How Can Someone Who Isn’t an Expert Scientist Help Protect Sharks?

In this edition of Ask a Marine Biologist, Dr. David Shiffman advises people on what they should, and should perhaps not, do if they want to help.

Q: What can someone with zero scientific background do to help with shark conservation? Are there specific causes/charities you recommend supporting? Specific causes/charities you recommend avoiding? —Janae G., California

A: There are lots of things that passionate nonexperts can do to help shark conservation, and ocean conservation in general—and lots of things that folks are doing that is not particularly helpful. I’ve addressed the latter repeatedly (see my Scuba Diving magazine column from a few months ago), so it seems only fair that I talk about what you can do that will help.

To maximize your effectiveness in shark conservation, it’s important that you understand the facts and evidence behind threats to sharks, and the policy solutions that can be used to help sharks. In general, many of the nonexpert shark enthusiasts I speak to are badly misinformed about both of these issues. They tend to wrongly believe that the only threats facing sharks are shark finning or the idea that sharks are scary and people want them all dead, and believe that the only solutions available are to ban shark finning or to show people that sharks aren’t really scary—sometimes harassing wildlife to prove their point. This is just not true, and it’s perhaps worth noting that shark finning has been illegal in the United States for almost 30 years, so please stop signing and sharing those goofy petitions asking Florida to ban shark finning. (A bill moving through the Florida legislature as of this writing aims to ban importing shark fins from countries with bad fisheries management practices, which is not the same thing as banning finning—lots of shark fins enter the shark fin trade without coming from sharks that were finned. Finning is a technical legal term that refers to removing the fins of a shark at sea and discarding the shark’s carcass at sea. If the carcass makes it to land it was not finned, even if the fins are later removed and sold.) Words mean things, you won’t be able to help anyone or anything if you don’t bother to learn basic terms or basic facts.

The biggest threat facing sharks is unsustainable overfishing, spurred in some cases by the rapidly growing meat trade. This doesn’t mean that sustainable fisheries can’t exist—they can and do. The expert-backed, evidence-based solution is science-based fisheries management of the same type that works for other kinds of fishes and fisheries. This kind of solution absolutely requires help and support from the passionate, nonexpert public, and you can learn how to help most effectively by following experts on social media or signing up for email action alerts from responsible science-based nonprofit groups—we’ll tell you exactly who to contact, what to say, and what not to say. PADI’s Project AWARE does great work with this, putting the conservation-minded dive community’s passion and energy to work for many science-based nonprofit advocacy groups around the world. Sign up for their emails and you’ll be informed about some ways you can help.

In general, if you care about sharks and want to help them, but don’t have any training, experience, credentials, or knowledge relevant to policy change or conservation advocacy, I strongly recommend that you volunteer to help with an existing shark or ocean conservation nonprofit rather than start your own. There are lots of great nonprofits who employ experts with such training, experience, credentials or knowledge, and many of them could use volunteer labor or extra donated funds. My go-to shark conservation nonprofit is Shark Advocates International, which advocates for science-based shark conservation measures at fisheries management and wildlife conservation meetings all over the world. I’ve worked to support many ocean conservation nonprofits, but SAI is one of the few that I can point to without having to provide reservations or qualifications.

You had also asked about charities I would recommend avoiding. I’m not going to name any names here, but in addition to well-intentioned folks who are likely to fail because they haven’t bothered to learn the boring technical stuff that’s really important, the ocean conservation community is full of snake oil salesmen and liars. To evaluate whether or not a charity is bad news, look the organization up on Charity Navigator to highlight straight-up scams. Additionally, have a look at the organization’s website and the list of what issues it works on, what its approach is, what its track record of success is, and who it work with. A group that hasn’t ever accomplished anything, shares wrong information and doesn’t work with or employ any reliable, credentialed experts is perhaps one you should consider avoiding.

In summary, while I often criticize the well-intentioned but uninformed for doing more harm than good and stress that trying to help is not the same thing as actually helping, there are absolutely lots of ways that passionate nonexperts can help. Learn the facts by following real experts, and don’t share obvious nonsense. Do a quick online search before sharing information to see if it’s been shared—or already debunked—by reliable experts. Support reputable nonprofits by donating time or money. Write public comments in support of (or sometimes in opposition to) proposed regulatory changes that affect sharks, following guidelines provided to you from experts. Most important, do what you did here and ask before you waste everyone’s time, including your own. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel poorly here. There are lots of very smart, experienced people working on this that need your help!

Ask a Marine Biologist is a biweekly column where Dr. David Shiffman answers your questions about the underwater world. Topics are chosen from reader-submitted queries as well as data from common internet searches. If you have a question you’d like answered in a future Ask a Marine Biologist column, or if you have a question about the answer given in this column, email Shiffman at WhySharksMatter@gmail.com with subject line “Ask a marine biologist.”

Dr. David Shiffman is a marine conservation biologist specializing in the ecology and conservation of sharks. An award-winning public science educator, David has spoken to thousands of people around the world about marine biology and conservation and has bylines with the Washington Post, Scientific American, New Scientist, Gizmodo and more. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where he’s always happy to answer any questions about sharks.

The views expressed in this article are those of David Shiffman, and not necessarily the views of Sport Diver or Scuba Diving magazines.