International Basking Shark Day Recognizes the Second Largest Fish, and Works to Protect Them
The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest living shark. It is one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark.
Read MoreJoin us for our fall event at Aquatic Park, Berkeley CA
Celebrate our own hound shark and bat ray nursery site and help us monitor and protect this beautiful park.
Join our Aquatic Park Stewards team testing water quality, cleaning up marine debris and helping maintain the lagoon and park.
In the Northeast Pacific, adult white sharks annually migrate far from USA and Mexican protection and are vulnerable to being killed as bycatch on international longliners or shark finning on the high seas. This is one of the reasons we celebrate their return to Sanctuary during Sharktober each year!
Read MoreScientists and shark conservation organizations like Shark Stewards call this period “Sharktober” to describe the period of heightened great white shark (hereafter called white sharks) activity and human encounters along the California coast. As the fall season arrives along California’s coastline, a compelling and cautionary period for ocean-goers occurs when adult great white sharks return to California waters. These fall months coincide with an increase in human -shark interactions and a few, but rare, high profile human shark interactions, (aka shark attacks.) Here we discuss the incidence of great white shark human interactions* along the West Coast of North America, the relative risk and how to avoid becoming the next statistic.
Read MoreJoin Shark Stewards at the annual Walter Munk Ocean Day celebration and education event Saturday October 4th, 2025. Meet our team, learn about shark senses, the importance of sharks and what happens when sharks disappear and why we should protect them.
Read More“NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan—it’s the foundation our nation was built upon.
The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings, and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty. Grow our movement and join us fo Stop the Ocean Steal No Kings Day Berkeley October 18.
We are ocean activists and will be in costume with signs to protect endangered sharks, whales and seabirds imperiled by the President’s Executive Orders.
Reintroduced into the House in spring 2024, the Supporting the Health of Aquatic systems through Research Knowledge and Enhanced Dialogue Act of 2025 is supported by the recreational fishing industry and lobby bemoaning shark depredation on their catch. The bill could could have serious impacts on shark populations in all US waters. While ostensibly having Congress create a task force to examine shark depredation and human interactions, it has the potential to open protected areas or fishing for sharks. Without little scientific merit or credible support, the SHARKED Act language is a thinly veiled approach to open fishing on protected species and greenlight shark culls, tournaments and sportfishing for sharks in US waters.
Read MoreToday Catherine Breed—UC Berkeley alum, Bay Area marathon-swimming force, and connoisseur of extreme swims, has completed the SE Farallones to the Golden Gate swim under classic marathon swimming rules (no contact, no suit aids, no music). In calm conditions Breed Catherine Breed became the 7th swimmer and the 4th to swim from SE Farallon Island to the Golden Gate Bridge in 13 hours, 54 minutes- shaving almost 4 minutes off the previous record held by Joseph Locke in 2015.
Read MoreThe Marine Mammal Protection Act is under assault by congress. Contact your House Representative and two Senators. Ask them to block any weakening amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) in Congress. The legislation is key to protection of wildlife throughout the United States.
Read MoreOn April 17, President Trump issued an executive order would open large U.S.- marine protected areas to commercial fishing. The order authorized the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and US Fish and Wildlife Service to implement US-based fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. The proclamation threatens Pacific Island heritage, endangered species, and some of the healthiest coral reefs and marine ecosystems in the world.
Read More
