Among conservation biologists,Rachel Graham is sometimes called the aquatic Jane Goodall: She has developed new information about the lives of her research subjects and,like the famous primatologist,she has successfully deployed science to create a constituency for their preservation. But Grahams subjects lack the all-but-human charms of Goodalls chimps. As the director of the Wildlife Conservation Societys Gulf and Caribbean Sharks and Rays Program,Graham must overcome deeply held fears and prejudices in her efforts to outlaw fishing of various shark species,including the whale shark,a playful and friendly creature that migrates to the western Caribbean every spring. That species of shark is now protected off the coasts of Belize and Mexico,and in May Graham received the 2011 Gold Award and about $100,000 from the Whitley Fund for Nature in England for her work on its behalf. Excepts from an interview with Graham: What appeals to you about sharks? They are beautiful and graceful. On an ecological level,they play an important role because they keep their prey species in check. The other thing is that once you get to know them,you can see that theres great intelligence there. They havent been around for almost 400 million years without having evolved tremendous smarts. One of the species I studythe whale sharkthey are the most brilliant of navigators. They travel thousands of miles without a compass,and they arrive at a certain spot in Belize each year just when the reef fish are spawning and theres a wonderful buffet for them to eat. Give us a summary of the state of the worlds sharks. About 17 per cent of 1,200 species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. For those species that swim in the open ocean,the numbers are even more dire. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature reports that a third of them are threatened. Most of their decline seems to be due to overfishing for shark fin soupa prestige food in many parts of Asia. I can see firsthand what those statistics mean whenever I go diving. Twenty years ago,if you went out on the barrier reef here,youd stand a good chance of seeing several of the giant toothy sharksa hammerhead or a blacktip. Today,if youre lucky,you might see a nurse shark or a stingray. Was it hard to win that ban on whale shark fishing here in Belize? It was pretty low-hanging fruit,actually. People just adore whale sharks. They are huge and beautiful,with incredible spotted markings. Whale sharks are quite friendly,and they are filter feeders,so they lack those terrifying big teeth. Its altogether much more difficult to protect other species of sharks and rays because they are a large component of fisheries. However,this law has been a great thing for shark conservation,in general. What do you feel when you see headlines about shark attacks on swimmers? It troubles me,of course. That sort of coverage is overblown,and it imperils many species of sharks and rays. As much as one can sympathise with the victims of these attacks,people ought to realise that when they go into the wilderness,they risk becoming part of the food chain. Thats just reality. The fact is that the number of these incidents is low. The International Shark Attack File logged six unprovoked fatalities last year. You spend a lot of time underwater tagging sharks with radio sensors. Do you ever worry about being attacked? Im always sensitive to the moods of the sharks. If they are active in a certain way,Ill leave. If they start circling,Im out of there! But I have to tell you,that kind of caution isnt exclusive to sharks. Ive gotten out of the water when I saw dolphins acting in ways I found alarming. In any event,the most serious threats Ive encountered have come from people. Theres a shadowy shark fishery here,operated by teams of our neighbours from Guatemala who work from isolated islands. The animals are killed at night and loaded onto boats and then shipped to landing sites in Guatemala where the meat and fins are exported,probably to the Asian market.
