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Marine Life & Conservation

Oceanic 31 – Shark Trust Art Exhibition arrives at Blue Planet Aquarium

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The Shark Trust and Blue Planet aquarium teams have been busy installing the Oceanic 31 shark art exhibition which will open to the public on Saturday 26th August and will run until Sunday 1st October 2023.

The Shark Trust has brought together a group of artists who are passionate about sharks, conservation, and using art as a tool for positive change. Each of the 31 paintings, drawings, sculptures and digital media represents a species of shark or ray that lives in the open ocean.

Bigeye Thresher Shark by Janina Rossiter

Why 31?

2021 saw a review of the status of 31 oceanic shark and ray species. Of the 31 species reviewed, 24 are threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List. Some of these species are famous – like the Great White or Whale Shark. But others, like the Pygmy Longhorned Devil Ray – aren’t quite so well known. Featuring all 31 in this exhibition is a great way to showcase just how varied and amazing oceanic sharks and rays are.

Why Oceanic?

Oceanic means relating to the high seas or open ocean. The species featured within Oceanic 31 all spend a large amount of time during their life here. These are the international waters beyond country borders, outside of normal jurisdiction and, crucially, at heightened risk from overexploitation due to a lack of agreed management and/or enforcement of regulation.

Carcharodon carcharias by Jimmy Higgs

What can you do?

The Big Shark Pledge is at the heart of an ambitious campaign. By signing the petition, you can be part one of the biggest campaigning communities in the history of shark conservation. To put pressure on governments and fisheries. And make the positive changes required to safeguard these awesome sharks and rays.

Paul Cox, Shark Trust CEO, said “This exhibition gives us the opportunity to reach out to a new audience. And inspire more people with the wonderful sharks and rays on which our Big Shark Pledge campaign is based.”

Unable to attend in person? The Shark Trust has created a 360° virtual exhibition. No matter where you are in the world, you can experience this awe-inspiring artwork.

Great Hammerhead by Matt Sewell

Limited edition prints of some of the artwork are available to buy. If you want the chance to bid for an original artwork you can register your interest to attend the final auction. All profits will go towards the Shark Trust Big Shark Pledge campaign, working to protect the magnificent sharks and rays that swim in the high seas.

To find out more visit: https://www.sharktrust.org/oceanic31

The Shark Trust is the leading UK-based shark conservation charity. The team works globally to safeguard the future of sharks, and their close cousins, the skates and rays. Engaging with a global network of scientists, policymakers, conservation professionals, businesses and supporters, to further shark conservation.Established in 1997 to provide a voice for UK sharks, the Shark Trust has an ever-growing number of passionate supporters. And together we're creating positive change for sharks around the world.Want to join us and help protect sharks around the world? Click here! www.sharktrust.org

Marine Life & Conservation

Book Review: Into the Great Wide Ocean

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diving book

Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth by Sonke Johnsen

What an unexpected surprise! A book that combines a clear passion for the ocean with humour and the deft touch of a true storyteller. Johnsen gives a wonderful insight into the life of a deep sea marine biologist , the weird and wonderful animals encountered in this mysterious world, the trials and tribulations, in a way that makes you feel you have been sat at a table chatting about his work over a pint or cup of tea.

Even for divers, the deep blue open ocean can feel inaccessible. It is one of the least studied places in the universe. In this book that deep blue ocean and its inhabitants is brought to you with warmth and wit. And even the most well-read will come away with new facts and information. Johnsen’s goal is one that resonates throughout: Before we as scientists can ask people to preserve this important and fragile habitat, we need to show them that it’s there and the beauty of what lives in it. He does just that.

This is a book that combines the scientific with a deeply personal story. You feel what it is like to work out in the open ocean and get to know the animals that reside there. With descriptions that allow you to really imagine what it feels like being out there in the blue.

What the publisher says:

The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the seafloor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to anglerfish with bioluminescent lures that draw prey into their toothy mouths. Into the Great Wide Ocean takes readers inside the peculiar world of the seagoing scientists who are providing tantalizing new insights into how the animals of the open ocean solve the problems of their existence.

Sönke Johnsen vividly describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, such as gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, catching food while not becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities. He interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.

Into the Great Wide Ocean presents the sea and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before and reminds us that the rules of survival in the open ocean, though they may seem strange to us, are the primary rules of life on Earth.

About the Author:

Sönke Johnsen is professor of biology at Duke University. He is the author of The Optics of Life: A Biologist’s Guide to Light in Nature and the coauthor of Visual Ecology (both Princeton). Marlin Peterson, who created original illustrations for this book, is an illustrator and muralist who teaches and illustrates in many styles and media. He also specializes in giant optical illusions such as his harvestmen mural below the Space Needle in Seattle, and his full portfolio can be found at marlinpeterson.com.

Book Details

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Hardcover

Price: £20.00

ISBN: 9780691181745

Published: 7th January, 2025

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Marine Life & Conservation

Double Bubble for the Shark Trust

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This week only – your donation to the Shark Trust will be doubled – at no extra cost to you!

The Shark Trust are raising vital funds for their Community Engagement Programme: empowering people to learn about sharks and rays, assisting the scientific community take action for elasmobranchs, and bring communities together to become ambassadors for change.

Every £1 you give = £2 for shark conservation. A donation of £10 becomes £20, £50 becomes £100! Help us reach our target of £10,000, if successful, this will be doubled to £20,000 by the Big Give.

Every donation makes DOUBLE the impact!

Monty Halls is backing this week of fundraising “Cousteau called sharks the “splendid savage of the sea”, and even through the more benign lens of modern shark interactions it remains a good description. The reefs I dived thirty years ago teemed with sharks, the perfect result of 450 million years of evolution. Today those same reefs are silent, the blue water empty of those elegant shadows. But hope remains that if one generation has created such devastation, so the next can reverse the damage that has been done. The Shark Trust are at the forefront of that fight.

Donate Here

To find out more about the work of the Shark Trust visit their website here.

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