STOP PRESS: Shark Day 2007 was a great success...

Welcome to Shark Day.

Shark Day was hatched in an Italian restaurant in Clapham during a meal with the redoubtable Colin Doeg of BSoUP, Visions in the Sea and Dive Magazine notoriety. Frustrated by Colin's refusal to talk about anything but diving, wife Mary (a non-diver), yawned and proclaimed sharks to be a most boring topic. Shark Day is our riposte, to be held in the London Aquarium.

This is the outline of the day's presentations that we hope to keep to. Everyone involved is providing their time for free. Please keep in mind that this is not a ticketed event and places are limited. Shark Day is open to anyone to attend. There is no charge other than the normal entrance fee for visiting London Aquarium.

Mavericks Diving will have a stand and you can chat with Mark Koekemoer about his forthcoming special trip to the Maldives to photograph Mantas and Whale Sharks. We'll be running a loop of The Underwater Channel. This features superb footage of Mantas from the locations Mark is visiting. Their behaviour is explained by leading Manta researcher Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler who has been engaged to lead this safari with Mark.

The Shark Trust will also have a stand. You'll be able to discuss with them how you can personally make an impact on shark conservation. Mark and Gail Addisson will also have a stand where you can talk through joining one of their incredible South African diving adventures.

Andrew Pugsley (co-presenter of The Underwater Channel) and Steve Warren (owner of Ocean Optics and Mavericks Diving) will be in the Atlantic Tank for much of the day helping to raise money for the Shark Trust. They'll be playing Nemo's and Bruce's (our version of noughts and crosses) through the glass. Tom Peschak will be joining the boys in the tank and you'll be able to talk with them using our radiophones.

We'd like to thank everyone for so enthusiastically rallying around to make this event happen. We're looking forward to a really special event and hope you will find it both educational, fascinating and inspirational.

The Shark Day Team.

Jamie Oliver, known to us as the real Jamie Oliver, is head aquarist at the London Aquarium. A qualified marine biologist who is also a trained commercial diver, Jamie has a superb portfolio of underwater images to his credit. Recently the London Aquarium presented an exhibition of his work.

Jamie will be our Master of Ceremonies for this event.

Grant Bates is an accomplished underwater photographer who has tracked sharks around the globe. He has shared that enthusiasm with audiences throughout the UK through his presentations. Grant is a trustee of The Shark Trust and an active fundraiser who has run in the London Marathon attired in a hammerhead shark headdress. Grant will explain his personal fascination for sharks and outline the need for their protection and the role of the Shark Trust in preserving sharks for future generations. Stuart Nicholls is also a trustee of the Shark Trust. Stuart is a regular speaker on sharks. At Shark Day, Stuart will provide a fascinating insight into the biology of sharks to help us better understand how these animals have attained near-perfection. Stewart will touch on a few of the nearly four hundred species of sharks and this promises to be a talk with a highly educational slant that will enhance your next shark encounters. Gavin Parsons is a multi-award winning wildlife photographer. He will be very well known to many of our clients as the former editor of Sport Diver magazine and is now a regular contributor to Diver magazine. Gavin scored a highly commended in the prestigious BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition for his evocative study of a whale shark. Gavin will take you on a tour through his outstanding portfolio of shark portraits and will provide you with the hard won tips that will help you make your own inspirational shark images on future dives. John and Suna Nightingale work through their radio broadcasts, stills photography and underwater video work to bring attention to the crisis facing sharks through overfishing. Unable to attend Shark Day themselves (they are on location in Bimini teaching shark research students to take their own underwater images), the father and son team have generously provided us with their film "Sharks - Out There". Originally shot for National Geographic, "Sharks - Out There" is an investigative report that will put into sharp perspective the urgency needed to protect and preserve these intriguing creatures. Mark Addisson is one of the world's great shark adventurers. Mark will present both amazing video footage and incredible stills photography from his outstanding work in South African waters. This will be a roller coaster ride that takes in the challenges of diving in the turmoil of the sardine run, entering an unpredictable low visibility world in which birds, dolphins, orcas and sharks compete both to feed and remain alive themselves in one of the greatest spectacles in the animal kingdom. Mark will also show us the gentle side of sharks with a portrayal of the much maligned raggies of Aliwal Shoal. But it is with tiger sharks that Mark has really made his reputation and we can promise you that the interaction between these huge sharks and divers you will see at Shark Day will simply leave you breathless. Tom Peschak is Shark Day's keynote speaker. Tom is an outstanding wildlife photographer and journalist whose underwater and topside work appears regularly in BBC Wildlife Magazine. He is a marine biologist working with the University of Cape Town Marine Biology Research Institute. Tom's first book had its UK launch at our own Visions in the Sea underwater photography festival in 2005. "Currents of Contrast - Life in Southern Africa's Two Oceans" won critical acclaim for both its superlative photography and informative text. Tom's presentation at Visions was exceptional in its scope. Tom's new book, co-written with Michael Scholl, is "South Africa's Great White Shark". Imaginatively photographed with many awesome split-level studies of the great white, this is a fascinating guide set out by an expert on the premier shark.

But at Shark Day Tom isn't going to confine himself to just the whites. He is currently shooting a hugely ambitious project to document no fewer than forty different African shark species. At Shark Day you'll see some of his most recent images that will form part of his next book. This is going to be a memorable opportunity to learn about the behind the scenes work of one of the best shark shooters in the business. And a chance to be captivated by simply awesome underwater photography.

How do we help protect sharks? What is justifiable diver interaction with sharks and what are publicity stunts? Think of some questions and suggestions and put them to the Shark Day panel of experts. Moderated by Grant Bates.

Blue Wilderness

Currents of Contrast

The London Aquarium