Recently, during St Maarten Nature Foundation Shark Week, Nature Foundation staff visited several Elementary schools to educate the kids about sharks, shark conservation and the Caribbean Ecosystem. The Foundation visited six schools; the St. Maarten Montessori School, the Dr Martin Luther King School, the Sr. Borgia School, the Sr Magda School, the Sr Marie Laurence School and the Caribbean International Academy. Through the shark outreach and education program staff presented to roughly 600 students about the importance of sharks and the conservation challenges they face. Students learned about the different shark species, the importance of sharks to reefs and tourism, depletion of sharks and why the species need to be protected. The children were very enthusiastic about sharks and marine life and learned that people shouldn’t be afraid for sharks and that they are in no way dangerous for humans. Humans kill about 100 million sharks every year and if this trend continues many shark species will go extinct. Oceans without sharks will have unpredictable and presumably negative impacts for marine life, fisheries and our island, as we depend on our oceans. The school visits were part of the DCNA ‘Save our Shark’ project funded by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery.
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