The Dorsal Fin

Sisbro Studios recently posted a tribute song to great white sharks as performed by sea lions. Sisbro produces educational features with nature themes. Their latest great white shark video features footage from Save Our Seas Foundation and focuses on the importance of the great white shark in the food chain.

Thanks to Deep Sea News for bringing this video to our attention!

The Save Our Seas Foundation recently posted the video above which focuses on the Shark Spotters program in use at beaches in South Africa. The aim of Shark Spotters is to alert beach goers of presence of sharks and potential risks of shark attack. Additionally, Shark Spotters provide data based on shark sightings to the Save Our Seas Foundation.

The Shark Spotters program uses hillside lookout personnel, along with alarms, and series of warning flags to keep swimmers informed and help reduce the chances of shark attacks.

In light of Discovery Channel’s recent fear-based ad campaign, I thought I’d revisit Save Our Seas Foundation‘s “Rethink The Shark” ad campaign from 2007. The award-winning ads (based on a well-known scene from Jaws, no less) are proof-positive that an audience-gripping ad campaign can be created, while still maintaining a conservationist-minded theme. The ads were created by advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi Capetown. Three ads were created, all of them with the same lead-in as the ad posted above. The other two ads ended with a kite and a toaster.

I love how the ads take the fear and familiarity of Jaws and turn it around to increase awareness about just how rare fatal shark attacks are.