From Jaws to finfluencers: Why yacht owners are diving in to save the world’s sharks

Fifty years after Jaws, sharks still battle bad publicity – but a new generation of yacht owners is stepping in to protect them. From the Bahamas to the Galápagos, BOAT explores how private vessels are being used to tag, track and save sharks – and why the superyacht community could help turn the tide...

“There are kids who love dinosaurs, and there are kids who love sharks. I have just always loved sharks,” says Chris Bouton, owner of the 28.5-metre Viking motor yacht Indigo.

While he ultimately chose a PhD in neuroscience over marine biology, Bouton reignited his passion for the sea’s apex predators after selling his first company, Entagen. Today he sits on the board of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. In his spare time, you may find him swimming with tiger sharks and great hammerheads in the Bahamas or tagging great whites in Cape Cod.

“We do quite a lot of work to help conserve the great whites up in New England, spread the word on the fact that it’s their home, it’s where they’re supposed to be,” Bouton says.

Fostering awareness

The world got the exact opposite message from the most famous and fictional of great whites. It’s been exactly 50 years since Jaws, filmed on Martha’s Vineyard, was released but the film’s effect on the human psyche hasn’t diminished.

“Everybody’s perception is a shark is something that wants to eat you as soon as it sees you,” says Bouton. “And it’s just not true. When you swim with these animals, what you realise is that they’re cautious, intelligent and extraordinarily perceptive. You can swim with a 16-foot great hammerhead or 14-foot tiger shark and literally redirect them with one hand. Sometimes they actually want you to pet them.

“Sharks have this sort of primal place in our imaginations, but when you spend time with them, you see they’re beautiful, they’re majestic and, perhaps most importantly, we need them.”

Endurance swimmer and oceans advocate Lewis Pugh swam 96 kilometres around Martha’s Vineyard in May for Jaws’ golden anniversary to show that you can go into the water, while bringing attention to the crucial role sharks play in keeping the ecosystem in balance.

“Sharks are the ultimate hallmark of a healthy marine ecosystem,” Bouton says. “If you don’t see sharks, you know that the whole pyramid that is that marine ecosystem is not in a good state; that’s in part because sharks are a key mechanism for reducing disease in populations below them. If the sharks aren’t eating the fish that are diseased, that disease then passes through the whole fish population, and you have this rain-down effect on a marine ecosystem.”

Sharks survived when dinosaurs did not; they’ve been around longer than trees have been on Earth, yet humans seem to be doing their darndest to wipe them out. The charity Shark Guardian estimates fishers kill 100 million sharks each year. That’s 10 to 20 million for every human fatality due to mistaken identity. A study published in 2021 found that shark populations worldwide have declined by 71 per cent over the previous 50 years, mainly due to overfishing.

“As soon as you go outside coastal waters, you have these massive industrial fishing boats that just kill everything in their path. The oceans are not unlimited; they have a breaking point, and after that breaking point we lose these species,” Bouton says.

The Bahamas was the first country in the Atlantic to declare its waters a shark sanctuary in 2011. This is apparent to even the casual snorkeller in the Exumas, a favourite yachting destination. Put on a mask and you’d be hard-pressed not to see nurse, lemon or reef sharks.

Bouton hosted an expedition in the Bahamas last January on Indigo with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the Shark Explorers, a group raising awareness by showing people a positive experience with sharks; they also work with scientists from Bimini Shark Lab, a research station where Bouton volunteered tracking lemon sharks as a teen.

“I really believe that in the superyacht community, we have a responsibility to the marine ecosystems that we’re riding around on. We have a really valuable place to work from to help promote marine ecosystem awareness and make sure that these beautiful places that we go to on these boats are available for generations to come in their current state,” Bouton says.

The next generation

For the owner of 49-metre Asteria, it was the Pacific that inspired a love for sharks among his young sons during the four years the explorer yacht cruised there. “They basically grew up on this boat,” the owner says. “And they grew up in the water with sharks because the first time we dove was in Fakarava (in the Tuamotus), which is very famous for its wall of sharks.”

Speaking passionately and knowledgeably, the eldest, at 11 years old, explains how the conditions are optimal there for sharks to breathe in the current, and that under a June full moon, a grouper spawning event attracts hundreds. In Cocos Island, another shark mecca, the family chartered a submarine that took them 110 metres deep through tiger and hammerhead sharks.

“Because [my brother and I] have been passing holidays and summers diving in these incredible regions, especially in Fakarava, from a very young age we developed a passion for sharks and marine biodiversity,” says the son.

The family has established a foundation to give back to the communities they visit. “We wanted to give some content and meaning to our trips. We could use the boat and the various trips to do things to help, generally speaking, the planet. And the idea is that my kids will take care of it and run it,” the owner says – something his sons are on board with.

“Being able to grow up on the boat, I really have always wanted to protect the environment and to try to have an impact, even if it’s small, but to really try to do something, because it’s very special to me,” the son says.

Tracking pelagics

Passing on your values to the next generation is one of the many benefits of philanthropy, says Adam Alpert, owner of Seahawk. And what better way to do it than participating in scientific expeditions yourself. He and his wife, Gisela, have personally photographed pelagic manta rays in Mexico in an attempt to use unique specimen markings to track migration patterns, and “swam like hell” to clip trackers onto whale sharks in the Galápagos, among their many other philanthropic endeavours.

“We’ve become better divers as a consequence,” Alpert says.

Since buying the 60-metre Perini Navi ketch in 2019, the Alperts have travelled much of the world, but not as tourists on a floating hotel. They decided from the outset that improving the lives of those they encounter along the way would be part of the yacht’s mission statement. They don’t just write cheques, they are actively involved in community and research projects.

Much of the research work centres around gaining a better understanding of the marine environment. In addition to whale sharks, Seahawk has been involved with tracking other pelagic species such as tiger sharks and grey sharks to help scientists pinpoint crucial habitats and critical migration corridors. Work done on board led to the design of Ecuador’s Hermandad Marine Reserve and helped with the creation of the record-setting, recently announced French Polynesian Marine Protected Area (MPA).

The yacht has also hosted Indonesian scientists in Raja Ampat who studied the epaulette shark – also known as the walking shark for its unique ability to walk on land – in order to implement a conservation strategy to ensure the species’ survival.

In addition to making the world a better place, there’s a lot in it for Seahawk’s owners, guests and crew, too. For one, they get to participate, “not just as the benefactor, but also as a part of the team”, says Alpert. “We can help. I wouldn’t say my wife and I are the most skilled scientists and researchers, far from it, but we’re both dive masters, and have learned along the way. And you come away probably a little better personally, a little more clever about understanding how the world works.”

It also opens doors. “The beauty of being part of the science programme is it’s green lights everywhere, you have access to everything. Many prohibited, highly regulated areas suddenly become accessible,” says Alpert, who’s hosted the minister of Galápagos, Johan Sotomayor, and French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson on board.

Choosing a project to support can be harder than you might think, he says. “We get a lot of help from charities like MigraMar and YachtAid Global. We advise them what our itinerary looks like, and they come back to us more or less in an opportunistic way, proposing ideas. I like to look at the publications and see where the research is being accepted to judge merit. In some cases, we actually interview the individual scientists and have them explain exactly what they’re doing and why.”

How you can help

The work Seahawk has done tracking sharks can make a big difference in their conservation. With the 30x30 project goal looming , 30 per cent of the world protected by 2030, governments are actively looking to create MPAs that make the most sense and protect critical habitats – where species go to feed, reproduce and where their most reproductively valuable population is – rather than use the land model of bigger is better, explains Jimmy White, EYOS’s manager of technical, science and conservation projects. “In the marine environment, bigger means that you have to police it and you just can’t.”

There are several organisations that can assist owners with finding a project. Yachts for Science, an initiative founded by BOAT International with EYOS, Nekton and the Ocean Family Foundation, connects scientists with private vessels. In the coming months, they have two shark projects in need of yachts in the Mediterranean – where more than half the species of sharks and rays are threatened.

In Palma, a sharks and rays project led by Shark Med aims to gain a better understanding of the animals’ current situation in order to implement conservation measures. And in Menorca and the northwestern Med, the COTI project is tagging pelagic sharks to discover the areas where they most need protection from fisheries activities so they don’t become bycatch.

EYOS has other projects in the Pacific. For example, two scientists at the Biopixel Oceans Foundation have identified an aggregation of tiger sharks moving between New Caledonia and Norfolk Island in Australia. “We have no understanding of how they’re using the southern Coral Sea, because we get very few vessels going between New Caledonia and the Australian coastline,” says White, whose postdoctoral work focused on shark conservation. The same team also identified a new aggregation of whale sharks in the western Pacific and are looking to satellite tag them to learn where they go.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. “Every day, (EYOS co-founder) Rob and I get emails either from governments or research teams, and so the need is quite huge; there’s always something happening that hasn’t been publicised yet,” says White. “If you spin the globe and put your finger down, there will be somebody who is dying to get there with a burning question; they just need to get wet, get the instruments in the water and see their animals.”

It doesn’t require much equipment or real estate on the yacht’s part. “It’s actually relatively easy to repurpose a boat like ours for this kind of work,” Alpert says. “You don’t have to have a big expedition vessel or be a Jacques Cousteau kind of operation to do a lot of good things.”

“In many cases, all we need is two bunks, and maybe a scuba tank and a pair of fins and a mask,” adds White.

He is hopeful for a future of growing synergy between scientists and yachts; he’s seen it firsthand with EYOS’s expedition clients, who are running most of the planet’s maritime research capability these days.

“The timing is really incredible, because now we’re seeing sovereign governments wanting external help and driving that conversation, the research teams are in place and we have this amazing fleet of vessels, from beautiful cruising yachts right up to expedition and polar class vessels that are wanting to go and not just see a beautiful place, but to also contribute while they’re there.”

First published in the September 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.