If They Die, We Die: Bite-Back’s Blunt Message Appears on UK’s First Shark Conservation Ads
It’s been 50 years since JAWS first terrified audiences around the world, yet it appears that more than half (66%) the UK population still can’t find any compassion for sharks, according to a recent YouGov poll (June 2025).₁
Significantly, in the same five decades since 1975, populations of some shark species have fallen by around 70%, setting off alarm bells that predict the catastrophic consequences for life on Earth without sharks.
In response, Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation, a UK charity, hopes to give the British population a new reason to care about dwindling shark numbers with a stark message – if they die, we die – that features on the country’s first ever outdoor advertising campaign with a shark conservation message.
Campaign director for Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation, Graham Buckingham, said: “All the time the global slaughter of sharks goes unchecked, we’re gradually pulling the pin out of an ecological grenade that will impact the world.”
After decades of overfishing, populations of once-abundant and iconic shark species including oceanic whitetips, hammerheads and sand tigers have fallen so fast, that they’re now each listed, alongside giant pandas and black rhinos, as critically endangered.
In fact, alarmingly, one in four shark species is now listed as threatened or endangered.
Yet, for 450 million years, sharks have shaped the hierarchy and behaviours of the ocean’s inhabitants, ultimately benefiting everyone in the world. Without them those systems will rapidly fall apart, accelerating climate change, wiping out familiar fish stocks, changing weather patterns, causing unseasonal temperatures, bigger and more powerful storms and mass unemployment.₂
In order to emphasise the connection that everyday people have with sharks, the eye-catching advertising campaign highlights 26 occupations and hobbies – one for each letter of the alphabet.
Campaign director for Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “Our ‘Sharks Save …’ campaign directly answers the question ‘why should I care about the survival of sharks’ with a clear message that – regardless of profession or pastime – sharks save us all. If we don’t act now, we’ll be complicit in accelerating an apocalyptic outcome. Saving sharks isn’t just about saving a marine species, it’s about protecting the world’s largest ecosystem that makes our planet liveable.”
According to the charity, upwards of 73 million sharks are being killed every year – equivalent to 200,000 sharks a day – many victims of industrial tuna fishing fleets.
TV presenter, naturalist and patron of Bite-Back, Steve Backshall MBE, said: “This campaign isn’t about making people fall in love with sharks, it’s about making people understand that we need them. The hope is that, once people know and understand how important they are to life on earth, they’ll be more motivated to participate in their survival. Bite-Back has done some amazing things to champion shark conservation and I urge everyone to get behind its campaigns.”
Thanks to a charity award from outdoor advertising media specialists, Ocean Outdoor, the campaign will appear in 10 cities and at more than 50 sites across the country until the end of September.
Graham Buckingham said: “The message is very simple, we need sharks to survive. We want this advertising campaign to be the moment that people start to regard sharks as heroes and not villains.”
Right now the charity is encouraging supporters to help save sharks by boycotting tuna caught by industrial fishing methods that also kill millions of sharks, turtles, dolphins and seabirds every year. Only tuna caught by pole and line avoids the accidental death of these stunning and charismatic species.
Because of Bite-Back’s campaigns, the UK is the only country in Europe to ban the import and export of shark fins. It’s also now impossible to buy shark meat in any UK supermarket because of its work.
Find out more about Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation at www.bite-back.com.
