Growing up in the French speaking part of Switzerland on the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) in Blonay and Saint-Légier, two small villages located above Montreux and Vevey, I have always been interested and amazed by the World that surrounds us.

As a child, I had a passion for Astronomy and our universe. A passion I thought would one day transform into a profession. I realised that instead at staring at unreachable worlds in the far corners of our galaxy, or looking at the million year old light originating from galaxies that are equivalent light years away, I preferred to concentrate on the present, the time and place our feet at standing upon. Our world. Our unique and delicate planet Earth.

Our world had become fragile. Our planet is our ecosystem and we are an integral part of this ecosystem. The symbiosis that has allowed us to thrive is on the threshold to collapse. Global warming  is no longer a theory. The increasing rate of extinction of fauna and flora species is an established fact. We are polluting the world, land, air and water, at an increasing rate that will result in our doom. But there are some positive success stories that should have shown the world that together we can change: CFCs and the Ozone layer for example.

I have spent nearly two decades living and breathing Sharks... My passion for these wonderful animals and my profound concern for their conservation and survival are at the very core of my existence. From 1997 to 2007, I studied the population and ecology of the protected and endangered White Shark species. We discovered a link for these Sharks between South Africa and Australia, first using DNA then with Nicole, and we used that new understanding and the inherent fragility of their population to get White Sharks listed on CITES. But disappointments in the lack of collaboration between researchers, a dislike in the present scientific method and especially the lack of funding have forced me to move on. My focus has shifted from Shark research to Shark conservation.

I have now returned to Switzerland to concentrate on my family, and I have become a full time IB Science teacher at the renown Collège Champittet in Pully, while remaining active in Shark conservation through BlueXplorer.com

Michael Scholl