00:00:10
Matt Waters: Brendan. Liz, welcome to the podcast. How you

00:00:12
doing?

00:00:15
Brendon & Liz: Very well, thank you.

00:00:16
Matt Waters: What's been happening at your end of the

00:00:18
world?

00:00:19
Brendon & Liz: While we're currently currently based in

00:00:21
Thailand, and fortunately, it's one of the better recovered

00:00:26
countries regarding COVID-19. So we have been able to get about a

00:00:33
little bit, which is really nice. So we've been making the

00:00:38
best use of our time, trying to drive certain campaigns that we

00:00:42
feel are really important, and that we can try actually have an

00:00:46
impact. something positive during the time of COVID-19 was

00:00:50
to do something really nice. And to achieve something wonderful.

00:00:55
Matt Waters: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Just before, because I'm

00:00:58
going to ask about the petitions, for sure. But just

00:01:00
before that, for those people that will be listening to the

00:01:02
podcast that aren't aware what shark Guardian is, can you just

00:01:05
give us a bit of a background on how it's all started? And how

00:01:09
you've got to where you are now? Sure. Would you like to start?

00:01:13
Brendon & Liz: I start Yeah, I mean, to summarise, we're a UK

00:01:15
charity, but as you say, based in Thailand right now, and we

00:01:20
became a charity in 2013. But shout, guiding has kind of been

00:01:26
in the works. For way more longer than that, as a team, you

00:01:29
actually started going into schools around I think it was

00:01:32
2010 2011, we went to first went to some schools in Bangkok. But

00:01:38
we met in 2009, wasn't it? And that's when we met, Brendan was

00:01:45
already talking about sharks and all the kind of expeditions he'd

00:01:48
been on sale sharks where I'll say a massive part of his life.

00:01:51
And he used that to move me and to, you know, on a night out. So

00:01:59
that's, that was kind of how it started for us. But long before

00:02:03
that, you were fascinated by sharks I did at that point, I

00:02:06
really didn't do anything about my just become a scuba diving

00:02:08
instructor. You know, you don't always know lots about the

00:02:11
oceans at that point. And I had no idea what was happening to

00:02:15
shark specifically, I was learning a lot about the oceans

00:02:18
struggling and they're not, you know, the higher level,

00:02:21
predator, higher level food chain fish that will

00:02:24
disappearing. And then I learned what was happening of sharks.

00:02:27
And I was just amazed that that could be going on and people had

00:02:29
no idea what was going on with it. Hence why then we

00:02:32
collaborated and kind of shot bought in emerged from that,

00:02:36
didn't it? But way before that, you were?

00:02:40
Yeah, before that I was doing a lot of stuff with sharks anyway.

00:02:42
But ultimately, so shark Guardiann in a nutshell, we have

00:02:46
four arms of operation. We have conservation, education,

00:02:50
research, and dive expeditions. And to summarise each one of

00:02:54
those in terms of conservation, we run campaigns to many

00:02:59
different things, such as running petitions, campaigning

00:03:03
for certain regulation changes, protecting sharks, looking at

00:03:07
providing information for marine protected areas, and so on. So

00:03:10
that covers the conservation side. In terms of education, we

00:03:15
do as well as the same, we actually do a lot of work with

00:03:18
schools around the world by going in personally to give

00:03:20
presentations about sharks or during this time, we also be

00:03:24
looking at exploring a lot more options of doing virtual

00:03:26
presentations or attracting wider audiences online. We've

00:03:31
also published some really amazing children's books about

00:03:34
sharks. So we have some education materials, as well.

00:03:37
Some words can be downloaded off our site. So

00:03:42
Matt Waters: some of those you send out free to schools as well.

00:03:45
Brendon & Liz: That's correct. Yeah, we do. So we we organised

00:03:49
a fundraiser to get these books produced. And then we had a

00:03:53
certain number of them that we have for free to give out to

00:03:56
schools anywhere around the world. So we do say that, you

00:03:59
know, if anybody does have any contacts in schools, or they'd

00:04:01
like to get a copy of these books, just send us an email,

00:04:04
and we'll get those books to the school libraries. As soon as we

00:04:07
can. And Facebook, Facebook's often dead, we can

00:04:09
donate them as well as people come by them as well. We have

00:04:12
extra for that. And then we had the first book translated to

00:04:15
Thai. That's a big project to donate books to schools. And

00:04:18
actually, that's a project that we're going to be working on

00:04:21
over the coming months, which we can maybe talk about separately

00:04:23
later. Yeah. And we're in the process

00:04:26
also translating the books into as many languages as possible

00:04:29
and have them available as ebooks to download through

00:04:33
Amazon and various other sources. So that covers the

00:04:35
education side of things. Only diver programme there we now

00:04:39
dive into mortars a is only those are centres that come in a

00:04:45
special programme, that they learn more about AWS take part

00:04:48
in research while doing something on diving alongside

00:04:52
their courses generally. That's another way that we're spreading

00:04:57
the Education Forum. Yeah, we're looking to expand the the the

00:05:00
diver programmes to come up with this certain specialised

00:05:04
programmes and courses that people can learn more about

00:05:07
sharks while diving. So we're looking to expand the diver

00:05:09
education category when it comes to sharks, which is exciting,

00:05:15
very awesome, actually.

00:05:19
Matt Waters: Is that going through a particular agency? Or

00:05:21
is it something that you're doing standalone?

00:05:24
Brendon & Liz: Now we want to do it standalone. And it's a really

00:05:27
good, really good point you bring up their map? Because we

00:05:30
do get that question quite often. I think that the main

00:05:32
reason why we want to do it as a standalone thing is we don't

00:05:35
want it to eliminate or limit our education just to one

00:05:39
particular organisation. We want to make sure that it isn't

00:05:44
focused to only one organisation and their followers and their

00:05:48
that we want to make sure it's available to absolutely anybody.

00:05:50
So whether it's a beside dive Centre in the UK, whether it's,

00:05:55
you know, any other agency located anywhere in the world,

00:05:59
we don't want to limit their, their options, you have more

00:06:02
education about sharks in any way. So we want to keep it as a

00:06:05
standalone short Guardian programme,

00:06:07
Unknown: something you've been wanting to do for a long, long

00:06:09
time, isn't it? Yeah. And have all these goals. constantly

00:06:13
change that year, when we assess where we go in what's happening

00:06:16
in the world. Certainly get there one day, the graduates.

00:06:19
Brendon & Liz: Yeah. And it's also nice, as we're talking

00:06:22
about the education, we are growing our educational team. So

00:06:25
I'm in the process right now of creating more presentations and

00:06:30
building a team, I think we have up to about 14 or 15 people

00:06:33
right now. And these are individuals who are some of them

00:06:38
are novice divers, some of them are professional divers, but

00:06:40
they all have a great passion for sharks. And what we're doing

00:06:44
is we're going to be developing these programmes in these

00:06:46
presentations and modules together as a team. So we're

00:06:49
bringing in resources from not just myself, it's from a range

00:06:53
of different people, everybody has a way of inputting some,

00:06:56
some of the ideas and focus and education into this. So we can

00:06:59
be able to as a team build these programmes up to a very high

00:07:02
quality and standard. So it's very exciting.

00:07:05
Unknown: And it's also because I want to keep from the beginning.

00:07:07
So 2013, when we really threw ourselves into charging and hit

00:07:12
the road and presented to almost 50 people in that first year

00:07:15
alone. And it's been Brandon and myself doing absolutely

00:07:19
everything. You know,

00:07:20
Matt Waters: how many? How many? 30? Yeah.

00:07:26
Unknown: You kind of hit the road, and we were sleeping on

00:07:29
people's bedrooms, floors. Yeah, taking night buses at stupid

00:07:34
times to get to places and doing the social media when we got in.

00:07:38
And you know, it's just he's now money at that point could be had

00:07:41
no, no way. That's when we saw that we had something special.

00:07:47
And then we became in demand. And it was always a snowball

00:07:50
effect if you've got something good. But then it was like, oh,

00:07:52
come over here to Hong Kong. Okay, I come over here to

00:07:56
education really wasn't it? And we just, yeah, that was a

00:08:00
Matt Waters: lot. But I run around like headless chickens

00:08:09
Unknown: to help other people to get deliver the presentations.

00:08:12
And also that means we can reach more people at any given time.

00:08:16
It's not just limited to our time and ability and money.

00:08:22
Brendon & Liz: So really excited. So especially moving

00:08:23
forward with with the bigger team where we're looking at

00:08:26
targeting anything between 100 to 200 people a year. That's

00:08:30
next year, we're gonna go from 100 then after that, yeah.

00:08:36
Matt Waters: Okay. And obviously, in the current

00:08:38
climate, that's why you mentioned that you're looking at

00:08:40
webinars and that kind of elements here.

00:08:43
Brendon & Liz: Absolutely. And I think that also our, our

00:08:46
audience reach will also be significant, significantly

00:08:49
greater that way too, I think. So what what we find a little

00:08:53
bit challenging is being able to access schools and to get onto

00:08:57
their networks to target students because right now

00:09:00
schools are they themselves are just trying to make make sense

00:09:04
out of this whole new normal, and how to reach kids so we're

00:09:08
kind of waiting until they put their structures in place and

00:09:11
then we'll be looking at how do we get onto their networks and

00:09:13
actually give presentations to kids in their classrooms that

00:09:17
are virtually taking place and so on. So we're getting there

00:09:20
slowly.

00:09:20
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. And there's a particular age range

00:09:23
that you're looking at are you doing the full spectrum of kids

00:09:26
are

00:09:27
Brendon & Liz: you doing full spectrum lives normally takes

00:09:29
care of the little little ones of four to six year old because

00:09:34
they they scare me but

00:09:37
Matt Waters: they scare you? I was gonna say you probably scare

00:09:39
them the size of the older ones you're happy to hang out and be

00:09:45
okay. Yeah.

00:09:47
Brendon & Liz: So the primary to high school to university level

00:09:49
that's that's kind of more my comfort zone area. Otherwise,

00:09:53
yes. Now we do a full spectrum. With a little ones Liz. Let's

00:09:56
get some with the Baby Shark Song and doing some of the other

00:09:59
cool fun stuff.

00:10:01
Unknown: Primarily we'll be focusing on primary To start

00:10:04
with, it's always easier to get in the primary schools.

00:10:07
Obviously secondaries have a lot more going on. Again, we don't

00:10:10
know what it's going to be from back then. But a doorbell.

00:10:18
Matt Waters: So what's what's going on at the moment? I know

00:10:20
we've got a swim for sharks just around the corner sometime this

00:10:24
month, isn't it? next week, next week,

00:10:27
Unknown: okay, yeah, we're heading to Kotel next Wednesday,

00:10:31
and the kids event is on Friday. And full Adult Swim is on the

00:10:35
Saturday. So the sharks is a yearly event run by big blue on

00:10:40
Koh Tao, or big blue is joining us generally with the lead dive

00:10:43
centre organising it and lots of businesses and organisations and

00:10:49
groups get involved. It's just a wonderful community events to

00:10:52
raise awareness and sharks and through this fantastic drone

00:10:55
racing swim, and we're so glad it's going on. Because, you

00:10:59
know, it's a highlight of the Year for a lot of people because

00:11:01
they want to be their time. And

00:11:03
Brendon & Liz: yeah, there's some people we know that

00:11:06
actually physically train all year round, just to take part in

00:11:10
this one for sharks, let's just say that's a three three point

00:11:13
something kilometre swim around this one little island that they

00:11:16
do it for, and everybody loves it. And all the businesses get

00:11:20
involved, they donate some amazing prizes for rappers in

00:11:23
the evening. It gets really exciting. You know, some people

00:11:26
shave their heads or sharks or they get like a real tattoo. I'm

00:11:29
not doing that.

00:11:33
Matt Waters: I didn't have much to lose anyway. I'm not into the

00:11:39
swim I was. I was one of the guys that helped organise on the

00:11:43
boats and all that kind of stuff. But I did do obviously

00:11:47
now living in Australia, it's a bit difficult to get to

00:11:50
Thailand. But last year, I did do the distance in the local

00:11:54
pool here just as a little tag on it's it's actually 3.4

00:11:59
kilometres. And for those people that have no clue what we're

00:12:03
talking about, but Koh Tao has a little island next to it or two

00:12:07
islands next to it, code Nanyang. And it's a race around

00:12:11
the island swimming. So some people like Brennan says, take

00:12:15
it very, very seriously. We know one guy that's in the Cayman

00:12:18
Islands, that is one it wants at last after having been bitten by

00:12:22
an old man and a young child at some point. But there's also the

00:12:28
front events as well. So many people use Mac and snorkel and

00:12:31
fins and do it all in the name of supporting shark guardian and

00:12:36
raising awareness of the fantastic weather you guys do.

00:12:40
And I'm sure you'll probably have a few beers and evening

00:12:43
next week as well. They Brennan Absolutely.

00:12:49
Unknown: Oh, now because like last year, Olivia, our oldest

00:12:51
daughter so she's five now. So for last year she did the kids

00:12:55
swim last year didn't show that just happened in the swimming

00:12:58
pool. And they just do little games and different things. But

00:13:01
it's it's nice that she's emerging into it and taking part

00:13:05
and we do a little presentation to the kids and the adults. And

00:13:08
that was really, that stepped up a level last year as well. I'm

00:13:11
more educational and everyone just you know understands more

00:13:15
what's going on. So yeah, who knows? in a few years. Maybe

00:13:19
she'll be doing the big swim as well. It's almost ready today

00:13:23
the big friend definitely.

00:13:25
Matt Waters: Well I did say as well on on social media a few

00:13:28
days ago that the tattoo artist pui is going to be at Big Blue

00:13:35
and he's giving people the tattoo of the logo for this

00:13:40
year's swim for sharks. Yeah, yeah.

00:13:46
Unknown: Oh, is it been? Is it actually been a shark each year?

00:13:49
There's like a little bit more of this. Yeah, that they I don't

00:13:52
know. It's it is a no it's just a different shark design each

00:13:56
year I think. Logo

00:14:01
Matt Waters: so the logo that they've got going at the moment

00:14:03
advertisers from for sharks is what pui is going to be tattoo

00:14:06
and on people that want to just to raise money, but you can have

00:14:10
a load of people running around with the sharks tattoos with a

00:14:14
hangover The following morning, I think. Okay, so that's the,

00:14:20
that's the fun bit that's coming up here really gonna enjoy and

00:14:23
you know, I'll be quite envious of sitting here in the cold in

00:14:26
Sydney. So let's let's have a look at something else that's

00:14:30
been going on. And one of the big things that you guys have

00:14:33
been pushing for the last couple of months now is the petition

00:14:37
that you've you've raised with the UK Government. And Brenda do

00:14:42
want to give us a bit of a background on that one.

00:14:44
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, sure. So um, in a nutshell, it is

00:14:48
completely legal for anybody. Let's let's say hypothetically,

00:14:53
somebody is a businessman and he is coming from somewhere in Asia

00:14:57
or lands in the UK. London or any other major airport. And

00:15:02
basically that person is allowed to legally bring in 20

00:15:07
kilogrammes of shark fin and doesn't have to declare, you can

00:15:11
just walk right through customs. There's nothing wrong about it

00:15:15
to the UK law that falls under a category that says you're

00:15:18
allowed to bring in 20 kilogrammes of any kind of fish

00:15:20
products. And at the same time, you're not allowed to bring in

00:15:25
any kind of dairy. So I can't even bring in a bottle of milk

00:15:28
for my daughter, I can bring in even like, you know, 100 grammes

00:15:32
of nice beef or anything like that, or cheese or anything like

00:15:35
that. But I can bring in a bag of 20 kilogrammes of struck them.

00:15:40
Matt Waters: But you can't even get on the plane at the start of

00:15:42
the journey with a half litre open bottle of water. No, no.

00:15:49
Brendon & Liz: And you put that into perspective, right? We've

00:15:52
been trying to come up with a number, but we believe that

00:15:55
it's, you know, 20 kilogrammes of shark fin with depending on

00:15:58
the size of the fin, of course, that's somewhere between seven

00:16:01
and maybe seven to 15 sharks that are killed to accumulate

00:16:08
that 20 kilogrammes of shark fin. Yeah, and that is per

00:16:11
person. That's ridiculous. That's not per family. It's per

00:16:14
person. So what if what if, in one day 10 people are walking in

00:16:20
to the UK with a 20 kilogramme shotgun that's, you know, trying

00:16:23
to kill us? And then, you know, just exponential that and

00:16:27
they're just, it's insane that it's a lot and that's class

00:16:29
under you know, that's personal consumption. Yeah. So this is

00:16:33
what what the petition is or we're trying to stop this

00:16:36
loophole. Now. The the UK does follow regulations by situs,

00:16:42
which is the convention of international trade of

00:16:45
endangered species. And we have already got a response from the

00:16:48
government because the petition has passed the first goal of

00:16:51
getting 10 signatures and they have openly expressed their

00:16:55
interest for shark conservation protocols that they're following

00:16:59
societies and so on. But our argument to that is, if I'm if I

00:17:04
walk into the UK with a 20 kilogramme bag full of shark

00:17:07
fin, how does the the UK Border force agent there know that I

00:17:14
don't have a shark fin from an endangered species like a

00:17:17
Hammerhead? Or a whale shark? Because I'm not declaring it. So

00:17:20
they're not even opening it back shows? How do they control that?

00:17:24
Yeah. And if I am doing that, that that is actually illegal,

00:17:27
you know, so there's a massive loophole. So they're trying to

00:17:30
say that, Oh, no, we risk we're in support of sustainable shark

00:17:34
finning, and we follow safety as well. Actually, you're not

00:17:36
because you're not requiring people to declare the shark

00:17:39
Vinny not checking it. They're not following that protocol. So

00:17:43
it is a massive problem. It is in a we have identified a very

00:17:46
big loophole. So instead of them trying to come up with a way of

00:17:51
I mean, how are they going to educate 1000s of border control

00:17:54
agents to identify the difference between a this is

00:17:59
other spin comes from a Hammerhead? Oh, that fin comes

00:18:01
from this Oh, this one comes from that species that wouldn't

00:18:03
be able to do that. So isn't that just a lot simpler and

00:18:07
easier, just to say, no shark fin? No shark product? And

00:18:12
that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to say, look, it's

00:18:13
so easy. All you have to do is say, No, try, like, no, it can

00:18:17
be short. That's it.

00:18:18
Matt Waters: Let's Let's be brutally honest, that it's only

00:18:20
a cultural thing that people eat shall fit anyway. Exactly. You

00:18:24
know, it's the only thing that springs to mind for me right now

00:18:28
is anyone that's going to be going into the UK that will be

00:18:30
carrying sharkfin will be someone from the Chinese and

00:18:34
from the Chinese culture that is possibly going to a wedding so

00:18:38
that they can produce the soup to look as though they've got

00:18:41
lots of money.

00:18:42
Unknown: Sure, restaurants, isn't it? Yeah, they all major

00:18:46
cities have a big China town where there is a lot of shops

00:18:50
and restaurants, we don't know numbers, and it's not as big as

00:18:52
either somewhere like Singapore, for example. were huge. or

00:18:56
Thailand. Massive. Yeah. But that's possibly where it's going

00:19:01
as well. Because, yeah, there's not so many sharks around UK

00:19:05
waters, like you've ironing laws to prevent it. So it's right, I'd

00:19:09
Brendon & Liz: be an easy way for some people if they're

00:19:10
travelling. So like, if I had a restaurant, I could just tell

00:19:13
you know, 10 of my friends. Oh, you know, when you come through,

00:19:16
please bring me a 20 kilogramme or sharpen with you and there's

00:19:19
nothing there's nothing the border force will will do about

00:19:22
it. Because then it's legal. And wonderful to understand.

00:19:26
Unknown: Who brings it in? And what's the chain? It's very

00:19:29
difficult because again, you don't have to declare it. Yeah,

00:19:32
it's probably a lot more that comes through.

00:19:35
Brendon & Liz: And that's that's a difficult thing to do. Because

00:19:36
a lot of people have been asking us Well, where's where's the

00:19:38
data? How do we know? It's like, well, there isn't any because

00:19:41
first of all, if you don't have to declare it, there's no

00:19:43
recording so they don't know. So obviously, I think they're the

00:19:47
highlights a lot of need for this petition to take place. And

00:19:51
yeah, that's what we've been really pushing the last couple

00:19:54
of months. Yeah,

00:19:55
Matt Waters: yeah. So what how are you with figures at the

00:19:57
moment, you know how many signatures you've got

00:20:00
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, I checked this morning and I think, from

00:20:02
yesterday today to today has gone up a couple of 100

00:20:05
signatures, I think about almost 500. Now. So we're up to 18.

00:20:11
And something I think we're very close to that. So we have to

00:20:14
reach 100 signatures by the 11th of September.

00:20:19
Matt Waters: Why is that? What's that's obviously a UK

00:20:23
legislation thing, is it?

00:20:25
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, good, because the the petition has

00:20:27
been hosted directly with the UK, government websites, they

00:20:32
only last six months. And the petition wasn't actually started

00:20:36
by us, it was actually started by a private citizen. And by the

00:20:40
time that we were notified that this petition had taken place,

00:20:43
we were really last two months on it. Right. So we we were a

00:20:48
little bit late getting onto the petition. Now, this is the other

00:20:52
interesting thing. This is not the first time this petition was

00:20:54
taking place, either. There was a previous petition. And once

00:20:59
and it did reach about 16 signatures the first time

00:21:04
around. And the UK Government responded that again, although

00:21:07
they they highly support, chart conservation and looking at

00:21:13
clothes and making the UK more environmentally friendly. When

00:21:17
it comes to sharkfin and imports, they couldn't do

00:21:20
anything at that time, because they were still bound by

00:21:23
European regulations and laws as part of Europe. Right. But then,

00:21:28
of course, after Brexit happened, now, there was more

00:21:33
flexibility for the UK government to do something more

00:21:35
specifically about this issue. So that's why the petition was

00:21:38
launched again. Yeah. So that's where we are right now.

00:21:42
Matt Waters: Okay. And the downside being that the only

00:21:45
people who can sign a petition at a UK present presidents Yeah,

00:21:50
Brendon & Liz: that's right. Yeah. So you have to be a UK

00:21:52
National resident to sign this particular petition. And that is

00:21:55
the only you had any restriction, I guess, if it was

00:22:00
open to everybody would be a lot more. But at the same time, we

00:22:03
can also understand that if the UK Government wants to take this

00:22:06
seriously, and they are looking into this right now, then it has

00:22:10
to be UK nationals assignment. And we understand that, but it

00:22:14
does make it a little bit harder to get that petition out to just

00:22:16
target UK nationals. But fortunately, as working in the

00:22:21
diving industry, we do know there's a lot of people from the

00:22:24
UK, there are expats that work abroad, especially in the

00:22:27
dubbing industry. So we are we're utilising that. And I

00:22:32
think the main the main thing is that people from the UK they

00:22:36
share it, you know, do direct messages to friends and family,

00:22:39
share it on your own profiles, get your family and friends back

00:22:42
home in the UK, to sign and share it. And that's that's

00:22:45
going to be the key message.

00:22:46
Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

00:22:48
Brendon & Liz: And also, you know, if people are not UK

00:22:51
nationals, you know, please just share it anyway. Because more

00:22:54
than likely, even if you're not a UK National, I mean, I'm not

00:22:56
an UK National. I can't even sign it. But I have been able to

00:22:59
share it and get all my my network of UK friends and family

00:23:03
to do it. Yeah. So there's so even if you can't sign it

00:23:07
yourself, you can still do a lot more.

00:23:10
Matt Waters: Yeah. So that deadline is what days in

00:23:13
September, the 11th of September, late September. We

00:23:17
have to get busy on social media. Nobody.

00:23:19
Brendon & Liz: Yeah. Sorry, every day. Yesterday, we

00:23:23
actually had permission from petty Asia Pacific to post the

00:23:27
the petition on their main Facebook page. So did that

00:23:30
yesterday. So that was really great. And of course, they have

00:23:33
a great following. So we're gonna be doing today I'm

00:23:36
actually going to be trying to have contact with the SEC. So

00:23:40
the bridges sub Aqua club in the UK. And I'm going to try and

00:23:45
make sure that they get on to it as well because obviously being

00:23:48
UK based agency, they would be influential and getting the

00:23:52
extra numbers for us. So I'm contacting them today.

00:23:54
Matt Waters: Well, good luck with that one. Yeah, good. Well,

00:23:57
that's what we got. That's galapagus the Chinese for your

00:24:01
fair like I'm picking on the Chinese here. I'm not doing

00:24:04
everything wrong right now.

00:24:09
Unknown: It's a tricky I mean, listen to that Brendon can

00:24:11
actually say tone a lot more clear with an icon. You've been

00:24:14
following a lot closer, haven't you? A little bit. Yeah, we

00:24:17
actually

00:24:17
Brendon & Liz: have. We actually have a campaign leaders. So we

00:24:22
have a girl in the UK. Her name is Katie, and she's been our

00:24:25
campaign leader for the UK petition. And then we also have

00:24:30
Harriet's and she's our social media manager. And she's the one

00:24:33
who's really been on on the story of Galactus and writing up

00:24:37
the blogs and and the issues related. So basically what it is

00:24:40
is that not that long ago, it came to us headlines that there

00:24:46
was a massive fleet of 260 something boats surrounding the

00:24:51
Galapagos and they're assisting just on the edge of the the no

00:24:55
fishing zone around the Galapagos, and obviously it made

00:24:57
big headlines. Yeah. And that's been awesome. Because that about

00:25:01
a year ago, there was a fishing vessel that was caught, that had

00:25:05
hundreds of tonnes of shark, a shark fin and, and mantas and

00:25:10
all kinds of flora and fauna. on that boat, there was illegally

00:25:13
fishing within that zone. So to have this many boats surrounding

00:25:18
that area, and there is a satellite image, and if you look

00:25:20
at it, it's you know, it's, it's crazy, you see this perfect

00:25:24
circle of the protected zone, you just see this massive

00:25:27
fishing fleet just on the edge, like, just like, yeah, pre

00:25:32
invasion kind of thing. So then, of course, it became a media

00:25:38
attention. There is fear that these fishing vessels are long

00:25:41
lining and catching lots of sharks. There has been a lot of

00:25:45
pollution washing up on beaches in Ecuador and the Galapagos

00:25:48
with plastic bottles and look past all the Chinese watch on

00:25:52
them, but coming from these vessels, so not only are they

00:25:54
fishing, anything that passes through there, but they're also

00:25:57
polluting the area at the same time. Yeah. And I think the

00:26:00
thing that I think that a lot of people sometimes don't always

00:26:05
understand is that sharks, mantas, they didn't, they didn't

00:26:09
know our fictional borders, you know, to them, they just, it's

00:26:12
just ocean. So this from wherever, so they don't

00:26:14
understand that ANOVA stay in the circle, it's safe when I go

00:26:17
out that circle is danger. They don't know that. So, you know,

00:26:20
to some sense, these, these marine protected areas don't

00:26:24
really mean much when it comes to hypothetical borders or

00:26:28
crossings, because unless they protect them in an entire

00:26:32
region, or zone or even ocean Second, it doesn't really make

00:26:36
much difference if you protect these islands, and they say an X

00:26:40
amount of kilometres from these islands is safe and anything out

00:26:42
there is open to anybody. It doesn't really mean much does

00:26:47
it? Yeah.

00:26:48
Matt Waters: There was something similar to this years ago in

00:26:50
Indonesia wasn't where the mentors were migrating between

00:26:54
two points. And both points were protected. But the bits in

00:26:58
between were not correct. Yeah. And then the Indonesians,

00:27:02
actually well, whoever it was, raised the issue, and then they

00:27:06
combine the whole thing so that it's all blocked out, you can't

00:27:09
fish it full stop.

00:27:10
Unknown: And this is where research is so important,

00:27:12
because it was from the research that a couple of months or

00:27:14
organisations did that prove that the mentors were migrating

00:27:18
between the different areas in Indonesia? So you have to stop

00:27:22
what's happening in the middle places around the world that the

00:27:25
same thing needs to happen. Yes, there are. There's the

00:27:29
convention for international migratory species. Yes. What is

00:27:34
the Convention on International Trade of endangered species, or

00:27:38
the migration of endangered species? endangered species is

00:27:41
another organisation that monitors that, and they are

00:27:43
doing a lot more to try and protect the bits that are in

00:27:46
between. But ultimately fishing, you know, fishing boats, fishing

00:27:51
methods are so good these days that, you know, it's very, very

00:27:56
difficult to protect any of these migration species. So

00:28:00
yeah, and again, this is what's the worrying around galacticos

00:28:02
you know, you've got so many amazing species, rare species,

00:28:05
you know, many endangered species, species, you've got

00:28:09
places where, you know, whalesharks are seen pregnant

00:28:12
whalesharks huge female whalesharks there's so much

00:28:15
research going on there. You know, and, and that's the worry.

00:28:18
And, obviously, we're going to think the worst when you see

00:28:20
that many fishing poles along that line. Yeah, it just doesn't

00:28:24
make sense. So

00:28:26
Matt Waters: I was diving there last year, you know, sensational

00:28:29
location. And we're back there, again, hopefully, with you know,

00:28:33
get this COVID stuff out the way but October next year, we're

00:28:36
going expedition there, so I'm looking forward to it. But at

00:28:39
the same time at the moment, I'm actually quite scared to see

00:28:42
what the difference is going to be. With all those brains out

00:28:44
there.

00:28:46
Brendon & Liz: I think it was yesterday, there was an update,

00:28:48
the Chinese government did respond. Look at our website,

00:28:52
there is a blog that says update. And the Chinese

00:28:55
government has responded that from September to November, they

00:28:58
will be seizing all activity within the area. And if the

00:29:03
Ecuador government does see any illegal fishing, they are to

00:29:06
inform the the Chinese government and they will take

00:29:08
severe action. So there has finally been some response from

00:29:12
the Chinese government regarding this.

00:29:14
Matt Waters: Do you want to actually believe Um, no. I,

00:29:19
Brendon & Liz: I don't know. I tend to not believe very much. I

00:29:23
mean, that's the other interesting thing. I was

00:29:25
speaking to somebody else last night who suggested that the

00:29:29
media may have also exploited the Chinese fleets and, and have

00:29:34
been very quick to judge what their intentions are their past

00:29:39
history because of past history because they have been bought

00:29:42
illegally with a lot of sharks. So there is a suggestion that

00:29:45
these fishing boats are nothing more than squid boats. But the

00:29:50
thing is, the thing is, and so my question was, well, why would

00:29:57
they be fishing just with squid just in that But you know why? I

00:30:01
mean, there's such a big ocean in the Pacific, you can go

00:30:03
anywhere. Why are they specifically there? And it was

00:30:07
suggested that well, maybe it's because of the spawning of

00:30:10
squid. I was like, Really? So maybe that's true, maybe it's

00:30:14
not. And you know, they they say that these boats are physically

00:30:18
incapable of catching anything else but squid. But who knows.

00:30:23
And I think that there is another article that that has

00:30:26
suggested that these posts are squid. But hopefully within the

00:30:29
next 24 to 48 hours, we'll probably hear more. And we'll

00:30:34
see what happens regarding protect particular news. So

00:30:38
yeah, let's

00:30:39
Matt Waters: watch it. To be fair, if they if the Chinese

00:30:42
fishing fleet and the Chinese government wanted to prove

00:30:46
something as simple as being a fishing vessel for squid, they

00:30:51
just let people on to have a look at what they've got. It's

00:30:53
not like you're gonna be able to hide, you know, five miles of

00:30:56
fishing line with a couple of 1000 hooks on it, is it? No. And

00:31:00
you're gonna need a hell of a lot of light bulbs to catch some

00:31:01
squid. So if you've not only light bulbs, and you've loaded

00:31:04
big hooks, there's, there's a little bit of porcupines going

00:31:06
on there.

00:31:09
Brendon & Liz: Exactly. So, you know, the, basically I'm saying

00:31:12
like, you know, I'd love to see more evidence suggesting these

00:31:16
these statements, but, you know, again, he said, all the contact,

00:31:20
I have said that he you probably have something more significant

00:31:23
to explain within the next 4830 the 24 to 38 hours. He has

00:31:29
Unknown: what you have to do, and you know, we have, we have

00:31:31
our girl researching it, keeping an eye on all the news, we don't

00:31:34
just straight away, blast the news, you know, you have to be

00:31:38
very careful these days, and we want to be a reputable, you

00:31:41
know, organisation. So yeah, anything changing, you know,

00:31:45
we're not going to post anything until we have facts. But yeah,

00:31:49
you're relying on fat from sources, aren't you in the

00:31:52
Brendon & Liz: way and of course, sources sources can also

00:31:54
be wrong. So again, if if something changes, we will post

00:31:58
an update. I The other thing I was told is interesting. Yeah.

00:32:06
When you get sources, and you go, No, it's not been published

00:32:09
yet. But the one that this is just factors and 70% of the

00:32:14
world squirt is square that's called by the Chinese fishing

00:32:17
70% 70%. Yeah. In fact, a third of their accounts are there the

00:32:23
money of the Chinese fishing feeds is based on swift on squid

00:32:27
catches, saying so. So there might be some truth to it. But

00:32:33
again, we don't know. We're still waiting to see the

00:32:34
evidence.

00:32:35
Matt Waters: Yeah, but they could also be very large squid

00:32:38
with very large fins. Maybe. Yeah, I mean it but yeah, you

00:32:43
can you can but you got to stay the right side of the political

00:32:45
fence. I can say what I want.

00:32:49
Brendon & Liz: If the Japanese can can send a massive boats,

00:32:52
killing 1000s of whales a year where the big sign on the boat

00:32:55
says research, I mean, who's to say that that certain bus from a

00:33:00
certain country on saying refreshing squared and catching

00:33:02
something else? Yeah. Yeah, it's a possibility. It's a

00:33:05
possibility that sorted and ironed out soon. Yeah.

00:33:10
Matt Waters: I hope they do. I really do. Well, in other news,

00:33:14
what's what's what's happening with the kind of membership of

00:33:19
shot Guardian, I noticed on the website that we've got, you

00:33:22
know, possibilities that people can can join and follow you

00:33:26
guys. Yes.

00:33:28
Unknown: I mean, that's something people for a long time

00:33:31
when they meet to see as we often get the response? How do I

00:33:35
join? Yeah, how can I get involved? You know, we wanted to

00:33:39
have a membership scheme for quite a long time, we just, we

00:33:42
just kept going around in circles of what people actually

00:33:44
wanted from being a member. But now, it's kind of become more

00:33:49
focus, you know, as the charity board. It's, yeah, just we're

00:33:53
growing as an organisation. So it'd be nice to have have

00:33:56
options for people and especially for students to

00:33:58
continue being involved, or we just linked with those to have a

00:34:02
regular email that maybe they are our next speaker in five

00:34:06
years time or come on expeditions with us and take

00:34:10
part in research. So yeah, what which programmes alive?

00:34:16
Brendon & Liz: Sure. Well, first of all, you know, there are so

00:34:19
many different organisations that offer membership packs,

00:34:22
where they they buy some package, and they get a T shirt

00:34:27
and a wristband, and they get little things and we didn't want

00:34:29
to just copy that we wanted to have something that was more

00:34:33
meaningful that followed our, the staples that the charity is

00:34:39
based on. So basically, if anybody wants to become a

00:34:42
member, they can do that. But we want to make sure that we give

00:34:45
something much more relevant back rather than just a T shirt

00:34:49
and a certificate saying well done, you know, but you haven't

00:34:51
done anything. So we wanted to make sure that you know, let's

00:34:56
say for you, so we're going to have a junior membership pack

00:34:59
right? So within that pack, we wanted to make sure that, yes,

00:35:04
they do get regular updates, but not just to the kids, whether it

00:35:07
has to go through the parents and there's a resources. And

00:35:10
they're going to have educational worksheets,

00:35:13
workbooks, so where they actually can be learning

00:35:15
something about shocks. And then they can take that stuff, and

00:35:18
they can take it to school, and they can show friends of them

00:35:20
and really have an impact that way. So we wanted to make sure

00:35:24
that all the membership packs are based on education. And

00:35:28
based on awareness, and whoever becomes the member, they're

00:35:32
going to receive the most up to date information regarding our

00:35:34
most recent campaigns, how to get involved. Yeah, take these

00:35:38
posters and go put them around in your local coffee shop, or

00:35:41
put them in your school or put them at your gym, your

00:35:43
community. So that's, that's how we're going to involve our

00:35:46
members. We're going to make sure our members are active

00:35:48
there. They're educated, and they're aware of global issues,

00:35:51
rather than just having a fancy thing to show.

00:35:54
Matt Waters: That's awesome. That's awesome. Oh, yeah, yeah,

00:35:57
I'm just picking up on what Liz said the the amount of times

00:35:59
I've been asked, how do we get how do we get membership? And I

00:36:03
think there's a big queue knocking at your door waiting to

00:36:06
get in.

00:36:06
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, that's it. And that has taken us a while to

00:36:08
get there. But we want to, yeah, we want it to be right, one of

00:36:11
the important to be meaningful, we want to say Remember, you got

00:36:14
to be a true member, you know, so it's going to have some real

00:36:17
substance to it. So I think that's an A lot of people were

00:36:19
trying different ideas or comparing what other

00:36:22
organisations are doing. And we're like, no, let's, let's not

00:36:25
just copy, let's do something better, more meaningful in a

00:36:28
more substantial. And let's make sure that when people are

00:36:31
becoming our members, they're proud to be a team that they

00:36:33
feel like yes, you know, we're getting the right information,

00:36:35
the right stuff from this.

00:36:36
Matt Waters: Yeah, that's excellent. And is that live now?

00:36:40
Or is it in the not too distant future in the not too distant

00:36:43
future. So

00:36:44
Brendon & Liz: right now, so basically, we're gonna have a

00:36:45
junior membership. For Kids, we have a adult membership. We also

00:36:51
have something that's called a international students

00:36:54
ambassador. So this is different because this is where students

00:36:57
will receive resources materials from us that they can actually

00:37:00
learn how to give their own presentation, that they can go

00:37:03
and give a presentation in their school or their local community.

00:37:07
So it's kind of like a shotgun presentation that's been

00:37:10
streamlined that any students between the ages of 10 to 18 can

00:37:15
use. And it comes with notes and some videos and some really

00:37:19
great stuff. And so we're really excited about that. We're going

00:37:23
to have a diver membership programme. So apart from the few

00:37:28
cool things that they get there was going to be getting

00:37:30
information about how to get involved with research which

00:37:32
apps to download the provided information for research. So

00:37:36
that's going to be really exciting. That's, that's

00:37:38
awesome. And yeah, membership as well. That's right. And then we

00:37:42
have then we have two other memberships, so we have a dive

00:37:44
centre membership and a resort membership. Okay, and in a

00:37:47
nutshell, the resort memberships if they want to become members,

00:37:50
they have to show us that they do not all their food comes from

00:37:54
sustainable resources. And that they certainly do not serve any

00:37:57
type of shark products, as well as providing information in the

00:38:02
resort for di centres that they're taking part in all of

00:38:05
those things, but also doing a lot more on the research and

00:38:08
raising awareness with with their divers and their students.

00:38:11
Matt Waters: It's it's all exciting. And is that going to

00:38:13
be Come on give me a timeline is that is that going to be all up

00:38:15
and running by the end of the year? Or there's

00:38:17
Brendon & Liz: definitely yeah yeah, I'm on I'm would like to

00:38:23
get everything up and ready by the end of September.

00:38:26
Matt Waters: So when it when it comes to the crunch of people

00:38:28
wanting to join, then they do it through the website, or they got

00:38:32
to contact you directly.

00:38:33
Brendon & Liz: They can do through the website, we're gonna

00:38:34
have a dedicated page for the memberships to so people can log

00:38:38
on and go through the different membership, see the packs, and

00:38:40
they can they can subscribe to those packages through there

00:38:44
will also be promoting them through the social media so

00:38:47
people can see it that way too. So yeah.

00:38:50
Matt Waters: Okay, expeditions. I've got time for this one less.

00:38:53
Unknown: Yeah, expedition servicii. It's something we've

00:39:00
wanted to grow for a long time. But, you know, our focus is

00:39:03
education and with what's happened with COVID, and

00:39:07
reassessing what the schools are doing, that has been our focus,

00:39:10
and we wanted to grow the programme anyway, as I said

00:39:12
earlier, so we don't have to do everything. So that is the

00:39:16
priority of the next month, getting all the speakers ready.

00:39:20
And then getting the online programmes ready. So that

00:39:23
there's all that happening right now. But yeah, we need to do

00:39:27
more direct. So when the world opened out when we were doing

00:39:29
the sardine run we did that for for, you know, since 2016, about

00:39:35
1617 and 18. Yeah, and you want to do that we want to do we want

00:39:39
to do more of that. Now. We've got contacts, places and other

00:39:43
boards, you know, in Indonesia, Malaysia, we'd love to do

00:39:46
galapagus of course. I guess it's parties and with those

00:39:51
having a family just to pop off around the world to these

00:39:55
different locations, but I guess it's watching space once we want

00:39:59
this stuff. Yeah, at the end of the year, we've got a lot of

00:40:02
going on, we've got a lot happening in Thailand, which I

00:40:04
can talk about in a second as well. Once that's all in place,

00:40:08
and we've got more in the team around the world, you know,

00:40:10
everything's running nicely, then we'll start seeing where

00:40:14
the world has opened up. And we can go and do some cool shark

00:40:17
diving.

00:40:17
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, I mean, I have some people asking already

00:40:19
about doing the sardine run in 2021. Yeah. So that's really

00:40:23
exciting. I am in contact right now to get something happening

00:40:27
with a little board up in Komodo again. We've done that before.

00:40:30
So we really are. So what are we going to do is we're going to

00:40:32
start doing a few trips and expeditions here locally, like

00:40:36
quite close by. and then and then we're going to expand that

00:40:39
as we go along. And yeah, we'll just see how how things do shape

00:40:43
again, after COVID-19. And when borders reopen, and travelling

00:40:47
starts again. I think that right now everything is on a hiatus

00:40:50
until that happens. So we Yeah, we're a bit unsure where the

00:40:54
next expeditions will be. And how many people are gonna want

00:40:57
to travel after this? Right now? It's very much in the air, for

00:41:01
sure.

00:41:02
Matt Waters: Well, I'll let you know. I've got a boat booked for

00:41:04
next year in South Africa for the sardine run. My company

00:41:08
nomadic scuba was not mentioned yet. We'll donate $20 for every

00:41:11
person that comes on any expeditions or trips that we do

00:41:14
as well. Oh, seminar will also get the most amazing. Yeah. It

00:41:21
has to be on everyone's bucket list. Yeah, it's a dream Dream

00:41:24
location, isn't it? Yeah, it really is. Yeah. I don't know

00:41:28
why you left South Africa, Brendan.

00:41:34
Unknown: When we we need to go back. So because we have a new

00:41:38
child that family haven't seen in South Africa?

00:41:43
Brendon & Liz: Yes. I mean, I still say now that if somebody

00:41:46
asked me, where is the best thing in the world, I still say

00:41:49
South Africa, hands down. But I think that if unless you're

00:41:53
actually already have a very setup business with a good

00:41:57
reputation, you have a really good network of people coming to

00:41:59
you. It's very hard to break new businesses in South Africa. The

00:42:03
economy is is struggling. The political situation is not

00:42:09
great. But it is such it is one of the most beautiful countries

00:42:13
in the world. Nature, the marine life is insane. It's just

00:42:17
absolutely amazing. And I think that when you get there, you can

00:42:22
almost forget about the negative political and economy side of

00:42:27
things and just enjoy being there. It's really, really

00:42:29
amazing. And I think that that's that's kind of why I haven't

00:42:33
lived it for such a long time. Because certainly I'm going back

00:42:36
to visit and dive is amazing. But running a business or or

00:42:40
having influence in conservation world. It's easy to be abroad.

00:42:46
Matt Waters: Yeah, I love the place. Absolutely. Sensational.

00:42:48
above and below the water.

00:42:50
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we can't wait to go back.

00:42:53
And hopefully 2021 allows us to do that again. Yeah. Well,

00:42:57
Matt Waters: maybe we'll be going diving. Thanks. Yeah.

00:43:00
Yeah. So come on, let's tell it tell me what's the what's the

00:43:05
gossip,

00:43:05
Unknown: exciting stuff that's happening. So as we've talked

00:43:08
about the education, and for the rest of this year, again, giving

00:43:12
travel constraints that we're not going to find the different

00:43:14
countries, because you've got all these books still in Thai.

00:43:18
And that was from a project with an organisation called gvi. They

00:43:22
have a base in, in Pauillac in Panama. So we're going to be

00:43:27
going to local schools, focusing on the crappy province until the

00:43:31
end of the year. So we've already got our first one lined

00:43:33
up in a couple of weeks. And the aim is, every week, if not,

00:43:36
after two weeks, we'll go to the schools. And it's just a very

00:43:39
short presentation, Introduction to the to the ocean, and why we

00:43:44
need sharks and don't be scared of sharks or the oceans, you

00:43:48
know, in protecting the environment, you know, trash,

00:43:50
plastic, that could be a hole, or the key turning is in itself,

00:43:55
you know, they were just trying to get again, the next

00:43:57
generation and especially in a country like Thailand, where

00:43:59
trash is a huge problem, inspired. And when we wrote

00:44:02
these books and their responses in the past, the kids have just

00:44:05
absolutely loved them because it's something new, something

00:44:08
different. And then next year, our plan is to take that a step

00:44:13
further. And now we've always had this big dream of getting a

00:44:17
big van, painting it black having the shark fin on it, and

00:44:20
travelling around Europe, travelling around UK travelling

00:44:23
around Europe, or wherever it takes us. But that's been in the

00:44:26
pipeline. We've talked about for a few years. And we were again

00:44:29
talking about it to do a little test run this year in the UK,

00:44:32
next year, Europe, so things change. And we're like, you

00:44:35
know, we need to kind of leave a bit of a legacy here in

00:44:38
Thailand. So early next year, we plan to do that in Thailand. So

00:44:43
helping the education into places that were never heard of

00:44:47
as linking up with schools, both international and local.

00:44:51
Hopefully getting some restaurant Hotel b&b projects

00:44:56
happening as well. That's something we'd like to know in

00:45:00
Correct and link with it and just giving away all these you

00:45:04
know few 1000 books that we've got and inspiring the kids to

00:45:08
just look after the the environment as well as the ocean

00:45:11
so watch this space about that and we're going to get some kind

00:45:16
of Van if we can get the shark fin on it as well.

00:45:21
Matt Waters: literally gonna have a shark fin on the roof not

00:45:23
just

00:45:26
Brendon & Liz: like that. Have you ever watched the the the the

00:45:29
Joel? Joel Schumacher Batman movie with the Batmobile? With a

00:45:33
big fan of the back? Yes,

00:45:34
Matt Waters: that's right. Yeah.

00:45:37
Unknown: days, that part. Yeah. But we started looking at bands

00:45:40
and finances and boots. And you know, it would just be the south

00:45:44
of Thailand that will focus on once we looked at the map, we

00:45:47
will at work won't do that in a month. So we're gonna give it a

00:45:50
go see what happens and see what goes from that. Which will be

00:45:54
very excited and actually go in to all these places that maybe

00:45:58
you haven't even heard of sharp,

00:46:00
Matt Waters: you'll have to, you'll have to you have to blog

00:46:01
it daily.

00:46:02
Brendon & Liz: Yeah, follow the rules out there. Yeah, we're

00:46:04
gonna do like a vlog like, every day, we're gonna have like a

00:46:07
video updates, telling people where we are what we're doing.

00:46:10
link up with other organisations in the area. You know, and also,

00:46:15
yeah, having some community events. So it's also out of

00:46:17
school events. The other thing that we had an idea is that we

00:46:20
could also have a big screen on the side of the band, we can set

00:46:23
up a projector, we can do something outdoors outside

00:46:25
someday. It'll be a lot of fun. Yeah.

00:46:29
Matt Waters: All dressed in your shark. onesy. Exactly.

00:46:33
Unknown: You know, proper hot, you know, this kind of this kind

00:46:42
of this kind of material. Yeah, we'll talk soon maybe. We'll say,

00:46:49
Matt Waters: oh, sounds like great fun. But yeah, that's been

00:46:51
a really exciting thing that you say we've got the books in in

00:46:56
Thai. And you do presentations in Thailand at the schools? Do

00:47:00
you? Do you have anyone who speaks Thai that does the

00:47:05
presentations and translations for you? Yeah,

00:47:07
Unknown: that's what we've got somebody who did some

00:47:09
translation for them last year in school. So she's going to be

00:47:13
working with us. So it's quite consistent. And we hope I mean,

00:47:17
we've got a girl in Bangkok, who does some stuff for us, who can

00:47:20
do the presentations in Thai? So one day, we hopefully we'll have

00:47:25
a couple of people here who continue to do it on a local

00:47:27
level for us. That would be amazing.

00:47:30
Matt Waters: That'll be great. Yeah, yeah. Well, are we doing

00:47:34
for time? I know you guys get in a bit.

00:47:36
Unknown: But I think we've talked about all the different

00:47:38
projects and different areas not talk so much about research. I

00:47:43
mean, we basically collaborate with some projects who run by

00:47:46
different scientists, or based around citizen science. So if

00:47:50
you look at our website, there's lots of things that everybody

00:47:53
can get involved with, for monitoring shark populations,

00:47:56
whale sharks, and leopard sharks specifically, so yeah, that's

00:48:00
something that's always happening. Oh, and we're also we

00:48:02
also started supporting a project at St. Andrews

00:48:05
University in Scotland in the UK last year, and that's going to

00:48:11
be happening, more is going to be coming from that as well. So

00:48:15
that was nice to start supporting a UK project as a UK

00:48:18
charity.

00:48:19
Matt Waters: what's what's that project then?

00:48:22
Unknown: It's based around an endangered species of flappers

00:48:26
skate. So it's an elasmobranch. It's not a shark as such right

00:48:30
now, but it's within a marine protected area that they've

00:48:34
really hardly discovered, because it's an endangered

00:48:37
clapper state that has been their focus. So we decided to

00:48:42
link with it because of, you know, it's done in Alaska, in

00:48:45
the Bronx. So sharks are from the same family. But there are

00:48:51
other species within this marine protected area, including

00:48:54
sharks. So we thought as a long term project, it would be

00:48:58
something to be involved with, you know, a positive side and

00:49:01
also, you know, maybe have interns as part of it later on.

00:49:06
It's also going to becoming one of those, you know, the Sylvia l

00:49:09
hot spots, okay. They were kind of they've gone a bit quiet with

00:49:14
those. But that's, that's, again, LinkedIn in the pipeline.

00:49:17
So there's lots of stuff happening there as as any

00:49:21
research project, especially with it, linked to the

00:49:23
university, you know, money funding comes and goes, but it's

00:49:28
a nice team, they're

00:49:30
Brendon & Liz: really exhausted. And there's also an area in the

00:49:32
south of UK that we're looking at possibly getting registered

00:49:36
as a shark bringing protected area, we're going to be looking

00:49:40
into protected areas in the UK and how we can maybe be

00:49:44
influencing those as well. And, you know, another

00:49:48
Unknown: thing with a petition is we've become more well known

00:49:50
even though UK charity we've not been known that side, you know,

00:49:54
everything we've been done it is in Asia because we've been

00:49:57
living and working for a long time. So it's not Nice to hear

00:50:00
things developing in the UK. So again, watch this space next

00:50:04
year with things like that. Yeah.

00:50:09
Matt Waters: You're always busy, busy. But it doesn't matter

00:50:15
where people come from, it doesn't matter where the dive

00:50:17
centres or resorts are in the world, they can actively get

00:50:22
involved with shark guardian.

00:50:24
Brendon & Liz: Absolutely, yeah, our long term plan is that we're

00:50:28
going to have a regional base or shark garden in different parts

00:50:32
of the world. So we're gonna have the European based UK and

00:50:35
European base we're gonna have, we already have somebody right

00:50:37
now who is a representative for the Middle East and Africa. And

00:50:42
we're looking to replicate those positions in a long term have

00:50:45
somebody base in Asia, in Australia, and the Americas. So

00:50:50
we're looking at having a worldwide coordination of

00:50:54
running out different projects and activities in all parts of

00:50:57
the world. And to really grow our our team of educators and

00:51:02
expedition leaders. So that's kind of where we see ourselves

00:51:05
in long term and continuing to push petitions, change

00:51:10
legislations, and laws into place to protect sharks

00:51:13
everywhere in any way possible.

00:51:16
Matt Waters: Guys, it's exciting talking to you, it always has

00:51:20
been right from the word go from the first time I ever met you.

00:51:23
And let's try to embarrass me for turning up late to one of

00:51:25
your presentations. The passion you guys have for this is it's

00:51:31
just phenomenal. It really is applaudable. Before we wrap

00:51:40
things up, you know, the title of the show is scuba goat. So

00:51:45
one quick question. And Brendan's already answered has

00:51:47
been South Africa. But Liz, where would where would you pick

00:51:52
as your greatest of all time dive experience?

00:51:56
Unknown: Again, South Africa, absolutely amazing. And then it

00:52:00
sticks in my head is when I first went to Komodo, and I've

00:52:03
only just done my advanced course. And with scuba junkie

00:52:08
actually in in sipper down. And then I went to Indonesia and

00:52:15
went to Komodo. So I still I still have less than 20 dives.

00:52:20
And I did this dive where there was I mean, they're all excited

00:52:25
before they will in you're looking at the the GPS screen,

00:52:29
you know the fishing thing and they're just saying, you know,

00:52:31
there's so much activity with this stuff. And anyway, so

00:52:35
again, there's dolphins, there's sharks, there's just massive

00:52:39
feet, you know, there's massive to valets and that but just to

00:52:42
have the dolphins over and around and the sharks, just mama

00:52:44
and that just sticks. You know, I still say Komodo is is

00:52:48
certainly some of the best diving in the world. Yeah. But

00:52:53
just South Africa has a different code in South

00:53:00
Africa having to go off too early, early, because I just was

00:53:04
physically just so I mean, cold is too different. Yeah, that's

00:53:08
my cold, cold dive in versus warm, cold. Yeah, but that just

00:53:12
has that memory, especially because it was early on in my

00:53:14
career.

00:53:15
Matt Waters: In my opinion, you know, the greatest of all time

00:53:18
for any individual. It's all based on your experience, your

00:53:22
personal feelings about that location. And what better way to

00:53:26
hear about it, but from the horse's mouth, you know, from

00:53:28
the I'm not calling your boss this by the way. I thought

00:53:33
you're gonna get the bigger impression. I've seen it. I've

00:53:38
seen enough of your shark impressions and those hats and

00:53:40
all that kind of stuff. Okay, well, thank you very much

00:53:47
for your time. And I look forward, just let us let us

00:53:53
know. Tell us how people can find you and how they can get in

00:53:56
touch with you and how they can support shot guardian.

00:54:01
Brendon & Liz: Well, you can find us fire. www dot shot.

00:54:05
guardian.org is the website. We are very active on social media,

00:54:09
specifically with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. So you

00:54:13
can search us that way. This is the best way to get the most

00:54:16
recent updates, news and information. We are also doing

00:54:21
some really interesting blogs at the moment through our website.

00:54:24
And that's probably the best way to get in touch and keep keep up

00:54:27
to date with our activities. Awesome.

00:54:30
Unknown: Well we have a web store where you can buy

00:54:33
merchandise. So that's the big one of the biggest ways that we

00:54:36
run the charities by selling cool t shirts and whatever got

00:54:42
in here accessible from anywhere in the world. We do ship

00:54:44
worldwide. So have a look on the website for that for sure.

00:54:49
Matt Waters: And that's that's the important thing here. You

00:54:52
guys are putting it out you know 24 seven working on this project

00:54:57
but it is actually a charity so it relies on donations from

00:55:02
people so if people want to show support, they can do it

00:55:06
directly. indirectly. If you're going to go on holiday at some

00:55:11
point, you can always book through nomadic scuba. And we

00:55:16
will put 20 bucks of every book in that we receive to shark

00:55:20
guardian. So some of your money will be going to shark garden

00:55:25
whilst you're going on holiday. And we'll probably plug him in

00:55:30
some more money while you're on holiday. Brandon, Liz, it's been

00:55:35
an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

Elizabeth Ward-Sing

Co-founder - Shark Guardian

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Brendon Sing & Elizabeth Ward-Sing - Shark Guardian