SharkSchool®, the parent institute, maintains SharkSchool® Teaching (SST) as well as the 'Shark Education & Research Center’ (SERC).
While SST is the non-for-profit organization geared towards teaching, the dissemination of accurate information, as well as responsible for the development of trainers, master, and instructors, SERC is focused on generating reliable research and constant experimentation through its own independent administration. Together, as SharkSchool®, their holistic approach integrates all the characteristics needed for a successful, balanced, and up to date approach. SharkSchool®’s educational programs, which have run for more than 25 years, is second to none, reaching a wide array of students from kindergarten to university. There is no other organization that offers such a variety of programs.
SharkSchool®’s research group focuses on shark-human interaction. A critical aspect of which are incidents and questions like why they occur, what can be done to prevent an event, how can one determines that a situation starts to get out of hand, and many others. To answer these questions, one has to comprehend the behavior of sharks. To understand the latter is why we spend a great deal of time in the water with these awe-inspiring animals. All recommendations given out by SharkSchool® have been tested under various circumstances and with different shark species.
Our past research topics tackled a variety of questions: what happens during eye contact between sharks and humans; do sharks get closer when they are under the assumption that they cannot be seen; do sharks understand human body orientation; or, can sharks be kept at a distance, and if so how would one have to go about it. Should you have any idea what constitutes a good study, we would love to hear it!