The Prins Willem-Alexanderschool in ‘s –Gravenzande had the exciting premiere yesterday: the Dutch Shark Society held the first shark school presentation in the Netherlands ever!
Two classes, aged 11 and 12, first listened to a shark biology presentation by Georgina Wiersma: Why are sharks so important for our oceans, what kinds of sharks are there, are there sharks in Dutch waters???
School presentation / © Peter Verhoog,Dutch Shark Society
May only be used with credit line only
Blue Shark / © Peter Verhoog, Dutch Shark Society
May only be used with credit line only
And that was a surprise: there are sharks in the Netherlands! Photographer Peter Verhoog of the Dutch Shark Society even took the first picture ever of a starry smooth hound in the Dutch Eastern Schelde! After the interesting presentation, Peter showed some exciting clips with several species of sharks, followed by a splashing picture show of many shark species, made during Peter and Georgina’s travels.
After the presentation, there was of course time for questions. And there were some. Are sharks dangerous? Why do they bite? Why are people eating shark fin soup? Luckily, we could answer them all. And sharks are not dangerous to people, they sometimes bite people who come in their reign by accident: people who go surfing in bad visibility or swim near fish or sewage pipes can be bitten by accident. We do not have these sharks in Holland though.
This presentation was made possible by Citroen Dealer Van den Burg B.V. in Monster, Netherlands (http://dealer.citroen.nl/vandenburg).
The Dutch Shark Society is happy to visit anywhere in the Netherlands for a presentation about sharks. Come dive with us into the magical world of the ocean and its sharks. The presentation can be adapted to any audience, and be given in Dutch and in English
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/dutchsharksociety
E-mail: georgina@dutchsharksociety.org
And the children were flabbergasted to hear, that around 100 million sharks are caught each year. 80% of some shark populations has disappeared. And this is noy only in ‘foreign’ waters: EU member states Spain and Portugal have been sharkfinning for a long, long time.
