Uncategorized

CALLING ALL DIVERS, ocean explorers, and marine enthusiasts wanting to improve their fish identification skills: Are you overwhelmed by bulky fish guides with hundreds of pages or are tired of trying to learn more fish on your own?

Underwater Spotter’s new line of fish identification books is designed to enhance our ocean life sightings with fascinating facts, behavioral insights, and a fun scavenger hunt element! As such, the guide’s approach to in-water learning will be integrated into the Foundation’s 2025 fundraiser and educational dive trip aboard the British Virgin Islands Aggressor yacht. To increase your fish ID skills and learn more about marine conservation, the Sea of Change Foundation’s Executive Director, conservation biologist, and inductee to the Women Divers Hall of Fame (2024), Samantha Whitcraft, via the trip details below:

BVI Aggressor
May 31 – June 7, 2025
Samantha Whitcraft

Additionally, thanks to the generosity of Aggressor Adventures®, a percent of funds raised from the trip will support the Sea of Change Foundation’s grants programs in support of community-based conservation around the world.

Underwater Spotter is a women diver-owned business whose mission is to share their love of the ocean and marine life with others. As part of sharing that love, Underwater Spotter is partnering with the Sea of Change Foundation to help fundraise for ocean conservation. Underwater Spotter will donate $4 to the Sea of Change Foundation for every guidebook sold using discount code SEAOFCHANGE2024 and giving you 15% off your order. Buy yours today to help the cause using this link.

Why Choose Underwater Spotter Guides?

Unlike traditional fish guides that can be cumbersome and difficult to navigate, Underwater Spotter’s new guidebook offers a compact, easy-to-use format jam packed with information. With 50 fish to find and learn in each location, here’s what sets these useful guidebooks apart:

1. Concise and Comprehensive: These books teach the quick, easy and basic concepts of identification allowing divers to leverage that knowledge on any dive, anywhere.
2. Fascinating Facts: Each ID is more than just a picture including facts about each species, such as preferred habitats and interesting adaptations.

• Behavioral Insights: Understanding fish behavior is key to truly appreciating the underwater world. These books highlight specific behaviors to look for, making dives more engaging and educational. Whether it’s a symbiotic relationship between two species, unique colors at different stages of life, or a mating display, divers gain a deeper insight into the lives of the fish we encounter on most dives.
• Portable and Practical: This full-color 64-page book is easy to carry and use. The binding is specifically designed to not fall apart in humid and salty air. The cover is water resistant to handle damp fingers.
• Engaging and Educational: Packed with captivating information and interactive elements, it transforms the way you explore and learn about the ocean.

The Ultimate Underwater Scavenger Hunt

One of the most exciting features of Underwater Spotter’s fish identification books is the built-in scavenger hunt. Using this feature, the Sea of Change Foundation’s 2025 fundraiser trip will provide the opportunity during each dive into a thrilling quest to learn and check-off each species. Here’s how it works:

1. Check-Off System: Each fish entry includes a checkbox, allowing divers to mark-off species as we find them. This interactive element turns fish identification into a fun and rewarding game.
2. Achievement Milestones: The books include milestones and challenges to keep divers motivated to learn and have fun. Can we find all the species in a particular reef or complete the entire book? We’ll set our critter ID goals, enjoying the achievement of completing them.
3. Compete With Others: It becomes a game! Which dive buddy is going to find the Juvenile Stoplight Parrotfish first?

Start Learning Fish Identification Today!

Don’t miss out on the chance to enhance your dives with Underwater Spotter’s new fish identification books. Buy one before your next dive trip (using discount code SEAOFCHANGE2024) so you have time to review the fish you’ll see by region before you hit the water. Dive deeper into the world of fish identification, embrace the thrill of the scavenger hunt, and embark on a journey that will forever change how divers see the underwater world.

By Megan Hoover, Sea of Change Foundation Intern

Samantha Whitcraft, Sea of Change Foundation, Executive Director

            It’s that time of year again when Shark Week commercials promoting documentaries and shows on Discovery Channel and National Geographic begin. This year is the 34^th anniversary of Shark Week, and both Discovery Channel and National Geographic have an intense week of programming planned for shark lovers and adrenaline junkies alike. But how might such programming impact the public’s view of sharks?

While enjoying Shark Week, there a few concepts to keep in mind. Historically, sharks were viewed as aggressive “monsters” and still often have negative descriptors associated with them like “feeding frenzy”, “man-eater”, and most frequently, “shark-infested waters”. All these descriptors are the product of media, not science. For example, some sharks may be monstrous in size, but none are monstrous by definition. Sharks don’t feed in a “frenzy”; in fact, due to millions of years of evolution they know exactly what they are doing when they hunt and feed. And they don’t “infest” waters because those waters are their natural habitat. In fact, many shark species and populations are in decline around the world. Based on global data and assessments, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (from the science-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature), estimates that approximately 42% of all shark species fall under one of their threatened categories while an additional 14% of sharks species are categorized as data deficient, meaning there is not enough information to know what their population status is, currently. In total, scientists estimate that 56% of shark species are either threatened with extinction or are unaccounted for, which is more than half of all known shark species.

            One of the of the greatest threats to sharks is overfishing due to the shark fin trade. Mote Marine Laboratory scientists sampled 9,820 fin trimmings from markets in China, which is one of the largest shark fin trade hubs in the world and found that the fins belonged to 86 different species of sharks and their relatives (rays and chimeras) with 61 of those shark species being currently threatened with extinction. Alarmingly, there are few regulations to protect them within their range, and it is possible a wave of extinctions is on the horizons with coastal sharks. Why does it matter that so many shark populations are in decline? There are important reasons why we should care: many shark species play a significant role in ecological functions; they are economically valuable in ecotourism; and solving the mysteries of their complex physiology may help improve the human condition both in health and engineering.

Scientific studies demonstrated that predators, such as many shark species, help maintain healthy ecosystems. For example, a 2014 study entitled Ecological importance of sharks and rays in a structural foodweb analysis in southern Brazilconfirmed that the loss of many large sharks causes changes in the intermediate levels of a food web, but these researchers also found that this dynamic is different in some tropical regions such as in Brazil where the study was conducted. Tropical regions are known for their high biodiversity which creates structurally complex food webs and high topological redundancy, suggesting that these linked food webs could be readily impacted when one or more components are lost. This study found that some species of sharks act as key elements with high structural importance within the ecosystem, serving as important links between other compartments of the foodweb. Based on this study, removing even one shark species from the ecosystem could negatively influence the flow of the food web.

            Not only are sharks important for ecosystem services, they also bring economic value to ecotourism. Shark-based ecotourism includes SCUBA diving, sustainable catch-and-release sport fishing, and snorkeling. A 2020 study entitled “Shark ecotourism in Mexico: Scientific research, conservation, and contribution to a Blue Economy” calculated the economic benefits of shark-watching in Mexico. The estimated annual gross revenue specifically attributable to shark-watching at popular sites in Mexico was estimated to be at least $12.4 million per year excluding additional tourism-based economic activities associated with shark-watching such as additional travel and accommodations beyond these sites. Additionally, a survey of nature tourism operators across the Gulf of California and the Baja California Peninsula identified sharks, especially encounters with whale sharks, as the third most important attraction for their businesses, along with the beauty of reef fishes and the magnificence of cetaceans.

            Sharks also help humans directly. One example is the correlation between shark research and cancer research. An article posted on University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health’s webpage, details how sharks will be integral to research focused on therapies for diseases such as cancer. Dr. Aaron LeBeau will be leading the shark-based cancer research, which is currently the only research of its kind in the world as of January of 2022. He and his colleagues are actively investigating the function of small proteins found in sharks called Variable New Antigen Receptors (VNARs) that may be used to treat certain cancers such as breast, colon, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. One important characteristic of VNARs, which are part of sharks’ adaptive immune system (i.e., the “memory” immunity using antibodies) is that they can be engineered to recognize viruses, bacteria, or cancer cells.

            Not only are sharks beneficial to medical research, the US Navy has also taken an interest in their skin structure. In 2005, sharks provided inspiration for improved naval ship coatings. University of Florida engineers developed an environmentally friendly coating for hulls of oceangoing ships based on shark skin structure. This new coating was designed to mimic the unique skin of sharks, and thereby, allows ships’ hulls to limit the growth of aggressive marine algae and barnacles. This environmentally friendly option has the potential to decrease the use of conventional, toxic copper hull paints that can accumulate in harbor waters. Such an innovation could help save on Naval operational costs. The Navy estimated that approximately $600 million was spent annually just powering navy ships and submarines, with at least $50 million being spent due to the increased drag on the ships from accumulated barnacles and algae. Engineered, simulated shark skin could be the answer.

            Given all that sharks do for us, during Shark Week 2022 and beyond, let’s think about sharks as animals to appreciate for more than just their awesome size and power. They deserve to be celebrated for their services to human society and thanked for what they do for the health of our oceans and our coastal economies. When we think about sharks, we should fear their potential extinctions, not their existence.

Discovery Channel’s Shark Week programming starts July 24 and runs through July 30 from 8 to 11 PM EST every evening. National Geographic is streaming SHARKFEST throughout July.

LEARN MORE:

International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species

Research Indicates Two-Thirds of Global Shark Species at Risk of Extinction due to Shark Fin Trade. DiveNewsWire, July 2022

Ecological importance of sharks and rays in a structural foodweb analysis in southern Brazil. ICES Journal of Marine Science. Oxford Academic 2014

Shark ecotourism in Mexico: Scientific research, conservation, and contribution to a Blue Economy – ScienceDirect, 2020

UW–Madison expert launches novel cancer research using sharks (wisc.edu), 2022

Sharks Provide Inspiration for Ship Coatings. Extracts. University of Florida

Discovery Channel’s SHARK WEEK 2022

SHARKFEST 2022 (nationalgeographic.com)

WELCOME OUR 2022 SOC Intern; Megan Hoover

July 7, 2022

Hello Sea of Change Foundation friends!

My name is Megan Hoover, and I am excited to announce that I am the Sea of Change Foundation’s new Marine Conservation and Communications intern. I will be working alongside the Foundation’s team to bring to you the latest and greatest marine science news, research, fun facts, and helping with fundraising so we can continue protecting and learning more about our oceans! During my time as an intern here I hope to gain valuable work experience in science communication and make great connections with others who also share a love for our oceans. I hope to highlight the importance of ocean ecosystems and how they connect to our daily lives by being a communication bridge between researchers and the public!

As for my background, I am currently a Master of Professional Science Student at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, Florida; I am projected to graduate in December of 2022. I have a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, and I have always had a passion for conservation since I was young. Being outdoors whenever possible and exploring new areas is my favorite thing to do in my free time as well as having fun with friends and family. I am an animal lover and worked as a veterinary assistant for five years where I gained a deep appreciation for the selfless people who work in that field. I have many pets of my own: two cats, a chocolate lab, a hedgehog, and two very charismatic axolotls. As for the future, I am open to whatever direction my passion leads to next, but I have become quite interested in environmental action and outreach, which is why I am so excited to be here as an intern!

During these challenging times, we are all in this together. The Sea of Change Foundation, as a leader in both conservation and education will contribute too. We recognize that families are challenged to find and provide educational resources and activities for home-schooling. To that end, weekly we will be posting, on our Facebook page, links and descriptions of resources available online that can be used at home.

Here are a few to start with:

• Schoolyard Films, Inc. provides environmental films and study guides;
• Oceans for Youth Foundation provides “Creature Feature” short, educational videos
• Patrick Ching, Hawaii’s Nature Artist provides downloadable coloring pages;
• Ocean First Institute provides a free course in Ocean Literacy;
• The CornellLab provides virtual birding videos and quizzes.

Additionally, with the Science Exchange, the Foundation has initiated a citizen science competition, the “Build A Better Box” Contest that invites students to learn about and create improved designs for sea turtle nesting boxes using sustainable materials with a $700USD prize. The complete contest requirements and rules are here.

“At the Sea of Change Foundation, we believe in empowering students and families to learn about the natural world” said Samantha Whitcraft, Director of Conservation and Outreach for the Foundation. Importantly, “through the Foundation, we cans help ensure future generations appreciate the natural world and its wonders,” concluded Wayne Brown, CEO of Aggressor Adventures^® and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation.

SOC Supports Shark Allies and Shark Conservation in Florida

View below or as PDF