Alexander "Sharkman" Buttigieg

Alex 'The Sharkman' Buttigieg (Shark Advocate) is a Professional Scuba Diving Instructor with a great passion for sharks and marine conservation that started in the early 70's. Since then he has been collecting as much data as possible about sharks. Having started scuba diving at a very young age, it is no surprise that he would make it his profession. In 1997 he set up his web site "Sharkman's World" dedicated to the education, conservation and protection of Sharks, and also initialized and spearheaded the campaign for the white shark protection in Malta, a campaign that lasted for two years until September 1999, when the Maltese Government published the Laws that gave protection to the Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and also the Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus). 'The Sharkman' has dived with and studied sharks in the Fiji, the Red Sea, South Africa and in Malta. He has also taken an active part in many international campaigns for shark protection. In 2001 "Sharkman's World" won the Best Personal Website Award in the Malta Web Awards and in 2003 founded Sharkman's World Organization. In 2007 Alex founded The Shark Group, an Internet based forum and also in the same year, Sharkman's World Organization became a member of the international Shark Alliance. In 2008, he was also the co-founder of the Let Sharks Live network, and initiated the International "Year Of The Shark - 2009" campaign. Alex Buttigieg is also a regional investigator for the Mediterranean Sea and collaborates with the Global Shark Attack File (Shark Research Institute, USA). He also collaborates with: Shark Research Committee (USA), The International Shark Attack File (USA), Australian Shark Attack File, and The Fishbase database. Alex 'The Sharkman' Buttigieg has written various articles and contributed data and information for T.V. documentaries, scientific publications and books. He also writes poetry and some of his works have also been published internationally.