What sharks are worth and why that matters

Photo by @philWaller

Story By Rhett Ayers Butler

Shark conservation is not a field for the faint of heart. It pits biology against commerce, sentiment against symbolism, and, frequently, science against entrenched bureaucracies. Sharks themselves, apex predators honed over hundreds of millions of years, are now among the most imperiled inhabitants of the world’s oceans. Vilified in pop culture, sliced up for their fins, and managed more like commodities than living creatures, sharks have few allies in high places. One of the more persistent, however, is Stefanie Brendl.

Brendl did not arrive at shark advocacy by way of academia, marine biology, or institutional science. Her background was in scuba diving and ecotourism, and her immersion in shark conservation began not in a laboratory but in the ocean itself.