From the 8th until the 16th of June there will be an entire week dedicated to sharks at the Nature Foundation in St. Maarten. As part of St Maarten Shark Week a day full of shark activities will be organized for the third time at Buccaneer Beach bar on Saturday the 9th of June from 1-5pm.
During Kids Shark Day different activities will be organized to show the importance of sharks for our reefs, ocean, island and tourism. Sharks, as top predators, play a crucial role in maintaining balance and health within our aquatic ecosystem. Besides, they are important for tourism; many scuba divers love to see sharks, which makes a shark worth much more alive than dead. People often think that sharks eat people. This is a misunderstanding, we are not on the menu for sharks and sharks do not eat people. Occasionally shark bites do happen, however no unprovoked attack has been ever recorded on St. Maarten. It is more likely that you get killed by a coconut falling on your head than by a shark.
“Kids can learn everything about sharks while having loads of fun during shark day. There will be shark related activities such as; beach games, quizzes, coloring, face painting, claying and a selfie with the shark suite. This year kids can also learn about shark science and our shark tagging research, they can learn the process to tag a shark and use the equipment. The general shark day activities are free of charge and for all ages, we will have goodies and prices to win” stated Nature Foundations Project Officer Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern.
Additional, this year we will have a special workshop during Shark Day to make beautiful Shark art together with the local artist Carla Templeton. During the Shark & Art Workshop kids can show their creativity on astonishing shark tiles under the supervision of Carla. Kids can sign up for the workshop at 1 pm or 3pm, there will be a little fee of $10,- per kid, the workshop will be about 1-1.5 hours, minimum age is 5 years. Send an email to na**********************@gm***.com to reserve your spot.
During all Shark Week events, there will be the possibility to support the Nature Foundation by naming or adopting a tagged shark, purchasing 4Ocean bracelets or reusable shopping bags. St Maarten Shark Week is part of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance ‘Save our Sharks’ project funded by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery.