Flying Sharks

07/06/2026

Congratulations to Francesco Saverio Marzano and the team working on this absolutely massive coral reef restoration project in North Bali!

Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, but also some of the most threatened. Between warming oceans, destructive fishing practices, coral extraction, and climate change, many reefs are hanging on by a thread. Which is precisely why projects like this matter so much.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local fishing communities in North Bali deployed artificial reef structures across more than 100 kilometers of coastline as part of a 7 million dollar Coral Restoration Programme supported by the Indonesian government. That sentence alone already sounded epic enough for us!

Now, researchers from the University of Sussex and the Creative Action Tank (CAT), together with local dive and fisher communities, are heading back to these restoration sites for the first large-scale post-deployment assessment. Their mission? To determine whether these artificial reefs are actually working and helping coral and fish communities recover.

The project will combine high-resolution imagery, 3D reef modeling, underwater cameras, ecoacoustics, fish diversity surveys, and community-based monitoring techniques to compare restored reefs with nearby natural systems. In simpler terms: lots of science, lots of diving, and hopefully lots of happy fish.

What we especially loved about this proposal was the strong focus on local community involvement. Training local dive and fisher groups to monitor reef recovery creates long-term conservation capacity that remains in place long after the researchers leave. That’s exactly the kind of impact we enjoy supporting.

Needless to say, we couldn’t possibly say no to this beautiful combination of coral reefs, community conservation, underwater technology, and good old-fashioned marine biology enthusiasm, so we happily transferred 250 euros to help support the project.

Best of luck to everyone involved and please send photos… preferably with colorful corals and giant fish schools!

07/06/2026

This is a very specific tragedy — and an extremely common one — for anyone doing serious field work. There’s also a slightly cruel irony to it: the more extraordinary the moment, the less available one is to actually document it.

The people truly involved in the action rarely have free hands — literally and mentally — to think about framing, lighting, or even pulling a phone out of their pocket without immediately regretting it five seconds later.

And then there’s the invisible factor for those watching from the outside: the environment itself. Saltwater, wind, humidity, sand, gloves, cold, rush, stressed animals, expensive equipment scattered everywhere, endless logistics and attention split across a thousand critical details where, if a single one fails, the entire operation can go spectacularly sideways.

On a boat, especially, every extra movement feels like an unnecessary risk and that’s probably why so many of the greatest scientific and exploration stories end up surviving only in the memories of the people who were actually there.

The frustrating part is that, from the outside looking in, these situations would have enormous documentary value precisely because they are real and irrepeatable. This isn’t “content”. It’s genuine field history. Meanwhile, there are thousands of influencers out there inventing adventures and staging spectacular posts while we somehow keep accumulating very real adventures without anyone stopping to document them — because, in the moment, we’re all too busy solving problems.

Ironically, when photos do exist, they’re often technically awful: blurry, crooked, covered in salt spray, with terrible lighting and water droplets all over the lens. Yet those are often the most valuable images of all, because they’re the only proof that those moments actually happened.

The idea of bringing a dedicated photographer makes perfect sense. Not just for the aesthetic side of things, but because it completely changes the dynamic: someone whose only mission is to observe while everyone else executes. And very often those images end up having impact far beyond simple project communication — they help with funding, outreach, institutional credibility and even the team’s own personal memory of these insane adventures.

Of course, then comes the tricky part: finding the right person, paying them properly and, with a thousand other worries on our minds, we inevitably end up saying “next time”.

Meanwhile… twenty years of adventures have already gone by.

Without a photographer.

Anyway.

Maybe next time we’ll finally get our act together and make this happen.

06/06/2026

Congratulations Graham Patterson, an M.Sc. student in the Erasmus IMBRSea program, who’s currently specializing in marine conservation and cetacean research.

Graham is about to begin his professional practice in Sagres, Portugal, where he’ll be working on the photo-identification of cetaceans, but he also came to us with an even cooler idea… using drones to collect whale and dolphin blow samples for DNA analysis!

Yep. Science fiction stuff.

This methodology has already shown promising results in projects such as the eWhale program, allowing researchers to track biomarkers and gather valuable genetic information from individual animals without invasive techniques. Combined with more than a decade of photo-identification data, this could become a very powerful conservation tool for understanding cetacean populations.

Needless to say that, once we read the words “drones”, “DNA”, and “cetaceans”, there wasn’t much left to discuss, so we happily transferred Graham 300 euros to help support this project and get those flying whale snot collectors into action!

Go, Graham!

And remember: if the whales start demanding privacy rights after the DNA tests… we were never involved.

:p

06/06/2026

Two weeks ago, Flying Sharks wrapped up our fourth ultra-demanding field expedition to Saudi Arabia. It took months of negotiations, countless headaches, sleepless nights, and a healthy dose of anxiety before we finally secured the biggest contract in Flying Sharks history.

But signing the contract was merely the first step. What followed was the small matter of collecting over 10.000 marine creatures in an environment wildly different from anything we’re used to. The main difference? Whenever we attempt to corner the critters, they simply evaporate into the highest concentration of coral any of us has ever witnessed.

A trip to Kenya helped us refine a few new techniques, but it was the traditional “learning curve” that sharpened our skills and allowed us to improve our numbers with each expedition.

October 2025, January, February and May 2026 were the 4 moments when we flew into Tabuk with stomachs in knots and absolutely no clear idea of what we were truly getting ourselves into.

Still, in true Flying Sharks fashion, fear slowly gave way to talent.
This video captures the absolute peak of that “gift”, perfected over decades by Nuno (right), Pedro (centre) and Rui (left), who pulled out 1, 2, 3 beautiful Monodactylus in such flawless succession that it took me about 20 takes to finally capture this unique moment on film.

Our final expedition was an explosion of competence that genuinely left me emotional when I departed this troop one week before the end of the operation, because the Nordic Aquarium Conference was already waiting for me in Sweden.

Here’s a massive shout-out to Nuno Rodrigues and Rui Guedes, my inseparable partners since the very first moment of this madness. Another to Miguel Antunes, who compensates for his inexplicable alcohol abstinence — something deeply difficult to understand in this profession — with an almost supernatural ability to get fish into the net.

Another huge thank you to Zé Pedro and Inês Gaspar, who made sure the logistics never skipped a beat. And one big fat hug to Diogo Costa and Pedro Reis, who joined us from cold Iceland and remote Corvo Island, respectively.

To all of you: thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
And of course, to our clients — and friends — Aaron, Andrew, Alberto, Faisal and Aldrin, the true “A-Team” we had the privilege of dazzling throughout these absolutely insane months.

Now… maybe it’s finally time to sleep for a week.

…or maybe not.

He! He! He!

Click in the link in the comments 👇👇👇 for a nice photo and video gallery.

02/06/2026

What a pleasure it was to attend this year’s Nordic Aquarium Conference in Göteborg, Sweden, hosted at the splendid Maritime Museum and Aquarium, Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet.

Many thanks to our good friends David and Jens for the warm welcome and flawless organization. It was also fantastic to reconnect with so many colleagues, partners, suppliers and fellow fishy aficionados from the Nordic regions.

During the conference we had the opportunity to share some of Flying Sharks’ latest adventures, namely our recent operations in Chile and Saudi Arabia, both of which concluded in truly spectacular fashion — exactly the kind of madness we seem unable to avoid these days!

Naturally, a few exciting future projects also found their way into the conversations, including the fascinating Hemari project involving porbeagle sharks in the Faroe Islands. Yes, ‘porbeagle’, Lamna nasus, you read that right.

Something tells us this one is going to generate a few cool stories for future newsletters…

We’re already looking forward to returning to this exciting young conference in the years ahead and catching up once again with all the wonderful people who make this industry such a unique and passionate community.

Stay tuned, because this very cool adventure is only just beginning!

23/05/2026

That's a wrap on two weeks of solid Flying Sharks field work in Saudi Arabia, immediately followed by 5 days in Göteborg attending this year's Nordic Aquarium Conference.

Many thanks to David, Jens, and the Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet - Göteborg team, who made us feel welcomed and indeed part of the aquarium's family.

There's something beautiful about the aquarium community, where information flows freely and we all share our 'secrets' in an effort to ensure that the animals under our care receive the best possible treatment and live in the finest conditions available with current technology.

After a whole week of impressive presentations on conservation initiatives taking place around the world, led by dedicated professionals committed to helping the marine environment, one leaves with a warm sense of hope, that maybe humanity can actually turn the tide on current events, as scary as they may be.

Anyway, time to hug the family back home and enjoy a few days of peace before the next adventure begins.

18/05/2026

Not a moment's rest after Flying Sharks arrived from our 4th trip to Saudi Arabia, and it was time to fly to Göteborg and meet our Nordic Aquarium Conference friends at Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet - Göteborg .

Always a treat seeing old friends and making new ones, sharing concepts, knowledge and ideas on how to maintain life support systems and aquatic animals in a safe and adequate environment.

This particular visit comes with the added bonus of seeing some Hippocampus hippocampus captive bred at Universidade do Algarve UAlg that we moved here, and will now be bred here as well, for potential reintroduction to the wild ocean.

12/05/2026

10/05/2026

Congratulations Gemma Scotts, researcher and Communications Director at the Marine Research and Conservation Foundation (MARECO), who received support from our Flying Sharks Research Fund for a very cool shark conservation project around the Isle of Man!

Gemma’s work focuses on using pelagic BRUVs (Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems) to study threatened sharks, particularly the Critically Endangered tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus), in and around Marine Nature Reserves.

Now, for those who aren’t familiar with BRUVs, imagine underwater GoPros baited with delicious fish snacks, quietly sitting there filming sharks doing sharky things without bothering them. Science can be beautiful sometimes!

The project will involve building three pelagic BRUV systems and carrying out dozens of deployments with the help of local recreational anglers, who’ll become citizen scientists for the cause. That means more data, more community involvement, and more people helping protect sharks instead of fearing them. Which sounds like a pretty good deal to us.

The collected footage will help assess whether current Marine Nature Reserves are actually doing their job protecting threatened shark species, while also creating baseline data for long-term conservation management.

Needless to say we couldn’t possibly say no to a project involving sharks, conservation, underwater cameras, and people willing to spend time at sea helping science, so we were delighted to contribute 1.000 euros towards Gemma’s research efforts.

Go, Gemma, and keep on rockin’! 🦈

17/04/2026

Congratulations to Kathryn Ayres, Research Scientist at Beneath The Waves and Pelagios Kakunja, who received 500 euros from our Flying Sharks Research Fund to support her registration for Sharks International 2026.

Kathryn recently wrapped up her Ph.D., where she used drones (the good kind) to monitor enormous blacktip shark aggregations along the shoreline of Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico – sometimes numbering in the thousands. Not a bad office view.

Cabo Pulmo is one of the world’s great marine conservation success stories. After the local community made the bold move from fishing to ecotourism in the 1990s, fish biomass increased by more than 400%, and – surprise, surprise – the big predators came back.

Kathryn’s work has already delivered some jaw-dropping results, including the first documented cases of killer whales preying on sharks inside the park, followed by clear shifts in shark aggregation behaviour. This research has since evolved into Shark Watch (), a long-term monitoring program that trains and empowers local women to run drone-based shark surveys themselves. We love that part.

All data are shared directly with park authorities, helping guide conservation decisions at a time when Cabo Pulmo is facing growing pressure from nearby coastal development.

We were very happy to chip in 500 euros to help Kathryn take this work to the international stage and join the global shark science conversation.

Well done, Kathryn — and keep up the excellent work!