World's Top Shark Celebrities to be Auctioned During Shark Week

(Dive Travel Business News - July 31, 2010) -- The world's top shark experts are allowing themselves to be auctioned on eBay during Shark Week 2010 to raise funds for the Shark Research Institute's conservation programs. Up for auction are dinners (or lunches) with the world's foremost shark experts. It is a unique opportunity to "talk shark" face- to-face, one-on-one, with an authority on sharks.
 
Shark experts and celebrities being auctioned include: Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer-in- Residence and unquestionably the most eloquent spokesperson for ocean conservation; Dr. Eugenie Clark, founder & director of Mote Marine Labs; Donald Schultz, host of Animal Planet's Wild Recon, Dr. Leonard Compagno, the world's top shark expert; legendary filmmakers Tom Campbell, Jeff Kurr, Marty Snyderman and Jonathan Bird; underwater photographers Amos Nachoum and Matt Potenski, marine painter and author Richard Ellis, artists David Dunleavy and Rogest; and Sherman Lagoon's Jim Toomey and Shaaark's Phil Watson.
 
Also being auctioned are Jeff Gallant, who studies the elusive Greenland Shark, Chris Fallows who studies and films the aerial acrobatics of huge white sharks off the coast of South Africa; ocean activists Jupp Baron Kerckerinck zur Borg and Sonja Fordham, Ecocean's Brad Norman and Jason Holmberg; Ralph Collier, the expert on shark attacks along the Pacific coast and Richard Fernicola who wrote Twelve Days of Terror, the definitive book on the 1916 shark attacks along the New Jersey shore that was the inspiration for Jaws.
 
These are just a few of the many "shark celebs" that are being auctioned during the week. Every one of them has a wealth of expertise and stories to share with their highest bidder.
 
How it works: Bid on a shark expert or celebrity that lives or works nearby, unless you are willing to drive or fly to their location. The winning bidder pays for the celebrity's meal, and may bring guests. (Exceptions are field researcher Chris Fallows who will be taking his winning bidder out to sea with him to observe white sharks; filmmaker Tom Campbell who will also be taking his bidder on his boat.) Shark Research Institute will introduce each winning bidder to his or her shark celebrity. The two of you then set a mutually convenient date, time and place to get together within 365 days of the close of the auction. 
 
The auction starts Sunday, August 1 on eBay at 10 pm EST and will run throughout Shark Week. The easiest way to enter the auction is through the link on the Shark Research Institute's home page at www.sharks.org.

Shark Research Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The funds received will be used for SRI's conservation programs. Winning bids are deductible as charitable contributions from US Federal 2010 income taxes

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