Host of Deadly 60 Steve Backshall brings 'Ocean' live show to Kingston on today (12 November), as he urges residents to support local shark charity with its new education pack. 

Off the back of Backshall's highly successful Deadly 60 animals series on CBBC (first airing in 2009), the 'Ocean' live show engages children and young people who have grown up with him.  

In an Instagram video, Backshall said: "I am incredibly proud to be patron of Bite Back and Marine conservation. And for the first time we're bringing all the lessons we've learned about sharks to the national curriculum."

He encouraged Key Stage Three (KS3) to be part of the conversation "about this animal which has been around longer than tree, 440 million years but may not be around much longer if it's down to us and our actions...We need saviours to save our sharks."

Touring from Cornwall to Scotland, Lancashire to Yorkshire, the show is now performing at Kingston's Rose Theatre.  

Backshall is hosting two sold-out back-to-back performances, bringing the oceans to life with footage from his shows, live experiments and more.  

One of the highlights of the show is anatomically correct life-size replicas of four of the biggest creatures of the sea.  

Steve Backshall and Graham Buckingham. (Photo: Bite Back)

Supporting the 'Ocean' show, Kingston's Graham Buckingham, conservationist and Bite Back lead director said: "The energy and enthusiasm [of the young audience] fills me with hope that this new generation is absolutely engaged and fire up on protection and conservation too." 

For eight years Backshall has been patron and friend of Bite Back, a Kingston-based charity against the overfishing and consumption of sharks. 

Launched in 2004, local resident Buckingham first fell in love with sharks after going diving. 

Buckingham said: "I feel enormously privileged to dive and spend time under water. the things I saw was just incredible. the wealth and depth and diversity of the marine life, utterly captured my imagination." 

 As a new diver, Buckingham noticed a terrifying trend. Despite diving around the world, underwater shark encounters were incredibly rare. He realised he was more likely to see sharks in a bowl of soup than in the water.  

"Sharks have survived five mass extinctions. They are 450 million years old, older than trees," Buckingham said. "These creatures have survived every sling and arrow that has been fired at them from the natural world, and now we're in the position one in four shark species is threatened with extinction." 

Wanting to do something about the fading marine beauty, Buckingham said: "As an 'opinionated scuba diver', I challenged a few restaurants on why they were selling shark fin soup or shark fin products."  

He spoke of how by using conversation and educational materials, he managed to change the restaurants mind. This got him thinking how he could do this on a bigger scale. 

Buckingham concentrated on eliminating retail opportunities. The first major victory was stopping Asda from selling 100,000 portions of shark every year. Then came persuading Holland & Barrett to stop selling shark cartilage capsules in 580 stores. He said he even got Mary Berry to reprint a cook book which had a shark fin recipe. 

Every year, 73 million sharks are killed, many just for their fins. (Photo: Jennifer Hayes)

Not his first time on stage at the Rose, Buckingham has given TEDx Kingston Talks on defending JAWS and 'The Terrifying Truth about Sharks'.

"But the biggest jewel in our crown," Buckingham said, "is after an eight-year campaign, which Bite Back spear-headed, Britain was the first country in Europe to ban the import and export of shark fins." 

Previously, the personal import allowance enabled someone to walk through customs with 20kg of shark fins in their suitcase. This has an alleged black-market value of around £3.5k. 

Until the campaign, the UK was exporting 20 tonnes of shark fins to the Far East every year. 

You read that right: export. The UK has 20 species of shark residents, including the closest cousin to the most hunted shark in the world, the blue shark. 

Every year, 73 million sharks are killed, many just for their fins.

However, thanks to the work of Bite Back Charity, Backshall and MP Christina Rees, never again will another shark fin be imported into the UK or exported.  

MP Christina Rees signed document thanking Graham Buckingham. (Photo: Bite Back)

On 29 June 2023, King Charles III signed into law a ban on the import and export of shark fins – exciting news that puts the UK at the forefront of global shark conservation and represents an important blow to the shark-fin trade.

"From an opinionated scuba driver to someone who encouraged prince Charles to sign a document," Buckingham added with glee. 

Now, Bite Back has launched a free school educational pack, Shout Out for Sharks, with Backshall and a list of other wildlife experts. It will be promoted directly to 9,000 primary schools nationwide. 

Backshall said: "This engaging and creative new education pack directly challenges the tired and stereotyped portrayal of sharks. With the fate of the marine world in our hands, we hope it will help create a new generation of students who have a clear understanding of the importance of sharks to life in the oceans as well as life on earth.

"I whole-heartedly encourage teachers to download the pack and use the materials to help inspire a positive future for sharks." 

Shout Out for Sharks cover. (Photo: Bite Back)

The 56 page education pack covers topics including an introduction to different shark species, the issues facing shark populations and the portrayal of sharks in the media and films. 

Buckingham said: "Far too long the narrative has been single-track that sharks are scary. This immediately puts [conservation] on the back foot. If you start at that point, it is very difficult to protect something you're afraid of." 

But why do sharks matter? Buckingham explains it is all to do with the ecosystem. He said: "The marine environment is as fragile as a spider's web. One small knock and everything can untangle." 

As oceans produce half of all the oxygen on the planet, they are essential to the greater ecosystem and sustainability of life on the planet. Sharks are apex predators, top of the food chain and responsible for keeping all the population levels in check. 

If sharks go extinct, well, Buckingham speculates it will not be pretty. "The way the oceans operate will change forever- worst case scenario the ocean won't produce the oxygen we rely on," he said. "Oceans are the lungs of the planet." 

You can download the Shout Out for Sharks education pack now.