Protect The Sharks

The Netherlands – The old saying “to have eyes in the back of your head” holds somewhat true for scalloped hammerhead and bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo). A new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, found these sharks possess a 360 degree field of vision. Virtually nothing can escape their view. The study also helps to explain why hammerhead sharks have such unusual shaped heads.

“Everyone wants to understand why they have this strange head shape,” says Michelle McComb from Florida Atlantic University, who worked on the study. “Perhaps their visual field has been enhanced by their weird head shape.”

With colleagues Stephen Kajiura and Timothy Tricas, she fished for juvenile scalloped hammerheads off Hawaii and looked for bonnethead sharks in the waters around Florida. The sharks were quickly transported back to the lab so McComb’s team could test the catch’s field of vision.

Like optometrists, the researchers swept light in front of each shark’s eyes. But as they did so, they recorded the eye’s electrical activity. When compared to other sharks with odd-shaped heads, the scalloped hammerhead turned out to have the highest measurements. Here’s the list of super see-ers, in order based on their visual skills:

#1. Scalloped hammerhead
#2. Bonnethead
#3. Blacknose (tied)
#3. Lemon shark (tied)

Other tests revealed the scalloped hammerheads and bonnetheads also possess stereo rear-view vision and incredible depth perception. Part of this is due to their head shapes.
Read more …

You can watch a video with hammerheads here.
See here how you can help.

SCHEVENINGEN, Netherlands – What a wonderful and successful weekened in Sea Life Scheveningen. We had a great central location in the aquarium for Protect The Sharks. Our pupose was to engage people on the poor state the shark populations are in and at the same time collect as much signatures for the European Shark week petition. We have collected 1000+ signed petitions and over 200 people joined our Shark quiz. In total worldwide over 100.000 signatures have been collected to be presented beginning of next year to the Spanish government.

Here, you can find some photos of the event.

The petition is still available on-line, so sign it here quickly if  you didn’t yet.

For more info on the European Shark week, click here…

The Dutch documentary GIMME A HUG of the PROTECT THE SHARKS FOUNDATION, has been nominated for the Golden Panda Award in the category “Best Short Documentary Film (Nature & Environment)” by the Sichuan TV Festival. The festival will start later this week (November 6 – 8, 2009) in Chengdu, China.

The Festival received nearly 4,000 entries from 62 countries for the 5 competitions: Documentary, Natural Disasters, Animation, New Media and Student Film. Since 1991 the Sichuan TV Festival has steadily grown into one of the most important international TV festivals in Asia.

From 10-10-2009 to 30-06-2010

VALENCIA – Also in Spain the Protect The Sharks Foundation is supporting Shark Events. The next 9 month, our ISPE (International Shark Photo Exhibition) is exhibited at the L’Oceanogràfic in Valencia, starting during  this European Shark Week 2009. Besides exhibiting shark photographs, shot by the worlds best underwater photographers, films will be screened and signatures collected. Up to July 2010 many Special Shark Events are organised by the L’Oceanogràfic, one of the largest and most beatiful Aquariums in Europe.

GREECE – European Shark Week 2009 just started and for the first time there is participation from Greece also. With friends and volunteers from Northern Greece we’ve organized two big events;

on October 14th and 18th, with purpose to inform people that most of shark species are threatened with extinction.

Most European shark populations are declining from overfishing.  Unfortunately the EU ban on “finning” – slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea – is among the worlds weakest.

“ Shark soup?   No thank you!!”

Why not? Because sharks managed to survive on this planet for more than 400 million years  and it is unethical and wrong by all means in a couple of decade’s to extinct these magnificent predators by force, because some people like to have shark fins as a spice in their coup of soup. We stand up against this international trade of shark fins. An estimated 10,000 tons of shark fins are traded around the world every year and increasing by an estimated 5% per year. Mainland China is now the largest importer.

How Europeans evolve? Someone can say that Europeans doesn’t eat Shark Soup but European participation in the Hong Kong fin market has increased from negligible levels in the early 1990s to nearly a third of total declared imports…So we are all evolved!

European Shark Week 10-18 of October is a unique opportunity for people across Europe to demonstrate their support for shark conservation and effect change. By participating in the European Shark Week we ask you to help get more attention for the sharks!

This year, we’ll demand the governments for follow-up action under the Shark Plan, most importantly, improvements to the fining ban and quotas of zero for especially threatened shark species. You can help by signing the on-line petition, or you can meet us in person on

October 14th in Shark Bar in Thessaloniki

with film screening, digital shark photo exposition and shark happenings during a very pleasant night or on

October 18th in Chalkidiki

for an all day shark event with film screenings, a lecture about Sharks of Mediterranean and a dive dedicated to sharks!

Photo impression

Scheveningen – It is that time again! European Shark Week 2009 is about to start and very necessary. Most European shark populations are declining from overfishing. One-third of all shark species 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.

Hope lies with the new Shark Plan, adopted by the European Commission thanks to the support of many of you. The Plan sets the stage for vast improvements in EU shark policies, including the finning ban.   Its success depends on collaboration and action by EU Fisheries Ministers and the European Commission.  These fishery managers need encouragement from the European public to follow through on the Plan’s initiatives and truly safeguard sharks.

This year’s European Shark Week will take place from October 10-18. It’s a unique opportunity for people across Europe to demonstrate their support for shark conservation and effect change.

Last year European Shark Week 2008 saw more than 200 activities and the collection of more than 100,000 signatures on a Shark Plan petition for EU Fisheries Ministers. Since then, the Ministers have issued a strong response that highlights the plight of sharks and calls for prompt strengthening of the EU finning ban.  Indeed, the Ministers’ words reflect the concerns of a growing number of EU citizens expressed through European Shark Week.

By participating in the European Shark Week we ask you to help get more attention for the sharks!

This year, we’ll demand the governments for follow-up action under the Shark Plan, most importantly, improvements to the fining ban and quotas of zero for especially threatened shark species.

Protect The Sharks Foundation will actively participate in this! You can help by signing the on-line petition, or you can meet us in person on October 17-18 in Sea Life Scheveningen.

The Protect The Sharks Foundation is very proud to introduce two new and enthusiastic shark divers, willing to support us with our shark conservation work.

Earlier this year, at the “5de Mediterranean International Underwater Photography & Film Festival” on Cyprus, I was very privileged to meet Rabea Iatridou & Nicholas Samaras, both very active and enthusiast Greek divers. Nicholas is also a very talented underwater photographer who publishes his magnificent images on his website that even won the Golden Ermis Web Award, the most prestigious Greek award for creativity and communication. You have to check it out!

The film that ‘grabbed them at once’ at this festival, was our movie GIMME A HUG. Their enthusiasm to support our shark conservation work, resulted in another subtitle language for GIMME A HUG; the GREEK language. Since then they have become close friends and members of our Protect The Sharks family.

We like to wish them lots of success with their efforts to protect and conserve sharks and would like to give them a warm welcome as our official, local representatives of the Protect The Sharks Foundation in Greece.

Tomorrow, September 12th, 2009, should become the most important day of their life; their Wedding Day! From here, we like to wish Rabea and Nicholas a fantastic wedding and a very long, healthy and happy life!

If you want to congratulate them as well and send them your best wishes, please don’t hesitate to send them an email. It will be much appreciated!

On the 31 August a large sub adult female Great White shark (4.37m) weighing 900kg’s was caught in a shark net off Zinkwazi beach on the KZN north coast. She was still alive when the natal sharks board (NSB) team arrived and she was tagged and released. Unfortunately the nets are very effective trapping devices and she was caught in the same nets a day later and died.

Then on the 2nd of August a second unfortunate female Great white (3.95m) weighing 722kg was found dead in the shark net culling devices. It was an unusual occurrence to have two large Great whites caught in the nets within such a short space of time. There was no apparent reason for them to be in the area i.e. scavenging on a whale carcass or the like.

ScienceDaily – A long-term field and DNA study has shown that young lemon sharks born at the Bimini islands, Bahamas, tend to stay near their coastal birthplace for many years. This study was conducted by the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, University of Miami, Field Museum of Chicago and others. Shark research and conservation typically focuses on baby sharks confined to shallow habitats or ocean-roaming adults, but less is known about these intermediate-aged animals, which are the breeders of tomorrow and are roughly similar in development to human ‘tweens’ and teenagers.

For more information look here.

YA’AN (CHINA) – filmmaker Geert Droppers was surprised in a very particular manner at the `2nd China International Animal and Nature Film Festival’  that was held on August 19-25, 2009 in the city of Ya’an, (Sichuan province, China). He received a ‘Special Prize for Independent Spirit‘ as appreciation for him and the volunteers and members of the Dutch ‘Protect The Sharks Foundation’ for their work to protect and conserve sharks.

Geert was very honoured with this award; “GIMME A HUG was rewarded with several awards at many film festivals, all over the world, but to receive this special award for the commitment of our volunteers, in a country with the most extensive consumption of shark fins in the world, is an enormous appreciation for the work we do”.

The film has been screened at several locations in Ya’an and broadcasted by several TV stations. The opening and closing ceremony were even broadcasted live on TV. “I received the award from Jill Robinson, founder of the `Animals Asia Foundation’ and the famous Jia Ni”.

The filmmaker who was invited to attend the festival personally, accepted the invitation gratefully; “This was a great opportunity to try to set up conservation projects and free screenings at schools and universities in China. We even designed a special, Chinese DVD cover for this”

The organisation of this Chinese film festival put a lot of effort in getting as much media attention as possible for GIMME A HUG, our conservation work, our educational projects and the threats sharks are facing. This resulting in an interview with the filmmaker by `Lifeweek’, an important source for weekly’s in China and an interview by Phoenix Satellite Television, a Hong Kong TV channel. Next week, this interview will be broadcasted nationwide in China. It proved that also people in China are willing to protect and conserve sharks.

GIMME A HUG, a  short documentary, shows one of the most mysterious phenomena in the animal world; amazing animals, showing a totally different behaviour than most people would expect.

The documentary, was produced to give the viewer a more genuine picture of an animal that, naturally, must be handled with care and respect, but that is certainly not the monstrous ‘killing-machine’ that so many people think it is.