Shark Awareness Day 2026

Great White Shark, False Bay, South Africa by © Dan Callister

These iconic apex predators have roamed the seas for over 400 million years, regulating prey populations and shaping the behaviour of other species to maintain the delicate balance of ocean life. Their presence signals resilient, thriving seas, but their decline carries consequences that extend through entire marine food webs, and ultimately, to people.

Shark Awareness Day is dedicated to raising awareness of the vital role sharks play in ocean health, and the threats that face shark populations worldwide. From overfishing and bycatch to lethal bather protection, sharks face mounting pressure from human activity — and their biology makes them especially vulnerable to it. Most species take years to mature and produce few offspring in a lifetime, so as slow-growing, slow-reproducing animals, they cannot recover quickly from sustained losses.

Despite their importance, sharks remain among the most misunderstood and least protected animal groups in South Africa.

Through their Oceans program The Biodiversity Law Centre works to strengthen the legal and governance frameworks that shape shark conservation in South Africa. By combining legal expertise with the best available science, and working in partnership with researchers, conservationists and other stakeholders, they seek to support evidence-based approaches to conserving these ecologically vital species.

Their current work focuses on:

The legal and policy framework governing bather protection measures along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
The management and regulation of shark fisheries, with particular attention to the conservation of South Africa's most vulnerable shark species.

The Biodiversity Law Centre work asks how decisions affecting these animals are made, what evidence informs them, and whether the environmental governance framework is holding decision-makers to the standard the Constitution requires.

#savesharks #marineconservation