This Oceans Funder Has Been Protecting Sharks and Rays for 20 Years. Now It’s Expanding the Fight

photo: endangered mobula rays/christopher leon

There are many creatures in the sea, and most of them are threatened by modern stressors like pollution and plastic waste, habitat loss, ocean warming and acidification and intense commercial fishing. But sharks — along with their cousin cartilaginous species, rays — are in particular danger. Additionally, as top predators, sharks are an important part of ocean ecosystems, so their ability to survive and thrive is linked to the health of countless other marine species and habitats, and ultimately, the wellbeing of the entire planet.

I wrote recently about a relatively new U.S.-based shark conservation funder supporting efforts around the world’s oceans. Today, I’m taking a look at another funder working to protect sharks and rays — this one is celebrating its 20th year making it possible for science, conservationists, photographers, writers and educators to research and protect the marine environment, particularly sharks and rays. 

The Save Our Seas Foundation was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, with research centers in South Africa, the Seychelles and Florida. It was established in 2003 and is still supported by Abdulmohsen Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh, a Saudi construction industry billionaire, breeder of Arabian horses and avid scuba diver with a deep concern for the health of the marine environment. Save Our Seas supports research, conservation, communication and education projects worldwide, and aims to build capacity for this kind of work around the world, especially in less-wealthy regions with a dearth of resources for environmental science and conservation efforts. The foundation recently announced a new fellowship program seeking to expand the ocean conservation workforce.

I spoke with organization CEO James Lea recently about the foundation’s focus, latest funding programs, where SOSF has been and where it’s headed. “It’s our 20th anniversary this year, and 20 years ago, sharks were already in a very bad way,” said Lea. “But there wasn’t really anyone funding shark conservation work in a coordinated way at a global scale.”

Over the last two decades, SOSF has funded a variety of marine conservation projects, including projects involving species like turtles and orcas, but about 90% have focused on sharks and rays. The foundation has supported about 500 projects in more than 90 countries. It also sponsors scientific conferences, and to a great degree, aims to be a bridge between scientists and the public, the better to influence global goals like policymaking to protect sharks and the marine world.

“Science has to exist outside of this ivory tower,” Lea told me. “We have to be able to communicate it in a way that people find it interesting and want to share. The creative people working in conservation are just as important as the scientists because they’re the ones that communicate it in a way that makes people feel something.”

This focus on sharks is more than warranted. Sharks are under enormous pressure primarily from overfishing, including from the trade in shark fins, which are considered luxury foods in Hong Kong, China and other countries. And while in recent years, conservationists successfully pressed for additional shark species to be added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which offers a route for greater protection from the fishing industry, sharks remain in danger.

SOSF’s main funding opportunities include small grants, keystone grants, and long-term partner funding for NGOs that engage conservation work along similar lines as the SOSF. Small grants typically fund research projects for 12 to 18 months, and Keystone Grants may run for up to three years. In total, the SOSF is funding about 75 grants this year. The foundation supports projects around the world, such as surveys to monitor shark and other species populations, studies of fishery species in Tunisia, India and elsewhere; the impact of undersea electromagnetic noise off the U.S. coast; and conservation capacity-building in Kenya and Tanzania.

SOSF has five long-term partners around the world: the Bimini Biological Field Station in the Bahamas; the Manta Trust, a U.K.-based charity that protects manta rays in the Maldives and elsewhere; Shark Spotters, based in Cape Town, South Africa; the North Coast Cetacean Society, a whale-focused organization based in British Columbia, Canada; and the Acoustic Tracking Array Platform, which studies the behavior of shark and fish species along the South African coast.

Building capacity and a conservation workforce

As noted above, central to SOSF’s grantmaking is enabling interested young scientists, conservationists and storytellers to pursue these topics and to create the kind of media that educates and inspires people about sharks, rays and the importance of healthy oceans.

“Among shark researchers, and in marine conservation in general, it’s hard to survive and make a living while pursuing this passion,” Lea said. As in other philanthropy for science and research, many of SOSF’s grants are designed to support early career researchers and make it possible for them to maintain a career in the field. “It might be support for a master’s degree, or a particular aspect of their Ph.D. research, but it’s going to help them progress in their career.”

This year, aiming to build the conservation workforce, particularly in regions of the world with traditionally fewer resources and money for such work, the SOSF is launching a new grant program called Conservation Fellowships. This funding will provide support to people working on shark and ray conservation projects and developing their expertise and interests within the field. These funds are intended to cover living costs of the grantee, not project costs. The fellowships — $8,000 per year for two years, will be available to previous SOSF grantees from developing regions, with three fellowships awarded every two years, from Central and South America, Africa and Asia. SOSF will start accepting applications for the Conservation Fellowships later this year.

Other more recent grant programs support more public-facing communication and education, including writing and photography that can leverage social media, said Lea. (So seriously does SOSF take such public education that it has a director of storytelling on staff.) But to make a living as a photojournalist or writer specializing in conservation is tough. So the SOSF plans to support these kinds of creatives not only through grantmaking, but by actually assigning them projects as well as mentors who can help them break into publishing and professional circles.

A goal for all SOSF grantmaking, Lea said, is the establishment of conservation and science infrastructure and organizations wherever they are needed. “Some of the most severe conservation problems for sharks are in areas where there are the fewest resources,” Lea said. “We want to see (our grantees) working in ways that build capacity over time.”