July saw the Shark Trust team up with local Plymouth venue, Royal William Yard, and many of the businesses within, to create Shark Month. A series of events designed to appeal to a diverse audience – all highlighting the work of the Shark Trust and the wonderful world of sharks.

The Shark Trust Oceanic 31 exhibition was on show at RAMP at Ocean Studios for the entire month. With half of the exhibits on display in the café area, and the other half upstairs, it was free to view and saw hundreds of people attending.

RAMP at Ocean Studios also dedicated their summer family crafting activities around sharks and rays. Each Saturday a free workshop was held where recycled tetrapak was used to create beautiful prints. In September these prints will be combined to produce a huge community print to top off a wonderful summer series of sharks and rays. 

Halfway through the month, RAMP at Ocean Studios hosted a talk from Paul, our CEO, and Shark Trust Patron and Oceanic 31 artist, Marc Dando. If focused on how art and science can come together to in shark conservation. The evening also saw the announcement of an exciting new partnership with the team behind Ocean Studios, Real Ideas. 

 

Local brewery, Steel Brew, created a Hazy IPA especially for Shark Month. We named it Basking in the Haze. Proceeds from the beer, and associated merchandise, are still raising money for us. They also offered up their venue for free for us to host a Shark Trust pub quiz, which saw every seat in the house scooped up for teams to put their wits against our quiz master, Pat. He put their shark, music and general knowledge skills to the test. Shark-related prizes, along with goodies from Steel Brew, went out to those that were placed in the quiz, along with those with the best team name and fancy dress.

 

Royal William Yard, along with providing incredible support for the while month of events, also allowed us to have a stand at their monthly market event, where the team talked to people about shark conservation and citizen science, while volunteers did crafting activities with kids, including a Great Eggcase Hunt around Royal William Yard. Giving us a valuable opportunity to engage with the local community.

 

A wine tasting event, called Great Whites, at Le Vignoble was so popular we had to put on an additional event to cope with demand. Wines from regions around the world where Great White Sharks are found were tried out, whilst we discussed sharks of all shapes and sizes from those same regions.

The Everyman cinema did a special viewing of Jaws with a Q&A with the Shark Trust team afterwards. Questions were taken for over an hour, as we talked about the 1975 film, its impact on shark conservation, the current work of the Shark Trust and how those in the audience could help in the future.

A sunny Friday evening saw one of the final events take place on the water. We teamed up with South West SUP to offer a paddleboarding session where you could ask the team questions about sharks and rays whilst paddleboarding in the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. A live music “Yard Session” topped off a lovely afternoon in the sun.

 

The Shark Trust are in awe at the incredible support we were shown by Royal William Yard and all the businesses that took part in Shark Month. It brought our work to the attention of a new audience. It saw those in Plymouth that love sharks and rays, come together for a variety of events. And saw people who might never have discovered the Shark Trust learn more about what we do and how they can help.

Watch out for news on Shark Month 2025!