Causes: Animals, International, Marine Science & Oceanography, Protection of Endangered Species, Technology

Mission: Public education and research on sharks

Programs: Shark research: to determine global movements of whale sharks, visual id tags and satellite tags are being used to track whale sharks in the indian ocean and the species is being tracked in the caribbean using spot-id techniques. Dna studies of whale sharks in the philippines are ongoing. Studies of oceanic whitetip sharks in the caribbean and red sea continued and a population study of sandtiger sharks along the east coast of the usa continued.

education: continuing to work with educators in the usa, australia, canada, costa rica, mexico, and provided them with teaching materials. The whale shark adoption program is included in this category. Educational seminars were presented in australia, hong kong, mexico, the philippines, south africa, thialand, and the usa. Updates to our website and assisted with aquarium exhibits in new jersey and canada, provided speakers for events at local colleges, schools and clubs, and field education programs for students (fossil shark teeth hunts). Still photographs and video footage were provided to the media.

global shark attack file: the gsaf is maintained to provide accurate information to physicians, medical personnel, the media, and beach authorities. We provided onsite investigators for incidents that took place in australia, bahamas, brazil, reunion island, south africa, and the usa, provided data to the western australian authorities in opposition of their shark cull. Provided data to film productions in the usa and south africa, and to the usa media. Had two papers on our results published in scientific journals.

conservation: provided scientific data to state legislators regarding proposed bills to ban the sale of shark fins. Continued the informational campaign to alert restaurants and their customers about the high mercury levels in shark fin soup, and the health risks that it presents. Assisted onservation programs with affiliated organizations in australia, costa rica, hong kong, philippines, singapore, and south africa.