Hearts4Sharks

Keri Algar

Inspired and motivated: Aimee Jan and Jana McGeachy

It’s not every day a bunch of surfers get together in the spirit of saving sharks. But local lasses Aimee Jan and Jana McGeachy opted to leave Rasta to fend for dolphins and whales while they gather support for our friendly foe.

After watching the Rob Stewart’s film Sharkwater, seeing the horrors of shark finning and the resulted decimation of shark numbers, the pair decided to look for a solution.

The two surfers started Hearts4Sharks a lot under Aimee’s inspiration and passion for ocean creatures.

Hearts4Sharks held its first awareness campaign in March at Kartel coffee shop in Cabarita.

“We knew we had to do something to raise awareness. We really just wanted to have a night where all our close friends could come and learn the truth about sharks,” says Jana.

Sean and co.

The event received a lot of support from the local community with generous donations from Sean Scott (beaut canvas), Logan Hurford (slack-line lesson), Miriam Ter-Borg (massage) and Tracey Malone (equine session).

The crew packed into the coffee shop to watch Sharkwater, while munching on homemade shark shaped cookies. It was a huge success and thanks to the support and encouragement from surfers, artists and friends, Hearts4Sharks was able to offer a substantial cheque to Australian Marine Society.

And from little things big things grow.

Support for Aimee and Jana’s campaign has blossomed with close to 300 facebook friends already and more events in the pipeline. And it’s no wonder. The best friends’ passion for saving sharks is quite contagious, and their enthusiasm is infectious.

The crew at Kartel, 11 March

“Sharks are beautiful creatures and really misunderstood,” says a sincere, but smiling Jana.

“From here we’re looking at running interactive educational programmes in schools in Australia and Asia,” she adds.

Recent data indicates that up to 73 million sharks are killed each year to satisfy the shark fin market…for soup. As sharks have a critical position in the oceans as a top predator, their slaughter is putting the ocean’s ecological balance in a precarious situation.

So the next time around sunset you start to get that feeling, keep it real by remembering this: the chance of being killed by a shark is one in 300 million. The chance of being killed by airplane parts falling from the sky is one in 10 million.

The beautiful girls - getting on board to help save sharks.

In the mean time you can get on board by staying tuned to up and coming Hearts4Sharks events – check them out on facebook.

Check out the Sharkwater trailor: