Graham is about to begin his professional practice in Sagres, Portugal, where he’ll be working on the photo-identification of cetaceans, but he also came to us with an even cooler idea… using drones to collect whale and dolphin blow samples for DNA analysis!

Yep. Science fiction stuff.

This methodology has already shown promising results in projects such as the eWhale program, allowing researchers to track biomarkers and gather valuable genetic information from individual animals without invasive techniques. Combined with more than a decade of photo-identification data, this could become a very powerful conservation tool for understanding cetacean populations.

Needless to say that, once we read the words “drones”, “DNA”, and “cetaceans”, there wasn’t much left to discuss, so we happily transferred Graham 300 euros to help support this project and get those flying whale snot collectors into action!

Go, Graham!

And remember: if the whales start demanding privacy rights after the DNA tests… we were never involved.

:p

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Many thanks to our good friends David and Jens for the warm welcome and flawless organization. It was also fantastic to reconnect with so many colleagues, partners, suppliers and fellow fishy aficionados from the Nordic regions.

During the conference we had the opportunity to share some of Flying Sharks’ latest adventures, namely our recent operations in Chile and Saudi Arabia, both of which concluded in truly spectacular fashion — exactly the kind of madness we seem unable to avoid these days!

Naturally, a few exciting future projects also found their way into the conversations, including the fascinating Hemari project involving porbeagle sharks in the Faroe Islands. Yes, ‘porbeagle’, Lamna nasus, you read that right.

Something tells us this one is going to generate a few cool stories for future newsletters…

We’re already looking forward to returning to this exciting young conference in the years ahead and catching up once again with all the wonderful people who make this industry such a unique and passionate community.

Stay tuned, because this very cool adventure is only just beginning!

The post Nordic Aquarium Conference 2026 appeared first on Flying Sharks.

Gemma’s work focuses on using pelagic BRUVs (Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems) to study threatened sharks, particularly the Critically Endangered tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus), in and around Marine Nature Reserves.

Now, for those who aren’t familiar with BRUVs, imagine underwater GoPros baited with delicious fish snacks, quietly sitting there filming sharks doing sharky things without bothering them. Science can be beautiful sometimes!

The project will involve building three pelagic BRUV systems and carrying out dozens of deployments with the help of local recreational anglers, who’ll become citizen scientists for the cause. That means more data, more community involvement, and more people helping protect sharks instead of fearing them. Which sounds like a pretty good deal to us.

The collected footage will help assess whether current Marine Nature Reserves are actually doing their job protecting threatened shark species, while also creating baseline data for long-term conservation management.

Needless to say we couldn’t possibly say no to a project involving sharks, conservation, underwater cameras, and people willing to spend time at sea helping science, so we were delighted to contribute 1.000 euros towards Gemma’s research efforts.

Go, Gemma, and keep on rockin’! 🦈

The post Research Fund 25/05 :: Gemma Scotts appeared first on Flying Sharks.

#oops!

Her work tackles a big problem with an even bigger twist. While most studies focus on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, she decided to dig deeper into something less obvious… what happens when the systems meant to protect marine life don’t actually work well together?

Focusing on coastal communities in Ghana’s Western Region, she explored the interaction between customary practices and statutory regulations. In simple terms: what local communities have always done versus what governments say should be done.

Through interviews with fishers, chief fishers, traders, NGOs, and Fisheries Commission officials, she uncovered a reality that won’t surprise anyone who’s worked in the field… things don’t always line up.

Her findings show that poor coordination, lack of resources, and a disconnect between national policies and local realities create “institutional voids” — gaps where conservation efforts quietly fall apart. Add economic pressure into the mix, and it becomes clear why rules are often ignored.

But here’s the good part.

Her research doesn’t just point out problems — it points to solutions. A more collaborative approach, where local knowledge is integrated into management strategies, could go a long way in protecting marine megafauna.

We also liked the practical recommendations, such as revising the Fisheries Act to clearly define protected species… because vague rules rarely protect anything.

All in all, this is exactly the kind of grounded, real-world research we like to support, so we sent her 300 euros to help move things forward and you may download Josephine’s MPhil thesis here.

Well done Josephine, and keep on rockin’!

The post Research Fund 24/01 :: Josephine Entsie appeared first on Flying Sharks.

This time we shipped a rather sizeable shipment consisting solely of invertebrates, such as Sphaerechinus granularis, Gibbula sp., Phorcus sauciatus, Paracentrotus lividus, and Marthasterias glacialis. As usual, there were no losses whatsoever in the 500+ critters we shipped all the way from the middle of the Atlantic!

But this is just the first of two more shipments, and you should brace yourselves for the next ones, but we’ll share those after the deed, because it’s bad luck to brag before!

Onward and forward!

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Kathryn recently wrapped up her Ph.D., where she used drones (the good kind) to monitor enormous blacktip shark aggregations along the shoreline of Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico – sometimes numbering in the thousands. Not a bad office view.

Cabo Pulmo is one of the world’s great marine conservation success stories. After the local community made the bold move from fishing to ecotourism in the 1990s, fish biomass increased by more than 400%, and – surprise, surprise – the big predators came back.

Kathryn’s work has already delivered some jaw-dropping results, including the first documented cases of killer whales preying on sharks inside the park, followed by clear shifts in shark aggregation behaviour. This research has since evolved into Shark Watch (@sharkwatchbaja), a long-term monitoring program that trains and empowers local women to run drone-based shark surveys themselves. We love that part.

All data are shared directly with park authorities, helping guide conservation decisions at a time when Cabo Pulmo is facing growing pressure from nearby coastal development.

We were very happy to chip in 500 euros to help Kathryn take this work to the international stage and join the global shark science conversation.

Well done, Kathryn — and keep up the excellent work!

The post Research Fund 26/01 :: Kathryn Ayres appeared first on Flying Sharks.

Our destination was Santiago and the mission was simple in theory and slightly insane in practice:

1. Find a local partner that would collect and maintain a rather long list of specimens we picked after careful revision on… Google.
2. Monitor – and finance – the collection process from 10.000 km away.
3. Arrange all the necessary export and import documents, which involved making government agencies talk directly to each other, always a fun job.
4. Finally, it was time to fly to Santiago and carefully pack 127 fish and invertebrates in 54 large boxes, before flying them safely to their European destination.

As is often the case with these operations, this was months in the making, together with a fantastic local partner in Chile. Also as usual, the final hours decided to add a bit of spice to the story, hence our witty title.

Just when everything seemed perfectly lined up, our air freight rate suddenly increased fourfold. Yes… fourfold. At that point we placed nitroglycerin tablets under our tongues just to keep our blood pressure within reasonable limits.

But the fun didn’t stop there.

Somewhere along the trip, João developed a rather nasty eye infection – most likely stress-related – which made simple tasks like reading emails, writing paperwork, or staring at fish bags a lot more challenging than usual. Driving the fork-lift at night was also interesting, but the boxes somehow found their way inside the small trucks.

Still, operations like these are never the work of just a few people. Thanks to the brilliant help of young Miguel, Tiago and the fabulous Aquamundo team, a packing plan worthy of a small military operation was devised and executed to perfection.

And in the end – which is always the only result that truly matters – all animals – but one… 🙁 – arrived safely at their destination.

We can only hope this shipment will be the first of many future orders bringing fish from this remarkable and exciting part of the world.

Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that these journeys always begin with fish…

……but they usually end with stories.

The post Red Hot Chile Peppers! appeared first on Flying Sharks.

Chiara has been working on Mediterranean pelagic sharks, focusing on the ecology, distribution, and population genomics of two absolute icons: the shortfin mako and the great white shark. She was accepted for an oral presentation at Sharks International, the world’s largest scientific conference dedicated entirely to elasmobranchs, which will take place this year in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

By the time the conference rolls around, Chiara will have completed her Ph.D. — which also means institutional funding will no longer be available. Attending this meeting is a key milestone at a critical moment, as she prepares to move into the postdoctoral phase of her career and bring Mediterranean shark research to a truly global audience.

Needless to say, this is exactly the kind of situation our Research Fund exists for, so we happily covered her conference registration by transferring 500 euros.

Go Chiara — and give those makos and white sharks the spotlight they deserve! 

The post Research Fund 26/01 :: Chiara Gambardella appeared first on Flying Sharks.

At first glance, you’d think they are competitors of Flying Sharks. Truth is, we often find ourselves working together, because we operate in completely different corners of the planet. We’re based in the Azores, Peniche and Olhão while Dynasty calls Florida home and Cairns rules Australian waters. Different oceans, same mindset.

Our friendship and mutual respect go back to 1998, when João was still their client and ordered a few beautiful B747 charters stuffed to the gills with sharks, rays and a small army of fish for the grand opening of the Oceanário de Lisboa. Back then, he was buying from them. Today, we stand side by side as partners.

But our alliance is not just about conference drinks and swapping war stories.

All three companies are fiercely committed to sustainability. That means individual hand collection – literally one animal at a time – with zero chemicals, zero destructive gear, zero shortcuts that might harm the environment. We are borderline obsessive about traceability. Every single animal we sell to an aquarium has a story, a paper trail, and accountability attached to it. The word “responsibility” is not marketing fluff for us; it’s a non-negotiable standard.

For all these reasons – and perhaps with one g & t too many in our systems – we proudly baptized ourselves “The Consortium of Sustainability and Goodness”.

The very next morning I called my dear friend Leonor Sousa and asked her for a logo featuring a panda diving with a net in one hand and bright orange swim shorts. She loved the madness and came back with this glorious flag we recently flew during our latest Saudi adventure.

There is, however, one tiny catch (pardon our pun): collecting animals one by one is expensive. Very expensive.

It’s no coincidence that the three partners of this Consortium are often labelled the most expensive in the world. But let’s be honest: when you want quality, you have to be willing to pay for it.

If you’re looking for cheap fish scooped up in a frenzy, we can give you a few names who don’t share our concerns. In that case, there’s really no point in calling us.

PS – Below you will find (top row) João fooling around with Lyle Squire Jr. and Ben Daughtry, from Cairns and Dynasty, respectively. Below are Rui Guedes (left) and Nuno Rodrigues (center) celebrating two weeks of amazing collections with Rahima-3’s wonderful Captain under a gorgeous Red Sea sunset!

The post The Consortium of Sustainability and Goodness appeared first on Flying Sharks.

This year Issah reached out to us once more, as he is currently the team leader of “Ghana’s Elasmo Project”, which is pioneering the conservation of sharks and rays in Ghana. They are currently in the process of scaling up their efforts to execute groundbreaking research and conservation projects in Ghana.

Once Issah reached out to us seeking the support of the Flying Sharks Humanitarian Fund to support their work, we simply couldn’t help ourselves but to transfer Issah 1.500 euros!

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