WhaleTimes created Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice to help raise awareness and encourage advocacy to protect elasmobranchs.
This special annual holiday is celebrated worldwide, and it’s THIS *Friday May 13, 2022.
WhaleTimes believes kids are the future of sharks. No one is louder and more enthusiastic than a kid who cares. Not only do we want kids kids from all over the world cheering, SAVE THE SHARKS on this special holiday, we want them cheering for sharks every day.
How can you help sharks? Let people know you care. Here are a few ways:
ZONE IT! Let’s make the ocean one giant shark conservation zone! Start small. Make your room, house, school, even grandma’s rocking chair a shark 
conservation zone. Just print and post our shark conservation sign. Ask your friends, “Are you zoned, then tell them where to get their sign.
WhaleTimes Fintastic Friday Shark Conservation Zone Poster (yellow background)
WhaleTimes Fintastic Friday Shark Conservation Zone Poster (no background)
Kids in Oregon make a thank you for Dean Grubbs, Florida State University Coastal and Marine Lab.
SAY THANK YOU IN A BIG WAY! Scientists are helping to save sharks. Thank them with a big as life thank you. Draw your favorite shark, skate, or ray…make it life size if you can – from a small carpetshark to a giant angelshark. Sign it, have your friends sign and mail it to your favorite scientists.
SHARKS IN THE PARK. To celebrate Fintastic Friday, how about a Sharks in the Park party? Kids around the world are saving sharks by sharing their love and enthusiasm with rallies, signs, and their voices. Make your own rally sign. It’s easy. Here are the instructions: Fintastic Friday Sharks in the Park Rally Sign Activity WhaleTimes Inc
TAKE THE *”FINTASTIC FRIDAY FIN PLEDGE”
Pledge to:
- Eat sustainable seafood. If you cannot easily trace the path from the sea to your plate, find another source.
- SPEAK UP to change laws if your country supports or allows the sale of shark fins, the finning fishery (killing sharks for their fins) or other fishing practices that kill sharks without restraint.
- SPEAK UP to change laws if your country does not try to minimize by-catch (getting caught in nets set for other species) or other fishing practices that kill sharks, skates, or rays with little regard.
- Support shark, skate, and ray research and conservation efforts. The more we know the better we can protect them.
- Share your “Fintastic Friday Fin Pledge” photo with your friends, family, classmates, and WhaleTimes (a photo of you holding your hand on your head like a fin).
Fintastic Friday PLEDGE in pdf format to share with friends
SHARE THE BEAUTY OF YOUR FAVORITE SHARK, SKATE, OR RAY Create and share some WhaleTimes Awesome SharkArt
SPREAD THE WORD Share or like Fintastic Friday on the WhaleTimes Facebook page.
SUPPORT RESEARCH: Meet just a few people working to save sharks:
Mahmood Shivji: Dr. Mahmood Shivji, Nova Southeastern University, just unlocked the genome sequence for the great white shark! Here is an article: Great White Shark Genome Decoded.
Dave Ebert: There are more than 500 species of sharks, and many of them have been identified by Dr. David Ebert from the Pacific Shark Research Center. Dr. Ebert’s current research focuses on “Looking for Lost Sharks.” He travels worldwide to learn more about little known species and discover new species. Find out more about his research at:
https://psrc.mlml.calstate.edu/current-research/Lost-Sharks/
Rachel Graham: This Friday is an important holiday: Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates and Rays a Voice. Someone giving sharks a voice is Dr. Rachel Graham with MarAlliance. She is one of the amazing scientists I was lucky enough to include in MISSION: SHARK RESCUE. To learn more about Rachel and her research and efforts to save sharks and other animals visit MarAlliance (www.maralliance.org) .
Dean Grubbs: Dr. Dean Grubbs, Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory, studies deep-sea sharks including bluntnose sixgill sharks (Hexanchus griseus), bigeye sixgill sharks (H. nakamurai), deepwater stingrays (Plesiobatis daviesi), and short-spined spurdogs (Squalus mitsukurii). He also studies sawfish and other animals. You can learn more about his important research and help support his research at: www.marinelab.fsu.edu/aboutus/supportfsucml
Check out Dr. Johann Mourier’s website at the Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory. You may have read about him in the MISSION: SHARK book and his cool use of a drone to count sharks, his discovery that blacktip reef sharks have friends or other important research that helps us understand and protect sharks. Dr. Mourier is now in Australia studying the social life of Port-Jackson sharks as well as their movements. We can’t wait to hear what he discovers. You can help support the research, even adopt a shark. Find out more Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory
You don’t have to have a PhD in science to save sharks. There are many citizen scientists stepping up to the plate trying to make a difference.
When Jackie and Graham Hall discovered that no one was studying — or protecting the basking sharks they saw off the coast of the Isle of Man, they stepped up to the plate in a big way. They created Manx Basking Shark Watch and started with a citizens science then added tagging, DNA studies, photo ID and more. Find out more at: www.manxbaskingsharkwatch.org/
Avid diver Jason Holmberg wanted to help researchers identify and track whale sharks. He teamed up with shark experts and other scientists to create software that could identify whale sharks by their spot patterns. Together they launched whaleshark.org. Whaleshark.org encourages divers from around the world to submit their whale shark photos. With the help of these citizen scientists, whaleshark.org has collected more than 53,000 photos. Find out how to support whale shark research or submit your own whale shark photo: www.whaleshark.org
What can you do to help sharks? How can you put your talents to work to save sharks?
Learn more about saving sharks. Discover more about sharks, meet some amazing scientists who study them, and discover other ways you can help save sharks. Read National Geographic Kids MISSION SHARK RESCUE: ALL ABOUT SHARKS AND HOW TO SAVE THEM, available now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, National Geographic Books, or your favorite book seller.
You might also like Everything Sharks (2018, 2011) 
How will you celebrate and protect sharks, skates, and rays?
