Shark Words

Me and my friends are trying to get the year 2009 or 2010 officially designated as Shark Year. We are inviting all other shark protection organizations to network together with us in order to use it to draw as much attention to the plight of sharks as we can. Here is the logo that I finally got designed for our use. Note that the shark is not showing its teeth--sharks rarely do, yet are usually depicted that way--and that the logo can be used with or without words--the image speaks for itself, of sharks under the protection of people.

The sharks I study are the female and juvenile blackfin reef sharks who live in the lagoon, within the protective arms of the barrier reef. The males live in the ocean on its outer slope, which shelves off gently, in rolling ridges, to finally fall away into the abyss. This is how the reef appears underwater, on a good day, of course! Days when it is calm enough to photograph a wave breaking upon the reef are rare. Sharks often cross over the reef between the ocean and the lagoon when the depth of water allows; the two essentially divided populations of males and females do visit back and forth, but the juveniles remain within the protection of their shallow water habitat, in regions of thick coral, in the lagoon.

Some marine animals are accidentally swept and battered over the reef, to drift, exhausted, on the other side.