Marine Research and Conservation Foundation

23/06/2026

BLUE SHARK SEASON IS UNDERWAY IN THE UK🦈🛰️🎣🧲

Over the coming months, we’ll be back on the water continuing our research to better understand blue shark movements, habitat use, and their role in the open ocean ecosystems.

Our partnerships with blue shark swim-with operators are central to this work. Together, we are helping to support the development of a sustainable blue shark tourism industry, while also collecting valuable data on shark encounters.

Using operator logbook data, we investigate how factors such as environmental conditions influence blue shark occurrence and abundance. Operators also play a key role in facilitating our research activities, including satellite tagging, allowing us to better understand the movements and behaviour of these highly migratory sharks.

Each summer, blue sharks return to our waters as part of a remarkable trans-Atlantic migration. The individuals we encounter are predominantly juvenile and sub-adult females, although mature adults and pups are occasionally sighted. As one of the ocean’s most wide-ranging shark species, blue sharks connect ecosystems across vast distances, making them an important species for understanding pelagic ocean health.

We’re incredibly fortunate to study these iconic animals in UK waters and look forward to sharing updates and discoveries from the field throughout the season.

📸 Sam Matthews

15/06/2026

15/06/2026

🦈 How do you attach a tag to the world’s largest fish?

Tracking whale sharks is essential for understanding their movements, habitat use, and conservation needs - but attaching electronic tags that stay in place and collect high-quality data is no easy task.

📢 A new collaborative paper led by Freya Womersley brought together the experiences of whale shark researchers from around the world to evaluate clamp-based tagging systems and identify current best practices. The study highlights how tag design, placement, and deployment methods can influence both data quality and animal welfare.

By sharing lessons learned across projects and regions, we hope to improve future whale shark telemetry studies and support more effective conservation of this Endangered species.

🔗 Read the paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40317-026-00462-4

09/06/2026

🚨New Shark Science🚨

A new study led by describes a novel threat-like display in a nursehound shark (Scyliorhinus stellaris) in response to a snorkeler in Cornwall, UK.

Here, this catshark can be seen displaying:
a) depressed pectoral fins
b) arched/hunch posture
c) jaw-gaping
d) repeated turning behaviour towards snorkeller

The combination of these behaviours indicate an agonistic threat display. Similar threat displays have been well documented from larger shark species, particularly the Carcharhiniformes, but never before for a species of Scyliorhinidae.

This study builds on the existing body of literature regarding threat displays in shark species. We also hope to highlight the behaviour of small sharks to other water users who may be able to document similar examples.

Link to paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/AARJJMXYFGMD4B2HJUGX?target=10.1111/jfb.70528

📸

08/06/2026

29/05/2026

🚨New Shark Science - ‘Critical habitats for sharks and rays across Asia remain largely unprotected’.🚨🦈

New research from the IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Group identified 122 Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) across Asia, covering nearly 1 million km² of habitat essential for feeding, reproduction, movement and overall survival.

But despite supporting 121 shark, ray and chimaera species – 76% of which are threatened with extinction – protection of these habitats remains alarmingly limited:
⚠️ 94.6% of identified critical habitat lies outside Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s)
⚠️ Only 5.4% overlaps any MPA
⚠️ Just 2.8% is covered by no-take protection

From whale sharks and manta rays to some of the world’s most threatened wedgefishes and giant guitarfishes, these habitats are vital for the future of Asia’s sharks and rays. This study provides the first comprehensive baseline for shark and ray habitat conservation in Asia, helping to guide future research, management and conservation action across one of the world’s most diverse, yet most threatened regions.

🔗 Link to full paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-026-03356-2

26/05/2026

22/05/2026

Yesterday, we hosted our fifth Blue Shark Tourism Workshop, bringing together swim-with operators, researchers, and partners to support a sustainable blue shark tourism industry in the UK.

Together, we:

🦈 Shared our latest research and policy updates, alongside plans for the 2026 season
🦈 Held open discussions surrounding the industry and lessons learnt from the past few years
🦈 Continued to develop our Code of Conduct for in-water interactions

With the blue shark season fast approaching, we look forward to a shark-filled season ahead💪🦈

Generously supported by The Garfield Weston Foundation 🩵

29/04/2026

On behalf of us all at MARECO, we’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who supported us during our Earth Raise Campaign💙🦈

Together, we reached our £5,000 target, which was DOUBLED to £10,000 thanks to 🎉

Every donation, post, share, like and message of support has made a real difference, enabling us to expand the impact of our work. Because of you, we can continue strengthening our research and policy efforts for shark conservation and the protection of threatened species - for that we are incredibly grateful!

Here’s to an exciting year of research ahead and we look forward to bringing you along with us.

Thank you🙏👏
MARECO team x