A Closer Look At Nurse Sharks

We have recently been working with shark organisations around the South Florida area to see what they do to help spread a positive message about shark conservation. Whether it's shark diving, educational projects, photography, we have seen what they do first hand. This post is focused on one of the projects we really thought was a great initiative to help educate the public about sharks and further diminish the misunderstanding and horrible reputation that sharks have.

22nd February 2014, we visited the marine park Theater Of The Sea. Since early 2013 they have been offering a close up encounter with the beautiful Nurse Sharks that are local to the Florida area. The chance to see sharks up close, touch them (respectfully) and swim with them, we thought was a great idea, albeit it is in captivity, but this is not an aquarium. Theater Of The Sea's shark programme is definitely a good idea/tool to help educate the public about sharks!

Our liaison for the day way Lacey Russell, she has been working with these sharks for 2 years. We started off with a talk about the handling of the sharks, their management within the park and how the programme has been going since it started. We were pleased to hear that the sharks are very popular and people have shown keen interest and want to be in the water with them and see them up close.

Dentricles (Skin) of a Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum)

So once orienteering was over, it was time to get in the water!

The water is brought in straight from the Atlantic ocean, with a pump system that circulates the water. There are also natural surroundings such as mangroves and other plant life so the sharks are in an environment, built based on their natural habitat. They have been trained to learn certain things, feeding, recall, but apart from this, their behaviour was similar to the way they are in the wild. The were very shy and hesitant at first, but as the day went on, they became more and more confident.

Susana (left) & Alex (right) carefully holding Mabel & Coco

We gently walked into the water, careful not to distress the sharks and sat down on a submerged bench, where the feeding takes place. We were introduced to the 5 sharks they have here and one by one, got to meet them individually. We held them correctly, had them swimming around us and fed them some of their favourite diet. Squid.

Coco, the largest male has definitely made it known he is the dominant shark there. He was the most confident and energetic and put himself first in line to be fed. Each shark is specifically fed with their individual requirements and favourite foods. Maintaining the natural amount they would consume daily to keep them in the best health possible.

It was very clear the sharks are well looked after and it was a pleasure to see the sharks behaving so closely to how they would in the wild. If they didn't want to be held, fed or handled they can swim away and move around as they want, with no intervention.

We would never condone touching a shark in the wild, but in this well formed and controlled environment, with the passionate shark team they have, we definitely left feeling that they are doing something worthwhile for sharks at Theater Of The Sea. Children and adults can really learn about nurse sharks and through them, realise sharks are not mindless killing machines. They are incredibly complex, instinctive animals that given the opportunity can show you the truth, each species is so different from each other and they are all incredible, placid and misunderstood animals that deserve a positive reputation and continued protection.

Learn. Understand. Share.

Now I have explained why sharks need help and are important, the next thing I wanted to bring to the table is our current main objective. With regards to conservation topics it is well known that ‘education is key’. No word of a lie. It really is! If people don’t know about the issue, then it will continue to go un-noticed, and that probably means that it will worsen or created bigger issues. We try to educate through different means, as often as possible. Our social media sites keep supporters up to date with the latest shark news and research, whilst inspiring debate, and sharing thought provoking images. Of course these are our main source of advertisement for our personal events, projects and campaigns. Which brings me to my next three points..

We have attended & plan to attend all kinds of events. Bearing in mind most of these are funded out of our own pockets, and therefore we are limited somewhat. But when we run an event, we like to target the general public where we have a chance to introduce new facts which we can only hope stick in their minds and spread by word of mouth. I’ve personally only done a couple but its great interacting with the public and actually witnessing the learning process take place. It’s amazing! And for them to then want to shake your hand or ask to get involved gives you a sense that you have made a little bit of a difference! And that’s a good thing, isn’t it?.. You can stay aware of our up and coming events on Facebook, Twitter & our website.

One of our educational projects, we wish to continue & expand upon (Photo credit: 'So What?')

Now, projects! We plan to do many, but this is a case study we are particularly proud of. If you haven’t heard of ‘So What?’ you should have! Currently based in Manchester (wanting to spread further!), they run after school clubs about conservation topics- sharks included! Recently, we got in contact with them to see about helping each other out! We have a series of fact sheets on our downloads page on our website, and they happily used these in one of their clubs and the kids made the fantastic posters seen above! One pupil even went home and made a sculpture of a shark based on our anatomy fact sheet! See our Facebook album for more examples. Neither of us are teachers, and so being unable to teach ourselves, we are more than grateful to Matthew Payne for allowing us to contribute to his educational programme, and we plan to continue to support ‘So What?’ in any future projects concerning sharks. A real pleasure! Please take a few moments to visit the ‘So What?’ website, Facebook and Twitter and see what other fantastic things they do!

So we started out with a petition to campaign against the sale and harvest of shark fins in the UK & EU, which if you haven’t, please sign it here! Sharks and the oceans need a lot more of this kind of attention and we have various campaigns coming up. We don’t like to give away too much, but we will make you aware in due course. Again, please keep an eye out on our social media sites, and I will be posting on here too!

We hope to do as much 'educating' as we can, as we know the impact it can have, especially when concerning the next generation, as with ‘So What?’! The wonderful thing is (and this is where my inner geek comes out to play!) we never really stop learning, unless we want to. There are always new things to discover and share, and I hope this blog will be another means to do just that. 

I’m going to finish with a quote I picked up in a paper I used for my final project, which I believe to be very apt for the occasion and is a personal favorite  "..for in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught"- Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist and poet.