Guitarfish are now among the ocean's most threatened fish. Halting their drive to extinction, marine biologist and SOSF project leader, Dr. Issah Seidu, has for the last decade been working with Ghanaian fishermen to guard this species, raising awareness about their vulnerability to overfishing.

On the airwaves of coastal Benin, Rodrigue Pelebe made the case for sharks. Speaking on Sazué FM, he sought to raise public awareness about the plight of the Critically Endangered scalloped hammerhead, pairing science with community outreach, and speaking to the importance of this species.

Blue-barred parrotfish are always born female, so how did this particular reef fish become male? Fish from this species are protogynous hermaphrodites. This means they first function as females, and some individuals later transform into males. 📷: Shane Gross | © Save Our Seas Foundation

This World of Sharks podcast episode is an extra special one – it’s our 100th! To celebrate this milestone, our host Dr Isla Hodgson looks back across 100+ hours of conversations about sharks with scientists and conservationists from around the world. Listen here: saveourseas.com/worldofshark...

Within the colourful pages of magazines written in the local language and distributed to hundreds of children along the Beninese coast, Houangninan Midinoudewa is helping young readers understand that sharks and rays are worthy of protection.

Mariana Andrade recounts a night spent around Andros Island, collecting eDNA, tagging sharks, and searching for clues to help protect one of the ocean’s most elusive survivors: the smalltooth sawfish.

A shimmering orb in azure ocean waters, bait balls are all about safety in numbers. In formation, their lateral line - sense organs on individual fish - enable small schooling fish to move in perfect unison, a natural defence mechanism when under threat. 📷: Jasmine Corbett | © Manta Trust

In many places, conservation work is almost impossible. Palestinian marine ecologist Dr Mohammed Abu Daya's story is one of resilience against unimaginable odds. He has lost his home, university office and access to the ocean. But he remains committed to devil ray research and regional conservation.

Science needs its provocateurs. saveourseas.com/update/requi...

There is just one week left to apply for our Small Grants! Applications close on July 3rd, 18:00 CET. 📅 Apply here: grants.saveourseas.com 🔗 📷: Jake Wilton

The Western Indian Ocean has 270 known species of sharks, rays and chimaeras - that's roughly 21% of global shark diversity. But nearly half of all these species are threatened with extinction. 📷: Simon Hilbourne

Supported by the Save Our Seas Foundation, David Ebert's project, 'Bringing light to 'lost sharks'', seeks to document and protect many species before they're gone. news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

These befreckled cuties are ‘spotless’ at birth. Young Atlantic spotted dolphins only develop their patterning when they pass their first birthday. One can tell a dolphin’s age by the phase of their spots, with fully matured individuals showing spots that have ‘fused’ densely. 🎥: Sebastian Staines

As the passage of time is written into the growth rings of trees, life is also recorded in the cartilaginous vertebrae of sharks. saveourseas.com/update/back-...

Yes I'm cute - and you can celebrate it, too! A week ago, we celebrated World Sea Turtle Day. It was a moment for us to reflect on last year's major turtle conservation milestone: green sea turtles moved from Endangered to Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. 📷: Henriette Grimmel | © SOSF

Sightings of a rare deep-sea shark, the goblin shark offer new glimpses into the lives of these 'living fossils', as CEO of the Save Our Seas Foundation James Lea shares that they are "normally only ever really find them in fisheries, and rarely at that". abcnews.com/US/rare-gobl...

Where zooplankton blooms, reef manta rays gracefully swoop in en masse. These mantas feed on these tiny organisms by swimming with their mouths open and their cephalic fins extended, funnelling water over their gills, where their specialised gill rakers filter out the plankton. 🎥: Michael Scholl

In the early hours of the morning, alongside fishers and vendors, Brooke D’Alberto visited Singapore’s fish markets to sample rare and Endangered wedgefish. This work offers insight into their little-known life history, but also allowed for discourse with fishers. saveourseas.com/update/back-...

Be it their striking vertical stripes resembling the coat of their name-sake, or the predatory grace with which they move, tiger sharks have incredible presence. Yet, their true majesty lies in their brilliant navigation as seasonal ocean migrators 🎥: Sebastian Staines

There are two weeks left to apply for our Small Grants! If you're an early-career researcher, conservationist, and educator with a local project focused on sharks, rays, skates, sawfishes and chimaeras, to apply now. Applications close on July 3rd, 18:00 CET. Apply here: grants.saveourseas.com

In the 99th episode of the #WoS podcast, recorded at Sharks International in Sri Lanka, host Isla is joined by parasitologist Dr Bjoern Schaeffner and shark scientist Dr Jaime Penadés Suay to explore one of the least understood — and most misunderstood — components of marine ecosystems: parasites.

'Shaping marine conservation in Cameroon' Save Our Seas Foundation project leader Aristide Takoukam Kamla founded the African Marine Conservation Organisation (AMCO). 'Shaping marine conservation in Cameroon' is now online: saveourseas.com/shaping-mari...

'Shaping marine conservation in Cameroon' Community can shape conservation. In Cameroon, Save Our Seas Foundation project leader Aristide Takoukam Kamla founded the African Marine Conservation Organisation - AMCO to drive conservation action to benefit marine animals and people alike.

'Shaping marine conservation in Cameroon' Wenzel Pinto's first international journey landed him on the shores of Cameroon, West Africa. 'Shaping marine conservation in Cameroon' is now online: saveourseas.com/shaping-mari... Illustrations by Lizzy Stewart

'The world changes, and we don't remember' The shifting baseline syndrome describes how we gradually lose our memory of what our oceans once were. 'The world changes, and we don't remember' is now online: saveourseas.com/the-world-ch...

'The world changes, and we don't remember' On assignment in Mexico, Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant Winner Acacia Johnson found a story that asks us to honour the past in order to re-imagine the future. 'The world changes, and we don't remember' is now online: saveourseas.com/the-world-ch...

'Nothing comes without its world' Through words and illustrations by Dylan McGarry, readers and viewers alike are invited to ponder 'why conservation storytelling needs a course correction'. 'Nothing comes without its world' is now online: saveourseas.com/nothing-come...

'Intertidal impact' In the intertidal zone where land meets sea, the ebb and flow of the rising and falling tides exposes a natural laboratory; one on which Sarang Naik, Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant Winner, has trained his lens.

In conversation with Noel Kok, co-founder of Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) and National Geographic Explorer, we learn about flipping the script of Africa(ns) as a perception.

'Accidental shark sanctuary' Fanni Daniella Szakál, Ocean Storytelling Writing Grant Winner, travelled to the Port of Ngqura, an industrial harbour east of Gqeberha, South Africa. This port, some researchers claim, has a higher abundance of fish than anywhere else along this country's coastline.

'Coastal connections' Gabriella Angotti-Jones, Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant Winner, went on assignment to explore shark and ray fisheries - and the scientists keeping tabs on them - in Ghana and Cameroon.

'Coastal Connections' On assignment exploring shark and ray fisheries in Ghana and Cameroon, Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant Winner Gabriella Angotti-Jones used her lens to capture the spirit and experience of West Africa. 'Coastal connections' is now online: saveourseas.com/coastal-conn...

'Shark pups show the way' Travelling across seas in 2023, Ocean Storytelling Writing Grant Winner Dimuthu Attanayake documented the work of researchers in Mo'orea's lagoon lab, where Dr Jodie Rummer heads the Physioshark project. Now online: saveourseas.com/shark-pups-s...

Thomas Peschak has spent more than 20 years bringing stories about our oceans and rivers as a National Geographic Photographer and Explorer and as the SOSF Director of Storytelling to audiences across the planet. 'How to have an impact' is now online: saveourseas.com/q-a-storytel...

Journeying through this near-pristine ecosystem, Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant Winner, Shane Gross Photography, uses his lens to capture and share the work of the Save Our Seas Foundation D'Arros Research Centre both above and below the azure waters of the island and its neighbouring atoll.

'Room to breathe' Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant Winner, Shane Gross, transports us to D'Arros Island and St Joseph Atoll, on the far-flung Outer Islands of the Seychelles. 'Room to breathe' is now online: saveourseas.com/room-to-brea...

It's our favourite day of the year, World Ocean Day, and what better way to celebrate the launch of the 13th issue of the Save Our Seas magazine. Flip through the pages of this special issue here: bit.ly/4g6D1B1

After years of tagging and tracking Critically Endangered eagle rays along the South African coast, new discoveries around their movement behaviour are still being made by Michelle Soekoe and team. saveourseas.com/update/algoa...

On a routine reef manta ray monitoring dive, scientists at the SOSF D’Arros Research Centre in Seychelles recorded the first documented instance of a remora hiding in a reef manta ray’s cloaca (the all-in-one exit for the manta’s digestive and reproductive functions).

In the shallows of the Knysna Estuary, blue stingrays aggregate annually at the only known and documented estuarine breeding aggregation site for this species in South Africa. An estuary-wide acoustic receiver array allows the movement of tagged rays to be assessed for conservation. 📷: Helen Walne

Save Our Seas Foundation Conservation Fellow Dr Issah Seidu is one of the winners of the 2026 Whitley Award for Nature. He is using the award to expand his work into more community-led conservation action/ saveourseas.com/giving-ghana...

This week on the #WoS podcast, Host Isla Hodgson and Dr James Lea dive back into our mailbag to answer more of your burning sharky questions! They discuss everything from bioluminescence in sharks to whether sharks are really older than trees. Listen here: saveourseas.com/worldofshark...

Built for the extremes, leopard seals are fierce predators of the frigid Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters. Here they prey on krill, fish, squid, birds and penguins. Captured penguins are often thrashed at the surface, breaking their meal into smaller, manageable pieces. 🎥: Byron Dilkes

Fishers on the south coast of Kenya cite conflict with WaPembas (or foreign fishers) from Pemba, Tanzania, and their ring nets as the reason for inshore depletion of manta and devil rays from once-reliable catches. More below in Boaz Kaunda-Arara's blog. saveourseas.com/update/the-d...

Many shark and ray species move across enormous oceanic ranges into the high seas, where governance has historically been fragmented and weak, with the newly adopted BBNJ Agreement having the potential to become a critical tool for protecting these species. news.mongabay.com/2026/05/shar...

Part of a submerged volcanic range, Roca Partida's rock walls are adorned with colourful corals, sponges and anemones, creating an oceanic beacon for migratory megafauna like dolphins, sharks and whales, who use it as a navigational landmark, feeding ground, and cleaning station. 🎥: Byron Dilkes

The Save Our Seas Foundation Conservation Fellowship supports committed change-makers carrying out shark and ray conservation work in the Global South or in a region where conservation resources and investment have been scarce. Read more here: saveourseas.com/2026-save-ou...

Today is World Reef Day! In this ecologically rich landscape, sharks are essential in maintaining the delicate balance, resilience and biodiversity of reef ecosystems. They regulate prey populations, reshape prey behaviour, and move important nutrients into reefs. 📷: Ryan Daly

Seemingly choreographed, humpback whales move through our oceans with remarkable poise. A species once ravaged by catastrophic decline, they now breach and leap in breathtaking synchrony, elegantly sweeping their pectoral fins as they twist, twirl, and roll through the deep blue. 🎥: Luke Saddler

When scientists went diving around D'Arros Island and St Joseph Atoll (Seychelles), they scoured the coral reefs to uncover the diversity of life. 📷: Ryan Daly