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What is the Shark Foundation?
The Shark Foundation (Hai-Stiftung, at shark.swiss) is a charitable organization focused on the international protection of sharks. Its guiding message is that sharks are not a threat to people—people are a threat to sharks—and its work is organized around conservation rather than advocacy for shark fishing or shark products.
What the site covers
The foundation presents sharks from several angles, which shows how it combines public education with conservation:
- Shark biology and behavior: anatomy and the seven senses, reproduction, habitats, evolution, and how sharks hunt.
- Threats to sharks: fisheries, finning, bycatch, mangrove loss, global warming, plastics, and the shark-product trade.
- Human–shark encounters: accident facts, dangerous species, prevention, and water-safety guidance—useful framing for readers who fear sharks.
- Protection work: a projects section with current and completed efforts, including population genomics, shark fisheries in Angola and Ghana, nurseries in Fiji, reef and whale shark work, and regional studies such as blue sharks in Cornwall and deep-sea sharks in the Mediterranean.
- Reference resources: a shark database with distribution, identification, Red List categories, and taxonomy, plus news, annual reports, grants, and publications.
- Public engagement: a traveling exhibit titled "Sharks – the hunted hunters," with visitor information, and a small shop.
Who it suits
A student researching a species can use the database and Red List entries; a diver or beachgoer can read the accident and prevention pages; a donor or grant reader can review annual reports and project descriptions; and a teacher can draw on the biology and threat sections or the exhibit. The breadth is the strength—one place for biology, conservation status, and project updates—though readers wanting quick answers will need to navigate several sections.
A practical next step
If you want to judge the organization's work rather than its educational material, start with the Projects section and read one current project alongside its Annual Reports. That pairing shows what is being attempted and how it is reported. For species background first, the Red List and Database sections give the context the project pages assume.
How can I donate to support shark protection?
Donation details aren't listed on the site's main pages, so the reliable route is to go through the official site directly: Shark Foundation. Its donation prompt ("Support the work of the Shark Foundation for Sharks! Donate") sits alongside a shop, and the "Foundation" section with annual reports and grants is the place to check how contributions are used before giving.
A practical way to decide
- If you want your money to fund fieldwork, look at the current projects list (for example population genomics, shark fisheries in Angola and Ghana, nurseries in Fiji, and Cape Verde reef shark protection) and note which one you'd like to support.
- If accountability matters most, read the annual reports first; they show what was spent and on what.
- If you'd rather give non-cash support, the shop sells items such as petrified shark teeth, though buying merchandise is not the same as a directed donation.
A concrete example: someone interested in bycatch and trade issues might read the Ghana and Tamil Nadu project notes, then contact the foundation through the site to ask whether a donation can be earmarked for that work. For general context on shark conservation funding, Ocean Conservancy and WWF also run marine programmes, but their priorities differ from a small, project-focused foundation.
Before donating, confirm three things on the site: the payment methods accepted, whether donations are tax-deductible in your country, and whether you can designate a project.
Which shark conservation projects does the foundation currently run?
The Shark Foundation runs a mix of active field projects and completed work, grouped on its site under Current, Completed and Short projects. The current list is dominated by fisheries and population studies rather than public campaigns: population genomics, shark fisheries in Angola and Ghana, shark nurseries, whale sharks, Fiji shark reef work, shark protection in Cape Verde, migrations of pelagic and large shark species, shark trade in Tamil Nadu, blue shark populations, sharks and rays in Seychelles, diel behaviour, sharks in the Ambracian Gulf, deepsea sharks in the Mediterranean, and eDNA work in South Africa. Completed projects include white sharks, shark identification, shark trade in Greece, sixgill sharks, blue sharks in Cornwall, basking sharks and three shark documentaries; the short-projects section covers Bimini nurse sharks, bull sharks, Fiji bull shark nurseries, Fiji lemon sharks, Jupiter and angel sharks. See Shark Foundation for the project pages.
How to read the list
The pattern is telling: many projects address bycatch, finning, trade and nursery habitats — the pressures the site itself frames as the threat to sharks rather than sharks as a threat. If you are deciding where to direct attention, match the project to your interest:
| Your interest | Relevant project type on the site |
|---|---|
| Fisheries policy and trade | Angola, Ghana, Tamil Nadu, Greece trade work |
| Nursery and juvenile habitat | Shark nurseries, Fiji bull shark and lemon shark projects |
| Species monitoring and methods | Population genomics, eDNA South Africa, migrations |
| Regional conservation | Cape Verde, Seychelles, Ambracian Gulf, Mediterranean deepsea sharks |
A useful next step is to open one current project page and check its stated objective and location before assuming it is a donation target; the site also has separate Grants and Publications sections where results are likely documented.
What shark species are on the Red List and how are they categorized?
The site does not list individual species and their Red List categories on the page you supplied. It provides a Red List section with three parts — Red List Categories, Taxonomy, and Identification — plus a searchable Sharks Database and a filterable Distribution view. In practice, that means you look up a species in the database or the taxonomy pages and read its category there, rather than scanning one master list of threatened sharks.
What the categories mean in practice
The Red List Categories page is the key to reading any species entry. The standard framework runs from Least Concern through Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct, with Data Deficient and Not Evaluated for species without enough information. Two points matter most for sharks:
- Data Deficient is not a safe rating. Many sharks are poorly studied, so "Data Deficient" often reflects missing survey data rather than healthy populations. Treat it as a research gap, not reassurance.
- A global rating can hide regional collapse. A species may be Least Concern worldwide while a regional population is Endangered. Check whether a category is global or regional before quoting it.
A concrete way to use the site
Suppose you want to know the status of a shark you saw while diving, or one mentioned in a fisheries report. Start with the Identification pages to confirm the species, then open its entry in the Sharks Database or Taxonomy section, and read the category against the Red List Categories definitions. If you are checking whether a species occurs in a particular sea, the Distribution search narrows the list first, which saves time.
Where to cross-check
For the authoritative category, including the assessment date and the assessors' reasoning, use the IUCN Red List itself at IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The site's own project pages — for example its work on blue sharks, basking sharks, angel sharks, sixgill sharks and white sharks — show which species the foundation treats as priorities, which is a useful signal of where concern is concentrated even though it is not a category list.
As a next step, decide whether you need a global status for a report or a regional one for a local conservation or fisheries decision; that choice determines which category you should be reading.
How can I identify a shark species using the foundation's database?
Use the foundation's Shark Database as a reference tool rather than a single lookup box. The site lists database sections for Distribution, Identification, Red List categories and Taxonomy. That combination is what makes identification practical: you can narrow a sighting by where it occurred, then confirm it against physical features and check the species' conservation status.
A workable identification sequence
- Start with distribution. Record where you saw the shark — ocean region, depth, reef or open water. Use the Distribution section to shortlist species known to occur there. This is the fastest way to cut a long list down.
- Compare physical features. Move to Identification and check the traits you actually observed: body shape, fin position and shape, colour pattern, head and snout form, gill slits, and any markings. Distinguish between what you clearly saw and what you assumed.
- Confirm the taxonomy. Use the Taxonomy section to check the scientific name and avoid mixing up similar common names or regional labels.
- Check the Red List entry. The Red List section gives the species' assessed status, which is useful context if you are reporting a sighting or writing it up.
What to note before you search
Good identification depends on the quality of your observation. Before opening the database, write down:
- Location and habitat type, plus approximate depth
- Estimated size, using something in the frame for scale
- Fin shapes and positions, especially the dorsal and caudal fins
- Colour and any distinctive pattern
- Behaviour — resting on the bottom, cruising the surface, schooling
- Whether you have a photo, and from which angle
Photos from the side, plus a clear view of the dorsal fin and tail, resolve most ambiguities. A single distant image often supports a family-level guess at best.
Where the database helps most — and its limits
The database is strongest for narrowing candidates and checking names and status, not for definitive ID from a blurry photo. If your shortlist still contains two similar species, treat the result as a probable identification and say so. For anything you plan to publish or submit to a recording scheme, have the record reviewed by someone experienced with that region's fauna.
A useful next step: pick one species you suspect and read its Distribution and Identification entries side by side. If the habitat or depth range does not match your sighting, drop it and move to the next candidate. For broader context on shark biology and the threats the foundation documents, its sections on biology and on fisheries sit alongside the database and are worth reading once you have a candidate species in hand.
What does the 'Sharks - the hunted hunters' exhibit include and how can I visit it?
The "Sharks – the hunted hunters" exhibit is the Shark Foundation's public-facing display, presented on Global protection of endangered sharks!. The page organizes it around the themes of evolution and biology, anatomy and the seven senses, reproduction, and the threat-and-danger side of the story — framing sharks as hunted animals rather than as threats to people. A separate "Exhibit" section on the site offers "Impressions" (visual highlights) and "Tour Information," which is where the practical visiting details live.
What to expect from the content
- Biology basics: anatomy, senses, and reproduction, aimed at general audiences rather than specialists.
- Conservation framing: fisheries, finning, bycatch, and habitat pressures such as mangroves, warming and plastics, tied to the foundation's field projects in places like Fiji, Cape Verde, Ghana and the Mediterranean.
- A photographic angle: the site credits wildlife photographers, so expect strong imagery alongside the explanatory material.
How to plan a visit
Start with the "Tour Information" page under the Exhibit menu for opening arrangements and how tours are organized; the "Impressions" gallery gives a sense of scale and style before you commit. Because the exhibit is run by a foundation rather than a large museum, it is worth confirming details directly through the contact options on the site, especially for group or school visits.
Who it suits
It works best for families, school groups and divers who want an accessible introduction to shark biology paired with a conservation message. A reader who already follows primary research may find the exhibit material introductory and would do better with the site's Projects and Grants database for depth.
As a next step, decide whether your goal is a casual outing or a teaching session: for the former, check Tour Information and Impressions; for the latter, pair the exhibit with the site's Red List and species-identification sections to build a lesson around local species.
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