lewispughfdn.bsky.social
The #TheSharkSwim is underway! Lewis Pugh is swimming in Massachusetts to spotlight the global plight of sharks. Follow along 🏊♂️🦈🌍
https://lewispughfoundation.org/campaign/shark-swim-2025/
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These are threatened animals, already seeing dramatic population declines.
This is a crucial opportunity for the world to act decisively and give these sharks the protection they urgently need 🌊🦈🚨
#TheSharkSwim
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To protect the ocean, we must protect its apex predators:
📉 Less than 3% of the sea is fully protected
🎯 Only 4.5 years left to hit #30x30
🛑 Whale sharks and other species need to be fully protected under CITES
To tackle the biodiversity crisis & protect our ocean, we need faster, bolder action.
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Thank you for the important work you do! 🙌🦈🌍
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They are truly magnificent!
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Thank you! 🙏💙🦈
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We are honoured to partner with @thegef.bsky.social on #TheSharkSwim. For over 3 decades, they’ve advanced the protection of sharks & their ocean habitats through investments in sustainable fisheries management and championing marine protected areas, including shark sanctuaries, around the world 🌊🦈🌍
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Who needs em!
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"Without sharks, you take away the apex predator of the ocean, and you destroy the entire food chain." — Peter Benchley
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Despite their fearsome reputation, sharks are now more hunted than hunters. Humans are the shark’s biggest predator, through industrial fishing, habitat loss, and the global trade in fins and meat.
📸: Antony Dickson
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Taking a fully-grown, optimally functioning apex predator out of an ecosystem upsets nature's delicate balance. It allows other species to grow out of turn, to take over grasslands, forests, waterways or reefs.
📸 Roff & Mumby et al. — The Ecological Role of Sharks on Coral Reefs
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White sharks also regulate prey populations of animals such as seals, elephant seals and sea lions. Their presence helps increase species stability and the diversity of the ocean 🦈🦭🔗
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Sharks do the same thing in the ocean by eating species that feed on smaller fish. Acting as ‘gamekeepers’, they limit fish from overgrazing ocean vegetation and help protect coral reefs by managing fish populations 🐠🪸🌾
📸: Tom Vierus
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On land, apex predators keep grazers in check, allowing a rich variety of plants to thrive. This is an example of a trophic cascade – when predators limit the density or behaviour of their prey, helping the next lower level survive 🦁🌿🦌
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From wolves and tigers to polar bears and orcas, apex predators play a pivotal role in keeping our planet’s ecosystems healthy 🐻❄️💚🐯
Wherever you find one, you know it has evolved to maintain the natural balance of its habitat ⚖️🌍
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Thank you!
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It's where the legend began, and where the story can now be rewritten.
Follow along for live updates and help us change the story 🌊🦈💙
#TheSharkSwim
lewispughfoundation.org/campaign/sha...
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Since then, conservation efforts, legal protections, and the return of seals have made a shark comeback possible in this region.
This stretch of ocean around Cape Cod is the only known white shark aggregation site in the North Atlantic.
📸: Pamela King
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In the years that followed, vendetta killings, shark-slaughtering tournaments, and industrial commercial fishing had a devastating effect on shark populations.
On both the east and west coasts of the United States, they were almost wiped out.
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Released 50 years ago, Jaws was designed to thrill
and entertain, but had unanticipated consequences.
Playing on our primal fear of predators, the film triggered irrational panic over a creature we now recognise as crucial to ocean ecosystems.
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Edgartown is famously known as the location for the fictional ‘Amity Island’, and many of the buildings and landmarks captured in the movie can still be seen today!
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Lewis began his 60-mile swim around Martha's Vineyard from the Edgartown Lighthouse. If you've watched the movie Jaws, you may recognise this seaside town.