Millennial activist swims with sharks

Photo credit: Smithsonian magazine

You wouldn’t think that sharks need to be protected, but 29-year-old marine activist Ocean Ramsey is setting out to change that notion. Millennial magazine profiles Ramsey’s efforts to protect sharks and give their their image as savage killers a much-needed overhaul:

Marine Activist Ocean Ramsey Fights the War on Sharks (millennialmagazine.com)

It’s estimated that humans kill 100 million sharks each year. One reason why sharks are killed is for their fins, which are used to make shark fin soup. Though shark fin soup isn’t tasty or healthy, it’s perceived as a status symbol in mainland China, where customers pay up to $100 per bowl.

Ramsey describes the inhumanity of Chinese finners toward sharks: “They buy out the rights to the fisheries of local areas and then decimate them. They take out all the sharks. They hack off their fins, and they throw them back in the water finless, where they slowly bleed to death or suffocate. Sharks can’t grow their fins back. It’s a very cruel and wasteful process.”

To protect sharks, Ramsey created a shark conservation network called Water Inspired, which offers people the opportunity to swim with sharks under the watch of trained professionals. And photographer Juan Oliphant takes pictures of Ramsey swimming with sharks to display their beauty and dispel the myth of them being bloodthirsty maneaters.

I really appreciate Ramsey’s determination in bringing attention to saving sharks: a cause we don’t ordinarily think about. (And having the name “Ocean” is perfectly suited to her marine activism.) Check out this post for more millennial activists who are standing up for their causes.