One year of “Why Sharks Matter:” What’s different in shark science and conservation now?

One year ago today, my book “Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World’s Most Misunderstood Predator” was released. Science moves (relatively) rapidly and changes often, with new discoveries every day, and the conservation landscape is similar. This means that it is impossible for anything written about these topics at a discrete moment in time to remain accurate forever.

So, in the interest of accountability, in the interest of continuing to make my book useful for public education about shark science and conservation even as the science and policy landscape changes, and in the interest of keeping notes for myself for any future updated versions of the book, I have been keeping track of things that I wrote at the time that are no longer true, or weren’t quite right at the time. (Please note that some of these facts and figures were already out of date at the time the book was pubished, but that was well after the final text was turned in).

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An homage to greatness.

There are many faiths in the world, but the one truest and purest is David Shiffman’s faith in me. Yes, that is a shrine to the Southern Fried Scientist that David is kneeling before. The offering appears to be of the magnetic marine creature variety. I too am filled with faith, faith that our own David Shiffman is still in the lead. And faith in our readers to keep voting for him so that it will stay that way.

The shrine of the ancient mariner?

The shrine of the ancient mariner?

Confused? David is currently competing for a $10,000 blogging scholarship being decided by public vote. For every day David remains in the lead, I’m posting an embarrassing picture from his past.

Blogging Scholarship – what’s in it for our readers

You love us, I know. You want to David Shiffman win a $10,000 scholarship to help fund his education. But clicking a link, then clicking a radio button, then clicking another link is a commitment. It requires work. You deserve to be rewarded for you efforts and I’m happy to oblige.

You see, I’ve know David for a long time. We were college roommates, a ground-breaking (pun intended) rock climbing team, dive buddies; we’ve co-authored papers together, coordinated local, national, and international marine education campaigns, and co-blogged (along with the incomparable Amy Freitag) at Southern Fried Science for what will soon be our 3rd year; I’ve spent hours training him to correctly use a well-placed semi-colon for comedic effect. Which is a long way of saying I have many, many embarrassing pictures of David Shiffman that I’m almost certain should never see the light of day.

So here’s the deal. David is currently in the lead. We want it to stay that way. We want you to want it to stay that way. For every day that David is in first place, I will free a picture from the archives, in increasing increments of hilarity. If he wins… well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Today, this guy has 7461 votes towards a scholarship:

Freshman year David wore this Star Trek costume more than is healthy. Seriously, I've got like 40 pictures of him dressed like this, and they're all from different events. The real question though: If he's such a Star Trek fan, why is he a red shirt?

Freshman year David wore this Star Trek costume more than is healthy. Seriously, I've got like 40 pictures of him dressed like this, and they're all from different events. The real question though: If he's such a Star Trek fan, why is he a red shirt?

UPDATED WITH NEW VOTING LINK

David Shiffman’s Greatest Hits

If you’re coming over from CollegeScholarships.org to check out some of David Shiffman’s work before voting for the 2011 Blogging Scholarship, welcome! Here are a selection of some of David’s influential, informative, and award-winning posts.

If you’ve never been to Southern Fried Science before and want to get an idea of who this Shiffman bloke is and what he’s about (hint: it has something to do with sharks), check out his two bench-mark posts:

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Securing the Conservation of Sharks and Rays

At the 2nd International Marine Conservation Congress, Dr. Nick Dulvy and the IUCN Shark Specialist Group organized a special symposium called “Securing the Conservation of Sharks and Rays”. This symposium featured leading scientists, international policy experts, the founder of a creative non-profit, a National Geographic conservation photographer… and me. It was, without a doubt, the greatest professional honor of my (admittedly brief so far) career.

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