Great video explaining how shark tags work. 

We are so excited to have been a part of this trip! 

You can follow Berry the tiger shark here: http://rjd.miami.edu/learning-tools/follow-sharks/track-berry.html

Eleanor Phillips, Program Director, North Caribbean Program at The Nature Conservancy, explains the importance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in The Bahamas. 

MPAs, such as this one in the South Berry Islands, are exactly the sort of real world conservation efforts that our players are supporting by playing MyConservationPark. 

More from our trip to the South Berry Islands MPA! 

In this video, Neil Hammerschlag, PhD, leading Shark Tagging Scientist with R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program at the University of Miami, talks about the severe threats facing tiger and great hammerhead sharks, their peculiar nature and the great challenges of shark research in the newly created MPA in the South Berry Islands, Bahamas.

Enjoy this clip of our team taking measurements and tagging a lemon shark while in the Bahamas 

Other than a hairy paddle-boarding excursion across the open ocean with the first man to have crossed the Bering Sea kitesurfing (see this p.s. it was my first time paddle-boarding), I made it back in one piece from the South Berry Islands where I joined The Nature Conservancy and Summit Series in surveying our newly minted MPA. It was a thrill to witness a sanctuary that our game players are helping to support!! There is so much to tell, but some key takeaways are: 

1. Shark research is hard: trying to capture key data, take a biopsy, blood and a dorsal fin sample, as well as fix a satellite tag to a tiger shark in under 7 minutes while keeping it calm is, well, pretty challenging. As one friend on the trip put it, it’s like a Formula 1 pit stop and many things can go wrong. 

2. Patience is a virtue: despite the University of Miami team having extensively chummed the waters the night before and throughout the day, sharks do not show up just like that. We spent several 8-9 hour days in a 25 foot tender surrounded by shark bait and were fortunate to have caught and released 3 sharks on one lucky day - and only 1 had a dorsal fin capable of supporting a satellite tag. Frankly, I think they were on to us.

3. Once you do capture and secure a shark, don’t get off until Neil tells you to: Capturing a shark is like few things I’ve experienced before and you grow deeply concerned about the welfare of the animal. Trying to fasten a satellite tag on the dorsal fin of a tiger shark while straddling its back is tricky - don’t lose your concentration! There’s a lot going on of course and a large team hopping madly around the stern of a not very big boat as the UM scientists shout out commands to us all. But with all the commotion sometimes a few instructions get lost in the shuffle, e.g. “Don’t get off the shark!” I commend Dr. Neil Hammerschlag and his team including Austin, Virginia and Curt for how they are pushing the boundaries of shark research and involving people from all walks of life in the experience in an effort to protect these awesome creatures.

Hats off again to Thayer Walker at Summit Series for bringing together such an interesting group of people on such short notice for this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Amazing.

-Gregory

Photo from the field! Tiger Shark Pup caught in the Bahamian MPA getting some measurements taken prior to being released back in to the ocean. 

Today, I will be leaving on a wild expedition to the Bahamas organized by Thayer Walker and Natalie Spilger of Summit Series to survey a Marine Protected Area in the South Berry Islands we are helping to support. Should be an amazing adventure! With our oceans under increasing threat, the creation of such MPAs is becoming more than critical to ensure sustainable fishing and protect top predators, namely sharks. A major reason we started Good World Games was to find an effective way to drive awareness of the planet’s perils - games offer a really powerful platform to get people to pay attention and take immediate action to protect people and the planet. We love our oceans and desperately want to protect all life in them. Our support for MPAs such as this helps us achieve one of our main goals at Good World Games: Transparent, Real World Results through Virtual World Actions.

Big, big thanks to The Nature Conservancy and Summit Series (their post on it) , along with Kristofor Lofgren of Bamboo Sushi, Tim Ferriss, Edward Norton and Shauna Robertson who have stepped up to raise money and support for this initiative. Our friends at the University of Miami will be leading shark-tagging for research on the trip. I’m still looking around for those shark-proof pants they told us to bring, but hope I can help anyway. And leading IMAX filmmakers MacGillivray Freeman will be shooting for their next film OneWorldOneOcean.org. (Watch the trailer)

-Gregory Sukornyk

 Good World Games CEO

SO MUCH FUN! While out to sea during SummitATSea (https://sea.summitseries.com) with UM’s Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the Good World Games team joined Dr Neil Hammerschlag and Dean Rose Mann to help save and protect sharks. We measured and tagged this tiger shark with a satellite tracker in just over 6 minutes!