Leon Deschamps – The Shark Ark Project

Author: Leon Deschamps

I was born in Shark bay, Western Australia, in a family of ocean lovers. My mum allowed to buy my first boat when I was six which I used to go fish for our dinner and cruise with the breeding schools of sharks in the crystal clear shallows of the bay. I studied Australian History at UWA and travelled the world becoming a rescue scuba diver and working on nature documentaries. When I returned to Shark bay I started running shark safaris for the many visitors to the region to share my love of sharks. I have been employed as a Shark consultant and naturalist guide by the World Wildlife Federation, The Australian Wilderness Conservatorium, The World Heritage Consultative Committee, The Department of Environment and Conservation and most recently as Emergency Response Team to Seafolly Australia’s multimillion dollar bikini shoot on the shores of Shark Bay with Aussie super model Miranda Kerr. My present project takes me over a ten thousand mile journey from Albany in the South West of WA, to QLD and back to Shark Bay where we will set up our vessel as a permanent shark research vessel to help create breeding sanctuaries within the Shark bay World Heritage Marine Park.

Citizen Science

11 April 2015October 10, 2016Leon DeschampsLeave a comment

Well blow me down and shiver me timbers! ANOTHER salty revolution around the sun has come and gone and we now finally find ourselves at SEA aboard the Shark Ark!! What a year full of revolutions it was!! Thanks for all the birthday well wishes for myself and our upcoming Shark Ark voyage to...

“SHARK MUM” An interview with Natalie Banks

8 July 2014October 10, 2016Leon DeschampsLeave a comment

I had the priviledge of meeting Natalie seven months ago when I became involved in fighting the WA shark cull. We organised the Cottesloe rallys together with help from a squillion fin loving people and have since continued to fight for our precious sharks with an ever growing grass roots community based resistance movement called No...

Interview with conservation hero, Blair Ranford

15 April 2014October 10, 2016Leon DeschampsLeave a comment

Ten Fast Fin based questions from WA’s shark guru Blair Ranford. I first met Blair through our fight against the government sanctioned slaughter of sharks of the coast of WA but you may have seen his work on shows featuring Australian sharks on Discovery Channels “Shark Week”. 1. How old were you, where were you...