Protecting sharks from overfishing is one of Project AWARE’s main objectives, and one of the best ways to achieve this is for key shark species to be listed under CITES.

Last weekend I delivered the AWARE Shark Conservation Diver course to a group of divers from Dive Centre Manly. For our dives we headed to Magic Point in south Sydney, a recognised grey nurse shark aggregation.

Magic Point is an awesome dive. We settled on the gravel bottom in 16 metres a short distance from the sharks - then we simply stayed still and waited. From the beginning we could see the sharks circling, but as they became accustomed to us they swam ever closer. Patience is amply rewarded here - sit still and the sharks come to look at you!

I recently came back from the Heron Island Dive Festival where I spoke with divers from around Australia about marine debris and sharks in peril, the two major ocean protection issues being tackled by Project AWARE divers all around the world.

Last week I attended a meeting of partners to the Protect Our Coral Sea group campaigning for a large, no-take marine park in the Coral Sea. If successful this campaign will create the world's largest marine park over an area so remote from human impacts it is one of the few remaining marine environments that is still virtually pristine.