National Museums Liverpool Blog - sharks

There's something fishy going on...it's shark week at World Museum! 

Here's Education Demonstrator Alyster Chapman to tell us more:

It’s that time of year again when Europe celebrates European Shark Week. We will be having shark activities this weekend, 13-14 October, at World Museum. 

From 11am-4pm in the Clore Natural History Centre, families will be able to get crafty with our shark-themed activities. Come along for the chance to take part with badge making, face painting and also design your own shark to add to our giant underwater mural!

At 1pm and 3pm there will be an exclusive screening of the multi-award winning film 'Shark Water' (PG) in our Treasure House Theatre. This film is not only captivating, action packed and full of breathtaking underwater footage but has a truly inspirational message about shark conservation as well as a very charismatic presenter.

These events run both days of the weekend and it's all free!

Sharks often get a bad press. People tend to think of them as only man-eating, killing machines but sharks are amazing animals and hugely misunderstood. 

Sharks come in all shapes and sizes, the pigmy shark is the smallest, you could fit a full grown one on the palm of your hand. The biggest shark is the whale shark, they grow over 20 metres in length and are a gentle giant of the sea, feeding on tiny plankton in the water. 

Sharks were on the earth 400 million years ago, that’s before the dinosaurs! Luckily sharks are still here, for now. Shark numbers are declining though, with around 70 million sharks being slaughtered every year. Many are killed just for their fins, which are cut off and the dying animal is thrown back into the sea. This extremely cruel and wasteful process, known as shark finning, goes on to produce a delicacy called shark fin soup. Shark finning happens in this country as well as others, so this really is a local problem.

We hope you will join in our celebration of sharks and see these creatures for what they are; amazing, fascinating, majestic, awesome animals.

Here's our Education Demonstrator at the Aquarium, Clare Allen, to tell us about her favourite sea animal - the shark! We have some great shark-related activities coming up at World Museum, so read on to find out more...

Me and the rest of the aquarium team are busy gearing up for this years European Shark Week. We are particularly excited this year as we are screening the award-winning film 'Shark Water' as well as running some fantastic sharky activities. Every year we join up with The Shark Trust to put on activities for European Shark Week - find out about all our sharky fun this year on our 'Wonderful World' events page.

When people ask me what my favourite animal in the sea is I have to say the shark. They are truly amazing and charismatic animals, thought they are hugely misunderstood. They have been on this earth since before the dinosaurs and come in all shapes and sizes. My very favourite shark is the Whale Shark. Thought to grow over 20 meters in length it is the largest fish in the sea, but this gentle giant eats only plankton.

Loving sharks as I do, it makes me very sad to know that they are now struggling to survive with some species declining so much that only 5% remain. Around 100,000,000 sharks are killed every year mainly just for their fins, which are cut off and the dieing animal thrown back into the sea. This extremely cruel and wasteful process known as shark finning goes on to produce a delicacy called shark fin soup. Shark finning happens in this country as well as others, so this really is a local problem.
Unfortunately not everyone thinks of sharks the way I do so it is difficult to press to stop shark finning.

That is why during shark week we like to make a fuss about sharks and show people how wonderful and important they are to keep our seas healthy.

We will be running events from 15 - 23 October with our special guest Sean The Shark! These will include face painting, badge making and Sean's special show 'The Trouble With Sharks'. We'll also be making a giant underwater mural covered in sharks. 

There will be free tickets for exclusive screenings of the film Shark Water. This film is not only captivating, action packed and full of breathtaking underwater footage but has a truly inspirational message about shark conservation as well as a very charismatic presenter.

I can't wait and I hope you'll join me to celebrate my favourite animal, the shark.

Here is Phil Lewis our Aquarium & Bughouse Assistant to tell you about the forthcoming Shark Week at the World Museum...

European Shark Week runs from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 October when we'll have an array of activities at the World Museum's Clore Natural History Centre. There will be badge making for children and lots of posters and pockets guides to give away, with information about sharks and rays.  All the drawings of the various species that are produced by visitors during the week, will be mounted on the wall to form a huge mural. 

Make friends with a shark at Shark Week!

You can also come to several presentations delivered by our very enthusiastic aquarium staff at the Treasure House Theatre. These will focus on the status of sharks in the wild with lots of interesting shark and ray facts and plenty of interaction with the audience!  The dates for these presentations are: Sunday 11, Tuesday 13, Friday 16, Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October.
 
The purpose of Shark Week is to raise awareness about the tens of millions of sharks and rays that are slaughtered each year. This is due to unsustainable fishing practices and a desire for shark fin soup, which is an extremely cruel and wasteful practice. Sharks which have just had there fins cut off are then thrown overboard still alive and left to die slowly. 

In Europe alone, thousands of tonnes of sharks are landed each year accounting for 27 percent of the slaughter world wide.  This is an appalling example set by the EU, which other nations may look to for guidance and influence.  They are also fished commercially for their meat and liver oil used in lamps, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and vitamin supplements.  Harvesting these animals is unsustainable as sharks and rays grow slowly and have few offspring, making it impossible for them to recover from such exploitation.  As sharks in particular usually receive negative media coverage, due to rare attacks on humans, it is very hard to lobby support for this group of animals than it is for other groups of endangered animals. 

This is why Shark Week is so important in raising awareness and bringing these issues to the forefront of public imagination. These animals have been around for 400 million years - that's 200 million years before the dinosaurs - and they deserve better than this.

We hope to see you there so you can find out more about these incredible animals!