Save Our Seas Foundation

Rather than scales, sharks are covered in microscopic, tooth-like structures called dermal denticles. The nurse shark’s denticles are particularly distinct: thick and diamond-shaped with a single peak, they sit side-by-side to form a dense, interlocking armour. 📷: Sebastian Staines

In Guatemala, the fishing trade is an essential part of local communities. Following the fisheries supply chain, Maria De Belen Chacón Paz has discovered that as the seafood is processed, the identity of the species becomes lost. Using DNA to identify the products revealed a shocking truth.

Janie-Wray of BCWhales documents the first humpback mothers returning to the waters of Gitga’at First Nation Territory with their calves and the stunning ‘playdate’ behaviour that ensued. Luckily, she had her long lens and camera ready. saveourseas.com/update/the-f...

As with the largest sharks, reef manta rays feed exclusively on tiny plankton and small fish. With massive mouths agape and cephalic fins unfurled, they funnel water through their mouths and over their gills, where specially adapted gill rakers filter out the plankton. 📷: Shane Gross | © SOSF

Young people are key stakeholders in the future of our oceans. Carlos Polo and his team share their experience hosting a workshop with fifth-graders at San José School in Puebloviejo, a fishing community on Colombia's Caribbean coast.

In the Western Indian Ocean, the D'Arros and Saint Joseph Atoll Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA) is a critical reproductive area for blacktip reef sharks, where they cruise the shallow reefs and sand flats. 📷: Shane Gross | © Save Our Seas Foundation

Powerful stereo-video surveys, including hours of video footage, have been turned into published studies! Simon McKinley, using a combination of SPOT tags and miniPAT tags, reveals exciting hammerhead diving behaviour in the Galápagos Islands.

Like a scene borrowed from the sky, underwater, reef manta rays swoop and glide, their wide span slipping through the water with ease. A grace perfectly designed by nature. 🎥: Michael Scholl 🎥: Byron Dilkes 🎥: Henriette Grimmel 🎥: Dan Beecham

Alfonso Robalino Mejía explains differences in behaviour and how understanding them improves conservation. saveourseas.com/update/do-al...

Traversing the seas alongside manta rays, remora gain transport, protection and a reliable food source. And the relationship isn’t one-sided, manta rays receive on-the-go exfoliation as the remora slough dead cells and parasites from their skin. 📷: Christopher Leon

This week on the #WoS podcast, host Isla Hodgson is joined by Dr Barbara Wueringer of Sharks And Rays Australia (SARA), talking all things sawfish, from curious behaviours to fieldwork. Listen here: saveourseas.com/worldofshark... Artwork by Elliot Koonutta

How does photography encourage conservation? Is it through impact? More information about our Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant is available here: saveourseas.com/ocean-storyt... Edited by Caiti Allison 🎥: Naude Heunis 🎥: Sebastian Staines 🎥: David Griffin

Harassment is never ok. Anywhere, in any form. Learn more about the prevalence of harassment in conservation, diving, and ecotourism: www.womeninoceanscience.com/sexual-haras... @womenoceanscience.bsky.social 📷: Jake Wilton 📷: Matthew During

With International Sawfish Day happening this weekend, we hear from Kayla McCulloch about the rarity of encountering this species in habitats where it was once abundant. Could eDNA hold the answers to where remnant populations still reside?

Often seen leaping from the sea and spinning acrobatically, it’s no wonder they’re called spinner dolphins. It’s not uncommon for a pod to follow a distinct daily rhythm. By day, they rest in shallow coastal waters; by night, they head offshore to hunt. 📷: Sebastian Staines

Preparing for the next stage of the scientific project NEOBLUE, @elasmopoulo.bsky.social emphasises the importance of preparation but also the importance of sharing their goals with local schools, stakeholders and the scientific community. saveourseas.com/update/befor...

Manta rays play a vital role in the functioning of ocean habitats. Reef manta rays, in particular, are key drivers of nutrient cycling across coral reefs and beyond. Follow the reef manta on its nutrient-cycling journey! Illustrations by Kelsey Manners-Dickson | © Save Our Seas Foundation

On the reefs of D’Arros Island in the Seychelles, a sabre squirrelfish—the largest of the squirrelfish species—rests in caves and crevices during the day. At night, these nocturnal fish emerge to patrol the reefs and lagoons, hunting crabs, shrimp, and small fish. 📷: Shane Gross | © SOSF

Three months before it was scheduled to end, the Antarctic krill harvesting season had to close. Why? Because the companies fishing for the krill have harvested so much so quickly.

Kaitlyn O'Toole and her team were studying blood samples from Halavi guitarfish when they discovered something interesting using the leftover plasma, which raised questions they will need to answer in the future. saveourseas.com/update/setti...

The most notable feature of Atlantic nurse sharks is undoubtedly the pair of sensory barbels near their mouth. These whisker-like structures help them detect prey hidden in sand and sediment. 📷: Christopher Vaughan-Jones

NEOBLUE launched when Kenn Papadopoulo started searching the waters of Ría de Vigo for newborn blue sharks; they weren’t there. They tried again in Summer. This allowed them to gather valuable data to create a full picture of their movements over the seasons. saveourseas.com/update/when-...

Applications are open for our Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant. Apply here: grants.saveourseas.com More about the grant can be found here: saveourseas.com/ocean-storyt...

Paola Vivian Vásquez, who is studying the leopard round ray and the starry round ray, asks the question: How do round rays respond to such dramatic environmental change in a tropical upwelling system? She and her team are on a mission to find out. saveourseas.com/update/when-...

Milo the whale shark has done something no shark has done before in a tracking study. Over nearly a decade, he has travelled more than 54,700 kilometres, setting a record for the longest documented movement track of any shark! www.forbes.com/sites/meliss...

Sharks, rays and chimaeras comprise more than 1,290 species. Each month, we're celebrating a new species, ranging from some of your favourites to the lesser-known and weirdly wonderful. Our Ray of the Month? The reef manta ray. 📷 : Jasmine Corbett 📷 : Dillys Pouponeau 📷 : Christopher Leon

In this episode of the #WoS podcast, we discuss how to share the water with sharks safely, ethically and responsibly with wildlife photographer and filmmaker Luke Saddler. Listen here: saveourseas.com/worldofshark... 📷: Luke Saddler

Critically Endangered, it's believed that the last stronghold for the Ganges shark has been found in a remote corner of Indonesia, on an exploratory mission led by project leader Michael Grant. He believes that the introduction of legislation is vital for their race against extinction.

The SOSF Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant is open for applications! With conservation at its heart, this grant welcomes emerging photographers invested in deepening their impact through powerful, purposeful storytelling. More about the grant can be found here: saveourseas.com/ocean-storyt...

Petter Lundberg describes the adaptability needed to study sharks in Swedish waters, from wild weather that challenges the seaworthiness of their boat to suddenly needing to keep individuals in live wells to tag and sample them. saveourseas.com/update/a-smo...

The principle of countershading is simple: darker on top, lighter beneath. For the whitetip reef shark, this means a darker dorsal side that melts into the depths when viewed from above, and a pale belly that dissolves into sunlit surface waters when viewed from below. 📷: Jake Wilton

From working in the lab to handling live lemon sharks for the first time, Ana Carolyna is working alongside some amazing women, including Bianca Rangel, in Brazil to learn that working with sharks takes more than steady hands. saveourseas.com/update/uncov...

Satellite tagging, along with a nationwide citizen science network and field research, has discovered some troubling patterns in oceanic manta ray migrations between New Zealand and the South Pacific. Lydia Green travels aboard the Freeranger along the route to discover the causes.

Very little is known about manta ray reproduction. Summer Newton details the difficulties and advancements in using ultrasound technology to learn more, and how her experience as a diver has contributed to her work on the Laamu Atoll in the Maldives. @mantatrust.bsky.social

We're wrapping up Shark of the Month with a photo carousel of the majestic ocean wanderers we featured this month: the whale shark. 📷: Jonathan R. Green 📷: Jake Wilton 📷: Acacia Johnson | © Save Our Seas Foundation 📷: Guy Stevens

For nearly 20 years, Liesel Benjamin has watched over Muizenberg’s waters as a Shark Spotter. Her story traces how the job, the ocean and public attitudes towards sharks have changed, and why she believes education remains key to protecting them. @sharkspotters.bsky.social

Wonder what a morning on the Bernam River looks like for Muhammad Irsyad Pishal? By 6:00 a.m., hundreds of Critically Endangered Ranong guitarfish can be landed at a single jetty in Malaysia. Most will never reach a market. Instead, they are sorted as ‘trash fish’ and sent to become fishmeal.

Today is International Coastal Cleanup Day, an initiative dedicated to protecting our oceans. Worldwide, people are coming together to remove marine litter from beaches, rivers, lakes, and waterways. Illustrations by Kelsey Manners Dickson | © Save Our Seas Foundation

A new study led by researchers at our D'Arros Research Centre found 12 types of microplastics in the secluded waters where reef manta rays feed daily. This raises urgent questions about the impact of this silent threat on the ocean's gentlest giants.

Despite international policy changes, bans on shark finning have had no statistically significant impact on global trade flows. While the “null result” offers no simple victory for marine conservation, publishing the findings provides a critical reality check for environmental policy.

A deep-sea catshark caught off Kerala’s coast has now been identified as a new species, highlighting the need for a better understanding of deep-sea biodiversity. india.mongabay.com/2026/08/scie...

In this episode of World of Sharks, we travel to Cameroon with Ghofrane Labyedh, who shares her findings and stories from this coastline and the key lessons she's learned along the way. Listen here: saveourseas.com/worldofshark... 📷: Hugues Karismatik

Fishers from the coast of East Java, who once brought every catch ashore, are increasingly releasing live, juvenile wedgefish back into the sea. More than 128 wedgefish have been saved. More below in Antika Milata Rizka’s blog. saveourseas.com/update/a-sec...

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean, yet they prey primarily on the smallest – zooplankton. But they don't eat only that... 🎥: Gilles Charvet | © Artlist 🎥: Byron Dilkes

On Java’s north coast, local university students are being trained to become the researchers who will carry the work forward, bringing scientific knowledge back to the communities and waters they call home. More below in Antika Milata Rizka’s blog. saveourseas.com/update/build...

Our new Save Our Seas collection has dropped! Bold prints, ocean-inspired designs, made for a good cause. Shop yours now: shopsaveourseas.com

Survival in the Great African Seaforest depends on unlikely alliances: crabs wear sponges, limpets tend to their kelp hosts, while other relationships can be more unsettling, with parasites taking over the tongues of fish. Discover more in Helen Scales and Jannes Landschoff’s blog.

Hammerheads tilt when swimming; here's why. 🎥: Michael Scholl | © Save Our Seas Foundation