Shark Awareness Day: Striking photos celebrate the oceans’ largest predatory fish

In commemorating sharks on Shark Awareness Day, Wild Africa shared six images of great white sharks taken by renowned shark photographer Chris Fallows.

Here are some key facts about sharks:

• We’ve lost 71% of sharks and rays in the last 50 years.
• Overfishing is the primary driver – the sharp decline in shark numbers since 1970 corresponds to an 18-fold increase in relative fishing pressure.
• Between 2012 and 2019, the number of sharks killed from fishing increased from some 76 million a year to more than 80 million. At least 25 million were threatened species.
• Finning has marginally declined over the past two decades, but policies requiring fishers to land whole sharks inadvertently incentivized a market for shark meat.
• In South Africa, great white sharks have been in decline at historical aggregation sites since 2013 (study co-authored by Chris Fallows).
• The data on great whites, as currently analysed and interpreted, cannot support population stability.

“Our oceans provide more than 50% of the air we breathe, absorb more than a quarter of our carbon emissions and feed more than a billion people. We need healthy oceans, something that isn’t possible without keystone marine species, like sharks. It’s as Sylvia Earle said – no blue, no green,” says Guy Jennings, Southern Africa Director at Wild Africa.

Fallows was the first person to discover and photograph the now-famous breaching great white sharks of South Africa back in 1996. The discovery catapulted Fallows from a wildlife naturalist to a dedicated photographer, intent on capturing this never-before-seen behaviour and showcasing it to the world.

His work is currently being exhibited at the Dubai Airport

About Wild Africa

Wild Africa aims to be Africa’s most effective conservation communicator, inspiring public support and political will to protect Africa’s wildlife and wild spaces forever.

They believe people and wildlife can only survive and thrive together, so they are popularising conservation with a much broader audience than has previously been engaged.

By amplifying the voices of African opinion leaders from every field through a powerful network of media partners and diverse programming, the organisation seeks to promote domestic wildlife tourism, local conservation projects and the passage and effective enforcement of conservation laws.

Through communications and direct support, Wild Africa also aim to deliver permanent reductions in wildlife crime, the demand for illegal bushmeat, human/wildlife conflict and habitat loss.

Their network includes more than 20 national and international broadcasters, as well as radio, newspaper, billboard, PR and social media companies, who work with them pro bono to add their voices and promote conservation and environmental issues.

Wild Africa partner with over 160 ambassadors from music, sports, film, TV, business, religion and government from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana, Namibia, and Zambia.