My Journey to Becoming a Shark Conservationist
In celebration of Shark Awareness Day, Blakemarie Martinez shares her journey to becoming a shark conservationist. Like many of the world’s greatest activists, the cause found her along the way. An animal she once feared is now what she dedicates her life to. Find inspiration in her story and learn how you can also use your unique skillset to support shark and ocean conservation, just like Blakemarie.
I grew up part of the time in Kansas and the other part in Egypt. The prairies and the desert don’t seem to have much in common with the ocean, but what most people don’t realize is that Egypt has some of the best diving in the entire world! When I was eight, I remember going to the Red Sea to snorkel. The flowing soft corals, playful dolphins, and schools of swimming fish instantly captured my heart. I remember looking at the bright blue lips of a clam clutched to the side of a reef for over an hour, watching it close when I wooshed water over it, and then slowly reopening. However, in Egypt there is a dark side to the ocean…
When I was little, there was a terrible problem of sharks attacking humans along the coast. Egypt did not have any professional diving centers at the time, but locals were buying scuba gear online and taking tourists out with no training. They would put rotting fish in Fanny packs and hand-feed sharks to put on a show, not understanding that this would affect shark behavior. They would drive 4-wheelers over the corals at low tide, and there were no fishing regulations.
Egypt has since grown quite a bit, and many certified dive shops are now open and teach employees diving etiquette. But when I was little, I was terrified that a shark would bite me because, well, they were biting everyone where I lived!
Fast forward 10 years, and I became a scuba diver. I fell in love with the underwater world and was passionate about marine mammals, moving to Hawaii a few years later to work on dolphin and whale-watching boats. I became a scuba divemaster in my mid-20s and then a freediving instructor, but I still never really had a passion for sharks.
It wasn’t until I went on a local shark swimming boat here on O’ahu that I fell in love. I was so nervous, and in absolute shock when our divemaster told me to just breathe and relax as she hopped into the water with 15 Galapagos sharks. As I calmed my heart rate and realized how relaxed the sharks were, I became entranced. Their slow and calculated movements made me realize that they weren’t the monsters I had been taught as a child. They speak to us with their body language, and once I learned how to listen, I was hooked.
I ended up having an accident while rescuing a student and burst both of my eardrums in 2020. I was told that I could never freedive competitively again and couldn’t teach anymore. I was devastated, as this was my entire life. But the universe always works in mysterious ways, and that’s how I roundaboutly ended up becoming a shark safety diver and conservationist.
I had all of the professional qualifications to become a shark safety diver, so all that was left to do was an internship. I completed mine with Go Adventure Hawaii and was hired as their shark safety diver. I now get to swim with Galapagos, sandbar, hammerhead, and - my favorite - tiger sharks on the daily!
Yes, swimming with the sharks is fun, but it’s not what drives me to do what I do. I love when I have a guest who comes on board just as nervous as I was for my first shark dive, and then seeing their bright smiles once they resurface. At the end of my tours, I always give a conservation briefing where we talk about some shark facts. Seeing people’s hearts turn from fear to love right before my eyes is why I do what I do.
I explain that we lose over 100 million sharks per year, so during our 2-hour tour about 22,000 sharks are killed for a variety of reasons, such as bycatch from the fishing industry and shark fin soup. I explain that we can help by being conscious of where our fish is coming from, not buying products with squalene unless it is from a vegan source, and reducing our plastic pollution as 67% of sharks that wash up on shores dead have bellies full of plastic. We also talk about nonprofits that we support, like Shark Allies and Project Hiu, and urge them to get involved. I also started a podcast, Save the Mermaids Podcast, with a local mermaid instructor where we bring awareness to the world’s most unique and endangered species so that they don’t become a myth, like the mermaids.
I fell into shark diving. It wasn’t a passion and it wasn’t a dream, but it became one along my journey. I think the most beautiful thing to remember when entering the conservation space is that you don’t have to be a biologist to make a difference. You can use the skills that you already have, such as social media, education, or even just the gift of gab (thank you Blarney Stone) to shine a light on causes that you care about most. People protect what they love, and they love what they understand. With my podcast and my shark diving, I aim to introduce people to an animal that they fear and turn it into respect.
Sharks aren’t puppies; they are apex predators who have survived several mass extinctions. But sometimes we forget that they aren’t surviving us. We’ve lost over 70 percent of global shark and ray populations in the last 50 years. They’re apex predators, but they are vulnerable and they need our help. So get involved: follow Shark Allies and their political work, donate your money or your time, and talk about sharks with your family and friends. Every little moment makes a difference, and it starts with us!
With love and saltwater,
Blakemarie Martinez
@blakeintheblue
@savethemermaidspodcast