SAVE THE SEA TURTLES INTERNATIONAL & One Ocean Conservation

Florida’s coastal waters are among the most ecologically valuable marine environments on the planet. At the top of these ecosystems are sharks—apex predators that play a critical role in regulating food webs, maintaining reef health, and supporting resilient ocean systems. Yet Florida’s sharks face growing threats from overfishing, habitat degradation, misinformation, and regulatory loopholes that allow harmful practices to persist.

To address these challenges, Save The Sea Turtles International and One Ocean Conservation Nonprofit have partnered with Blue Ocean Conservation and Ocean Shark Tours Florida on a collaborative initiative: Saving Florida’s Apex Predators and Marine Ecosystems. This project integrates education, community engagement, non-invasive science, citizen science, and policy-relevant research to protect sharks and the marine habitats they sustain.

Public education is a foundation of this project. Through Ocean Shark Tours Florida’s daily public programs, guests from around the world responsibly enter the sharks’ natural environment under expert supervision. These experiences are paired with science-based education on:

• The ecological importance of sharks as apex predators
• The current threats facing shark populations
• How human behavior and policy choices impact marine ecosystems

Participants are also invited to take part in conservation advocacy, including signing petitions aimed at ending wasteful, cruel, and unsustainable practices that harm sharks and marine life.

Our joint efforts extend beyond the water. Partner organizations will host reef and beach cleanups, deliver public presentations, and conduct educational outreach in local schools. These programs are designed to foster ocean stewardship, strengthen community involvement, and empower young people with the knowledge needed to protect Florida’s marine ecosystems for the future.

This project prioritizes non-lethal, non-invasive research to better understand how people and sharks can safely coexist. Research efforts include:

• Testing non-lethal mitigation and deterrent methods
• Behavioral analysis and interaction studies
• Development of best-practice guidelines for ocean-goers, tour operators, and coastal communities

Researchers will also collect data on shark abundance and site fidelity, cataloging individual sharks through photo-identification records to support long-term population monitoring. This will allow us to track sharks over-time and engage the community with their stories from our observations. A shark adoption program will help people to better understand the subtle nuanced behavioral differences between individuals. 

Citizen science is a key component of this initiative. Tour participants, community members, and volunteers contribute to the documentation of:

• Shark sightings and individual identification
• Human–shark interactions
• Visible human impacts such as fishing gear entanglement, injuries, habitat degradation, and pollution

These data help fill critical information gaps and provide real-world evidence of how human activities affect sharks and marine ecosystems. All data are carefully curated and shared with scientists, conservation organizations, and decision-makers to support informed, evidence-based policy development.

High-quality photo and video media are collected throughout this project to support education, transparency, and policy reform. Visual documentation of sharks, their habitats, and human impacts is used to:

• Educate the public and dispel myths about sharks
• Support outreach campaigns and conservation messaging
• Provide compelling, real-world evidence to policymakers and stakeholders

By combining science with storytelling, this project aims to bridge the gap between data and action.

A central goal of this initiative is to help reform Florida’s rules and regulations to close loopholes that undermine shark protection and marine habitat conservation. Project findings will be translated into accessible reports and shared with scientists, nonprofit partners, policymakers, and the public to support policy solutions that:

• Reduce harmful human impacts on sharks
• Strengthen protections for marine ecosystems
• Promote sustainable coexistence between people and wildlife

We invite you to support this conservation and research effort through a donation. Contributions directly fund education programs, community outreach, cleanups, non-invasive research, citizen science, and policy-relevant data collection.

Donors receive our annual impact recap report and are acknowledged in public conservation updates and social media posts—unless they prefer to remain anonymous.

Together, we can protect Florida’s sharks, strengthen marine ecosystems, and help drive meaningful change through science, education, and policy.