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In Pictures: Celebrate, it’s #SharkWeek!

Posted by Angela Glienicke - 24th June 2016


Every year the Discovery Channel dedicates a week to these amazing carnivorous fish. What a great opportunity to share a few of our archive pictures showing what magnificent creatures sharks are and highlighting the threats they face.

This year we went to the Indian Ocean to peacefully tackle unsustainable fishing by the world’s largest tuna company, Thai Union. Thai Union’s destructive fishing methods contribute to overfishing and harm a range of marine life, including sharks and juvenile tuna. The Greenpeace crew recovered FADs (Fish Aggregating Devices) placed by vessels supplying Thai Union.

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Sharks swim under a Natural FAD in the Mozambique Channel, Indian Ocean.

© Pierre Baelen / Greenpeace 2015

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A whale shark in Cenderawasih Bay National Park. Greenpeace is in Indonesia to document one of the world’s most biodiverse – and threatened – environments and to call for urgent action to ensure the country’s oceans and forests are protected.

© Paul Hilton / Greenpeace 2013

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A purse seine vessel with a whale shark caught as bycatch in the Pacific. Whale sharks, being slow swimming filter-feeding fish, act as natural aggregation devices for tuna in tropical oceans, and are killed in unsustainable numbers in purse seine fisheries. The vessels either set their nets on these creatures to catch the surrounding tuna, or the whale sharks are caught in nets around fish aggregating devices (FADs) that attract these magnificent creatures – as well as other sharks, turtles and juvenile tuna.

© Greenpeace 2007

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A beautiful Blue Shark swims near the Azores.

© Robert Marc Lehmann / Greenpeace 2011

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Freshly unloaded frozen shark fins are sorted at Dong Gang Wholesale fish market, Dong Gang, Kaohsiung.

© Alex Hofford / Greenpeace 2012

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One hundred handmade fins in the lagoon on Wellington’s waterfront, part of an art installation commissioned by Greenpeace for New Zealand’s first-ever shark awareness week.

© Marty Melville / Greenpeace 2013

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A silky shark swims near a FAD, in High Seas Pocket number 2, international waters of the Pacific ocean. Greenpeace is on a three month expedition to expose and stop destructive fishing practices, and to protect dwindling fish stocks in the Pacific.

© Alex Hofford / Greenpeace 2011

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A smooth hammerhead shark is hauled on-board Taiwanese longliner, Sing Man Yi 6, in the Pacific Ocean.  Greenpeace travels into the Pacific to expose out-of-control tuna fisheries. Tuna fishing has been linked to shark finning, overfishing and human rights abuses.

© Paul Hilton / Greenpeace 2015

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A seabird, a Cory’s Shearwater, is caught in a fishing net off the Azores. A blue shark eats the bird.

© Robert Marc Lehmann / Greenpeace 2011

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Silky sharks circle a recently placed FAD in international waters in the Indian Ocean. The marine snare was left by a vessel supplying Thai Union. A Greenpeace team recovered the FAD and took it back to the Esperanza ship for dismantling.

© Will Rose / Greenpeace 2016

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Greenpeace crew retrieves a FAD from the Indian Ocean. The FAD is firstly investigated by a remotely operated vehicle before divers enter the water to inspect the FAD underneath the surface. The aggregation device is taken back to the ship to be fully dismantled by the ship’s crew.

© Will Rose / Greenpeace 2016

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Street artists BMD paint a shark mural on the outside of a central Wellington car park building during the first-ever New Zealand shark awareness week. The mural is about 50 metres long and 6m high

© Phil Crawford / Greenpeace 2013


Article Tagged as: Oceans, in pictures