shark populations are declining from overfishing. One-third are threatened with extinction. The EU ban on “finning” – slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea – is among the world’s weakest.
Sharks are in desperate need of stronger legislation protecting them in European waters.
The Save our Seas Shark Centre in Cape Town proactively participated in National Coastal Clean-up week, which is linked to International Coastal Clean-up Day from the 14-18 September.
In partnership with Ocean Conservancy South Africa, the City of Cape Town and Metrorail, a total of 220 enthusiastic learners from grades 3 – 7 caught the train to the Centre. (Bad weather and odd tide times played havoc with our plans and one school was unfortunately forced to cancel their visit).
In our new episode of The Riddle Solvers, we find the following riddle in an ancient journal.
Whale Shark Tooth
Teeth can tell you stories, they’re full of many clues,
Of how a creature lived and how its jaws are used.
Your riddle is to find a tooth, this shall be your test.
A tooth from the greatest living fish, much bigger than the rest.
The title of this blog may have given away the answer, but the biggest living fish in the ocean is the whale shark. Our movie takes us on a quest to figure out the riddle, and ultimately find a whale shark tooth. For those of you not familiar with whale sharks, they can reach lengths of over 50 feet (over 15 meters) and mostly feed on small plankton. They don’t need big teeth, and they don’t have big teeth. They have very, very tiny teeth. I just received two whale shark teeth in the mail . . . and I knew they would be small. But wow. I am absolutely blown away by how tiny they are, and how the biggest fish in the ocean has such tiny teeth. We are definitely going to need a good macro lens to film this part of the movie.
In fact, I made sure we have two whale shark teeth, because I know if we accidentally drop one in the sand while filming, we are going to have a very hard time finding it.
I propose that instead of saying “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” people say, “It’s like finding a fossilized whale shark tooth in the sand.”– Laura Sams
The Save Our Seas Foundation is committed to preserving our marine environment for future generations. With your help we can and will make a difference. Find out how you can support our work.
