Looking for a Super Cool Gift?
Adopt a Shark from The Shark Trust

The Shark Trust is a UK based charity dedicated to the conservation of sharks, skates, rays and chimeras in both British and International waters. It was started in 1997 and has been gaining strength ever since.

They have loads of great sharky info on their site, including downloadable PDF files on all the British sharks, skates and rays. Don’t spend too much time over there though – we have sharks here too ;) Nah, just kidding. We don’t mind where you learn about sharks, as long as it helps them.

Shark Trust Membership Pack

There are several ways you can support shark conservation through the Trust. You could sign up for an annual membership. There are membership plans for individuals, families students, juniors and groups. As a member you receive a pack containing the most recent copy of Shark Focus, a car sticker, a magnetic bookmark, full colour posters and a pack of information leaflets about British sharks, skates and rays.  You also receive the Shark Focus magazine in March, July and November of every year your membership is active.

You can also adopt a shark. There’s a Basking Shark, a Great White Shark or a whole shiver of Whale Sharks to choose from. With the adoption you get a poster featuring your chosen shark/s and a certificate of adoption.

If you want both the membership and an adoption. There is some duplication in the packs. You could notify the Trust and ask them not to send the duplicate leaflets and magazine, or you could pass them on to an interested friend who may then choose to sign up too.

Remember, if you’re struggling for ideas for birthdays and other celebrations, memberships and adoptions make great gifts for the shark lovers among your friends and family.

Get involved with The Shark Trust

There are so many other ways you can support the sharks too. The Great Egg Case Hunt is a great one for the kids to join in. The hunt was started in 2003 and is building a growing database of egg case records. This research gives an indication of the distribution of British sharks, skates and rays and also gives an idea of the health of the nursery grounds.

Divers can also get involved by photographing egg cases, and noting their location, underwater.

You can take part in the Egg Case Hunt on any UK beach, and it has also now been launched on the US east coast.

The No Limits? No Future campaign

This is a campaign to limit the number of certain species of shark that can be caught in EU waters. Of over 100 species of shark, skate and ray present in European waters, the IUCN Redlist has just under half of them listed as Threatened or Near Threatened. Eight species are listed as critically endangered.

There are currently no limits imposed on the fishing of these animals and because they produce few young and take so long to reach sexual maturity it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is unsustainable.

The numbers make for some pretty scary reading. You can find out more about it, and add your voice to the campaign, by checking out the No Limits? No Future website.

There's plenty more you can get involved with so why not grab your favourite beverage and hop over to their site and have a good root round?

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