FEATURE SAVING SHARKS
The Shark Nursery
Based in Serangan Island, Bali Sharks
Rescue Center took on the challenge
of educating nearshore fishing
communities by offering alternative
solutions to killing by-catch. The same
fishermen that once killed sharks now
help to save them.
In early 2011, Paul Friese, the
founder of Bali Sharks Rescue Center,
hit upon the idea of a shark nursery.
This was drawn from his experiences
of seeing dead baby sharks in the
trash at the fish markets, as well as
hearing tales of local fishermen killing
any shark they caught – regardless of
whether or not they sold the fins and
meat – because they didn’t know what
else to do with them. Paul proceeded
to spread the word, and soon he wasresponding to calls from fishermen
who had caught baby sharks in their
nets. Paul began to take sharks off their
hands and place them into his rescue
centre. Soon enough, many fishermen
were just leaving sharks at his door as
gifted by-catch, and many others would
receive no compensation because of the
logistical cost of taking the sharks over
to the centre. He also began contacting
restaurants with shark aquariums,
encouraging them to give him the
confined creatures – which, surprisingly,
many of them were keen to do.
Today, Bali Sharks Rescue Center
has saved over 260 sharks. Their
rescue, rehab, transfer, and release
protocols achieve survival rates in the
high 90 percent, as opposed to theBy: Bali Sharks Rescue Center