Troubled Waters

Around the world, sharks are in big trouble, with over 90% of the world’s sharks are being wiped out through fishing, cruel shark finning and particular shark mitigation strategies, like nets and drumlines. As a result of these, between 70 and 100 million sharks die a year.

Places where sharks have been wiped out have been drastically impacted by the loss, with effects ranging from the collapse of fisheries, coral reef growth being stunted, to oxygen depleted dead zones.

As important apex predators, sharks have shaped marine life in the oceans since the dawn of time and are essential to the health of our oceans, and ultimately to the survival of humankind.

Eternal Skateboards have teamed up with Sea Shepherd to release a series of graphics to help defend sharks. A percentage of every sale will go towards protecting sharks worldwide and support more effective mitigation strategies thanks to Sea Shepherd’s dedication to the cause.

These graphics have two facets, one viewed in the light and one only in the dark.

The light portrays the sharks the way that nature intended, hunting and bringing balance to the oceans. The dark reveals a foretelling of an unfavourable future for sharks and the health of the planet if we don’t protect them.

We also wanted to put each shark in their natural habitat, see below how we fleshed out the background.

Tiger Sharks are a saltwater species and often swim near the coasts in relatively shallow waters, inhabiting seagrass, but also near atolls and even estuaries.

The tiger shark diet is made up of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, sea turtles, seabirds and even mammals such as the dugong.

Featured Elements
Hunting fish
Amongst seaweed

Hammerhead Sharks most common habitats are shallow waters reefs and occasionally they visit brackish waters.

Hammerhead sharks are carnivorous and feed on a variety of prey. Their diet includes bony fish, squid, octopus, crustaceans and their favorite food: rays.

Featured Elements
Hunting stingray
Amongst reef

Great White Sharks habitats include coasts, continental and insular platforms whose waters do not surpass 1,875 meters of depth. In the open ocean, it inhabits to depths of up to 1,200 meters.

Great white shark species is, of course, carnivorous. However, it does not usually feed on large species, but on smaller animals such as squids, rays, and other fish.  They have a clear preference for fat-rich prey.

Featured Elements
Hunting squid
Amongst kelp

Initially, we wanted to do something portraying sharks kicking humans butts in some way (i.e. ripping apart a drum line) but we figured it portrays sharks in an aggressive way and may feed into the notion that they are aggressive man-eaters. Although, sharks can be dangerous, the more familiar you are with the species, the less afraid you get and you start to feel a certain ‘reverence’ towards them.

We decided to do something that unifies us as earth dwellers. With this series we wanted to achieve two goals. The first is to be a reminder that, though sharks are predators, they aren’t aggressive man eaters. The second is to raise awareness that they are in danger and its within our best interest to save them.