Today is the last day to vote for the winner of the 2011 blogging scholarship, which provides $10,000 towards research and education expenses to the winner. The final decision comes down to votes, and I need your help for the last push! Please vote for me (my real name, as it’s entered on the voting page, is David Shiffman). If I win, the money will be used to support my shark conservation research, including adopting a satellite tagged shark in the name of you, the readers of Southern Fried Science! The voting page is here – please vote for me, and please share the voting page with your friends and fellow ocean lovers! Thanks for all of your support throughout this process!

 There are still a few days left to vote for me to win the 2011 blogging scholarship, which provides $10,000 towards research and education expenses to the winner! If I win, some of the money will be used to support shark conservation research at my lab. It will help support our citizen science program, which has brought over 1,000 high school students and teachers out into the field to learn about sharks and participate in an active research program. It will help support my dissertation work, which focuses on the ecological importance of sharks to coral reefs. It will also be used to adopt a satellite tagged shark in the name of you, the readers of Southern Fried Science. You’ll get to name it (through a contest), and I’ll post regular updates about where our shark is and what it’s likely to be encountering.

Remember, you can vote once per day until noon Pacific time on November 30th. For those of you who only know me as WhySharksMatter, my real name (as it’s entered on the voting page) is David Shiffman.

The voting page is here. Please vote for me to win $10,000 for shark conservation, and please share the voting page with your friends, colleagues, and fellow ocean lovers! You can also write a comment on the voting page explaining why you think sharks are important. Thanks for your continued support, everyone!

Another day dawns and David Shiffman remains in first place, though his lead is rapidly shrinking! Go vote for David Shiffman! Go vote for sharks! Go vote for more hilariously embarrassing pictures of the man many would call Shark Whisperer!

…David has regained the first place position, with a small but comfortable lead over second place (who, by the way, also writes a fantastic immunology blog). As an added incentive to keep it that way, here’s a wholly inexplicable picture of David:

I really don't have any idea what's going on here, but the man has his own Waffle House hat. Please note, this picture was not taken in a Waffle House.

Remember to vote here every 24 hours.