Meet the team:
On board were (in the order in which they were interviewed):
Professor Daniel Pauly, of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries & Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia. He is also Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us Project, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which studies, reports on and promotes policies to mitigate the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems. He has (co-)developed, documented in over 500 papers and articles, concepts, methods, and software that are used internationally, including Ecopath modeling approach and software (to assess, evaluate, and address impacts to the marine environment at ecosystem scale), FishBase (the online encyclopedia of fishes), and SeaLifeBase (a complementary online encyclopedia of other marine species). He has been called “the most well-known—and most controversial—fisheries biologist in the world”.
Professor Nick Dulvy, Canada Research Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Simon Fraser University, and Co-Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group. His research, at the Dulvy Lab, includes the life histories and extinction risks to marine megafauna, the ecosystem impacts of fishing, and the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of climate change. He is particularly committed to sawfish conservation, whose species have seen steep declines over the past century. He says, “very rarely do human beings have the chance to think about the environment, but the reality is you need to think very hard, because if you don’t we’ll come unstuck”.
Dr. Samuel ‘Doc’ Gruber, is Professor of the Rosential School for Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, and founder, in 1990, of the Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation (the famous SharkLab), and of the American Elasmobranch Society. He was the first chair of the the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, and is probably best known for his studies in Bimini with lemon sharks and eagle rays. A wonderful character, he’s been called “a renaissance man”, Gruber says, “here we are, exactly 25 years later, still fooling around with sharks…”
Dr. Tristan Guttridge is director at SharkLab and a coming name in behavioural ecology, especially in his research of great hammerhead and lemon sharks around Bimini. He says, “I try to interpret what it's thinking, try to figure of why it is doing certain behaviours. It’s the great diversity of species, and the niches they fill, that make them fascinating to me. They really are amazing, inquisitive animals.”
Dr. Mike Heithaus is Executive Director, School of Environment, Arts and Society
Florida International University. He is a marine ecologist, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, where he heads up the Heithaus Lab, specializing in predator-prey interactions, including non-consumptive predator effects ("risk effects"), and the ecological importance of sharks and other large marine species like dolphins and sea turtles. He worked with National Geographic’s Remote Imaging Department and conducted studies deploying cameras (“Crittercam”) on marine animals as well as lions and hyenas, and he continues to use – and help develop – cutting-edge camera technology. He says, “ I think one of the biggest challenges with sharks are there are so many different kinds of sharks, with different roles in the environment, so they are not all equally important and they are not all equally vulnerable, so we need to take a lot of different approaches to conserve them.” His axiom, "Investigate, Engage, Inspire," was core to my film – “I try to use my skill set, especially reaching out to kids, talking about science and the world to them.”
Richard Peirce is a leading British shark advocate with over 25 years experience, Chairman of the Shark Conservation Society, ex-Chairman of The Shark Trust, co-founder of Shark Cornwall, as well as being a filmmaker and author who concentrates on conservation issues. He believes the issues surrounding shark conservation need to be communicated more effectively: “Why are sharks useful? Why do we need sharks? The
through and outlined. Those involved in conservation lack the skills of those involved in the PR world, the commercial world, the advertising world. It’s a pity they don’t come closer together, it’s a pity there aren’t more of those types of people involved in conservation.”
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