The Shark Trust

Over the last few days, we’ve been promoting The Shark Trust who work in the conservation of sharks. We interviewed Paul Cox the Managing Director of Shark Trust to discuss who they are and what they do.

Paul has been the MD of The Shark Trust for the last 6 years, the Trust itself has been going since 1997. It was initially set up in the UK to oversee and ensure a greater focus on British Sharks, their conservation, statutory management and protection. Over the years, the organisations remit has grown and they’ve expanded into European, High Seas and into a global level. They’ve not only grown in terms of locations, they have also grown in what they do and the activities they get involved in.

So what is it that they do in terms of conservation?

Everything they do is evidence based, science is at the heart of their work with 3 main challenges that they take on.

1 - Putting appropriate protection in place for threatened species. There are 1200 species of sharks globally and around a quarter of those species are considered threatened. These species in particular need to have conservation and action plans put into place at regional and sub regional levels.

2 - Addressing impacts of overfishing on threatened and non-threatened species. Moving fisheries towards more sustainable practises so that no other shark species are moved into the threatened categories.

3 – This challenge is linked to the one above and looks at supply chains with shark products. They try to ensure that where shark products are going to market that they are transparent and clear with regard to information on their products. This way consumers know what they are buying and can see the impact of their purchases.

The organisation is based in Plymouth and they address the above challenges in a number of ways. As with any good plan, they like to have several different tools in their armoury. One is evidence based advocacy working at policy level, national level, working with the government and organisations such as DEFRA. They coordinate and liaise in order to create national policy changes. They also work on an international level to impact big international fishery bodies. They do this by bringing together evidence, putting together a case for a specific species, a case for different fisheries to provide better protections regarding catch limits, quotas etc. and any other beneficial policies they can to get into place.

Linked to that is working with stakeholders; stakeholders such as the fishing industry, recreational anglers, divers, or aquariums. Anywhere that sharks and humans come into contact, they create models for the best interactions so that activities can continue without putting the shark population in danger.

When it comes to policy making a critical part is working with other organisations to preserve conservation of sharks. Recently the Trust has been focused on high seas fisheries.

Anything outside the 12 mile limit is international waters and high seas sharks have been particularly affected by some of the practises that have taken place. Research came out in early 2021 which showed that 31 particular species of high seas sharks have dropped their population numbers by 70% over the last 50 years. They’ve been hugely affected by large commercial international fishing fleets in international waters and so the Trust have targeted RFMO’s – regional fisheries management organisations. These are international bodies which oversee a particular area of international waters, bodies of water such as the North Sea and the Indian Ocean. They target RFMO’s in order to get policies implemented which put restrictions/limits put into place or ensuring anti finning legislation is incorporated into their activity and ensure conservation is on their agenda.

A critical part of what they do is with regard to public education and raising awareness. They’re very keen for the public to participate in discovery learning – know more about sharks – get a better understanding of what sharks are all about, a better understanding of the diversity and types of sharks. One of their biggest challenge is to move people away from the stereotype of what a shark is, the myth that we all grew up with after watching the iconic Jaws movies. There are many different types of sharks, large and small, deep water, shallow water, on sand, under rocks etc. They actively promote and encourage people to learn more about these beautiful creatures. They want to individuals and groups to get involved either through collecting data, holding events and fund raising. Any way that gets people interested in sharks and wanting to help is encouraged and fostered.

When it comes to raising awareness the activities are tailored to different audiences. One section are those that are already participants through either being members or from interactions via social media and emailing lists. They actively work with them to increase further engagement.

Beyond existing members they try to reach out to others who may not yet be aware, by developing partnerships with various aquariums. They partner with aquariums throughout the UK, Europe and the USA. When doing so, there is an assortment of media they provide to the aquariums from leaflets to displays that visitors can interact with. Part of this is a new venture - this being a series of videos they’ve just launched on YouTube. These videos will also be shown at their partner aquariums and hopefully provide a more entertaining way for individuals to learn about these magnificent sea creatures.

When asked what is needed for the organisation to take it to next stage, Paul discussed two fundamental areas of importance. Funding being one - with further funding they can buy time, representation at policy meetings, time to put together and distribute more public engagement materials, have time to put forward representation at policy meetings etc.

Any funding, donations and fundraising activities is gratefully received as without it, the Trust would struggle to maintain the important work they are doing.

The other key part is getting their message out there by speaking to as many people as they can. A big opportunity for them is the ability to speak to other businesses and the networks those businesses are part of as it helps them to get out of their echo chamber.

Numerous people they talk to say I would have never have thought about that and find it an interesting activity to partake in. They can put together fundraising events such as getting people ?running, ?swimming, cycling etc. in aid of the Trust and wearing the Trusts logo is a win-win scenario as not only do they get the much needed funding, they are raising their profile at the same time.

Any opportunity to reach new people and tell their story is gold dust for the organisation.

Last year was a right off with all events either cancelled or postponed. For the first 6 months people were reticent about signing up for events due to the uncertainty of their being allowed to go ahead. For example, say you choose to run a marathon and train 20 weeks - to then have it cancelled can be disappointing.

What has been encouraging is that they’ve seen more corporate engagement. Businesses that have teams working remotely and want to bring their teams together has caused an uptick with them putting on corporate and virtual events. One such project they are working on at the moment is swim sharks. This is where they join the “swim for sharks gang.” Individuals at home can swim lengths in a pool or on beach etc. and upload how far they have swum. The Trust tallies the total miles to help raise money and awareness.

Strangely enough, the last year has been quite helpful in terms of their ability to promote the work they do. With the digital revolution taking a massive upswing due to the covid restrictions, they’ve adapted by putting on more webinars and conducting zoom meetings. The time saved by doing work online has been significant and has meant that they are able to fit more into the day as the travel aspect has been taken away.

As with any organisation cash flow is always an issue as a BBX charity member, the Shark Trust has found the BBX community helpful in specific ways. ?The networking aspect of BBX has been tremendously helpful, some members sign up to their membership scheme, others donate goods and services and some simply donate BBX pounds.

All of which has been instrumental in the Trust being able to refurbish their office and buy basic supplies such as printers as well as and being able to print their media ?using their BBX donations. Whilst it may not seem so glamorous, BBX has meant that they could utilise these donations to cover the costs which enabled them to preserve their cash flow. This meant that other funds could be put towards more direct conservation costs.

All the Trust has ever wanted to do is to get people to love sharks and understand that we are very lucky to have sharks swimming in British waters. We have some amazing sharks and the Trust hopes that by educating people on sharks they’ll get excited about seeing them. They hope that people will look on the website, get on social media, engage with them and they’ll tell you all about sharks. You’ll find that it is a truly fascinating world once you immerse yourself in the world of sharks and the Trust are more than happy to share it with you.?