Jen, Bryce and reluctant Judy meet the basking shark.

In a rare event last week, a giant basking shark was spotted several miles inland on the Big Island of Hawaii. Upon closer inspection, onlookers found this 23’ specimen to be made of fabric and air and accompanying screenings of our newest film, The Shark Riddle.

We’d like to thank the Waimea Ocean Film Festival and The Save Our Seas Foundation for making it possible for us to share our shark presentation with the people of Hawaii. Through a combination of film, breakfast talks, Q&As, receptions, art exhibits and activities, the festival is designed to inspire, educate and engage participants in a celebration of the ocean and island culture, and an increased awareness of the same. Throughout the week, we shared The Shark Riddle at three public screenings, as well as a school presentation for students at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy. The students were so great to meet – in fact, two kindergarten students (with help from their Principal) presented us with beautiful leis when we arrived. After our program, we loved talking with the students, and we especially loved that there was a ukelele music class practicing while we were packing up our gear. Their Principal later said “We found both Laura and Rob to be highly engaging, fun, animated and well spoken presenters for our kindergarteners through fifth graders. It is no small feat to keep such a range of learners at rapt attention for almost an hour and they did exactly that. The smiles on the children’s faces as they left with their packet of fun educational activities AND their fabulous temporary tattoos were priceless.”

Rob & Laura with HPA students, all holding "shark fins" on their heads

We participated in the festival as part of our “Shark Days” grant from the Save Our Seas Foundation. The grant funded this custom inflatable shark, which we take with us as a way for people feel what it’s like to stand next to a true giant of the ocean, and to open minds to the true diversity of sharks.  The basking shark is the second largest fish in the ocean, growing to 33 feet, and is completely harmless to humans as it only eats plankton.

People investigate the basking shark after our interactive presentation

Sisbro at the Kahilu Theater

And as an added bonus, the Waimea Ocean Film Festival awarded us with the Overall Best Creative Work!

Get ready for a quirky, wonderful look at the “less famous” sharks of the world, in a video made by the students in our Shark Week class at Portland Saturday Academy, Summer 2011. We spent the entire week studying sharks, as well as looking at how the media portrays sharks in different films. We watched our own children’s film about sharks called The Shark Riddle, as well as the short clips from the Save Our Seas Foundation called Rethink the Shark, and a film from Living Ocean Productions called Requiem. We did lots of activities from The Shark Packet of educational materials that I designed – from shark hats to shark scientific inquiry to shark bingo.

Then the students needed to come up with their own “public service announcement” about sharks. The “less famous” shark idea was suggested by a student who was reading the Collins Field Guide to Sharks of the World. Another student brought a shark costume from home, and the school already had a boat in its garden. The students spent a day making props – they were each responsible for drawing three different “lesser-known” sharks. The class divided other prop building needs, from making boat oars to the shark mural to the shark fins (as featured in Landshark Lawn Ornaments in The Shark Packet).

When we filmed this short little masterpiece, the students shared jobs on the film crew. We definitely had some challenges, since the boat was in the middle of a playground, with ambient kid sounds all around us. We had to wait for preschool classes to run by, a lacrosse practice to slow down, a basketball camp to take a break from bouncing balls . . . but eventually we were able to record a few good lines.

I am so, so very proud of all the students in our class this week! Their enthusiasm about sharks is certainly hard to ignore. I wholeheartedly agree that SHARKS ARE AWESOME.

Landshark Lawn Ornaments with Shark Fact Sign

Looking for a way to shark attack your school yard, your neighbor’s garden or your own flower bed? Make these shark fins, place them near amazing shark facts, and you have a funny and educational way to share your passion for sharks! This is also a great way to recycle old cardboard. And the fins look hilarious swimming through a garden. This activity is from The Shark Packet, a curriculum guide designed to accompany the children’s program The Shark Riddle. You may download the whole activity and shark fin templates for free by clicking here. Just look for page 7 in the packet.

Hammerhead Shark Fins in a Hedge

Educational Standards
Comparing and contrasting characteristics of a group of animals.
Understanding that animals have adaptations to survive in an environment.
Using observations to ask questions and study the world.
Using communication skills to share important information with others.

Materials Needed
Pieces of cardboard (used cereal boxes, old packaging boxes, etc.) or posterboard, paintbrush, washable paint (in shark colors like black, brown, gray and blue), scissors or utility knife, pencil, wooden dowels (2 to 4 feet long), duct tape

Background on Dorsal Fins
When people think of sharks, they often imagine a shark’s dorsal fin suddenly slicing through the water, revealing the tip of a powerful predator lurking just below the surface.

In reality, the majority of shark species do not swim with their dorsal fins above the surface. Unlike whales, who must surface to breathe and therefore often end up with their dorsal fins above the water, sharks do not need to surface to breathe. Shark fins do break the surface when they feed on bait that people put in the water.  Shark fins also break the surface when sharks enter shallow water, to breed or give birth, such as the lemon shark pupping grounds in the mangrove forests of Florida. But most of the time, as described by the Biology of Sharks and Rays Web site, sharks usually swim far enough below the surface that we don’t see the fins.

When dorsal fins do break the surface, ­scientists can use the fin shape to identify individual sharks. For great white sharks,
the shape of the dorsal fin is as unique as human fingerprints are for identification. Scientists can see slight differences in the edges of the fins. They use these differences to recognize individual sharks and study the behaviors of different sharks in the water.

Shark fins come in many shapes and sizes. The great hammerhead shark’s fin is taller and pointier than some other species. The great white shark has a “typical” triangular fin shape, one that we have seen many times in movies. The horn shark is a small shark with a spine on its dorsal fins, which helps protect it from predators that try to bite it. Other sharks have shorter and wider dorsal fins. Some fins are basically one color. Some have spots or stripes.  The oceanic whitetip shark has a white tip on its dorsal fins. The blacktip reef shark has a black tip on its dorsal fins.

Why do sharks have fins anyway?  Sharks are fish, which means they have fins like fish.  Dorsal fins are the fins on the back (top) of the fish, used for stabilizing the fish in the water. A dorsal fin is like a keel of a sailboat, which helps it go straight. The dorsal fin works with the pectoral fins, which are like the wings of an airplane, to keep fish from rolling over. Fish also have a tail (or caudal) fin that provides speed and power. The tail fin of the thresher shark is actually used to stun prey.

The main dorsal fin is made mostly of cartilage and dermal collagen fibers, with little muscle tissue. Though it appears rigid, the dorsal fin can bend and warp to help with swimming.

Pre-Activity Discussion Questions
Imagine you are a marine biologist, who is seeing a shark fin for the first time. Make a list of words that come to mind when you think
of shark fins. Fear? Power? And what do shark fins look like? A sailboat’s sail? An ­airplane’s tail?

Take time to research sharks or watch The Shark Riddle, and make sketches of different kinds of fins. Which fins help keep a fish from rolling over?  The dorsal fin and pectoral fins help fish stay upright. Which fins give sharks their power and speed? The tail (or caudal) fin.

Compare the shape of a shark to the shape of an airplane. Compare the shape of a shark to the shape of a sailboat. Why are some
parts similar?

Procedure
Note: It is better for an adult to cut the shape out of cardboard for safety reasons. Then ­children can paint and decorate the fins.

1.     Choose the shape of a shark’s dorsal fin to use as your guide. You may use the hammerhead or great white fin templates provided in The Shark Packet, which you can trace, or you can use as a guide to draw a bigger version, depending on the size of your cardboard.

Cutting out the shark fin, very, very carefully

2.     Draw the shape of the shark’s fin on your cardboard sheet.
3.     Using scissors or a utility knife, carefully cut out the shape of the fin.

Painting the cardboard shark fin with the finesse of person who doesn't paint very much

4.     Paint one side of the fin and let the paint dry.

Taping a dowel to the back of your glorious and hilarious landshark fin

5.     After the paint dries, firmly tape a wooden dowel with duct tape to the back side of the fin.
6.     Choose an interesting shark fact to feature with your fin.  You can make another sign that features this fact, or you may even write the fact on the painted fin. You can find an entire list of amazing shark facts in The Shark Packet, available for download.

Shark fins peek above a well-trimmed hedge. Do you think neighbors will notice when they walk by?

7.     Choose an interesting place outside and stick the wooden dowel in the dirt, with the fin showing as if it were swimming through some bushes, flowers, etc. If several people make fins, it looks like an entire school of sharks are swimming through someone’s garden! Place your signs with shark facts near the fins, and you’ll have a powerful, attention-getting tool to help people learn about sharks!
Note: Since these are made of cardboard, they can be damaged by water, like rain. If you want to make these fins last longer outside, try re-using and cutting old plastic or foam.

Blacktip Reef Shark on Bed Sheet

When you can’t fall asleep at night, do you count sharks? With over 450 kinds of sharks (the exact number is debated – but there are definitely a lot), there are really a lot of choices to help you fall lazily into a dreamy, peaceful sleep. From the small epaulette shark, which lives in the shallows, walks on its fins and sucks up worms . . . to the biggest fish in the ocean, the whale shark. The whale shark is huge, but it’s a peaceful animal that cruises around filtering the water for zooplankton.

This picture shows a twin-bed sheet, decorated with a life-size version of a black-tip reef shark (about 5.5 feet long). The shark was colored with fabric markers by 4th and 5th graders at the Portland Saturday Academy Shark Science class.

Blacktip Reef Shark Face

I taught the class for a week, and we delved into the science of these ancient and powerful predators – from investigating shark teeth to touching shark skin to watching The Shark Riddle, our latest children’s film. After a week of absorbing the great and strange and marvelous world of sharks, the students were charged with creating an outreach piece about sharks. What did they want to say about sharks? What did they think kids their age should know about sharks? The students collaborated to create this mural, and then they wrote facts about sharks on the bottom. Here are some of the highlighted facts:

Shark Facts from Students

Over 100 million sharks were killed by people last year.

On average, less than 10 people are killed by sharks each year.

Sharks can lose up to 30,o00 teeth in a lifetime!

We should protect sharks not kill them.

Sharks have 5 to 7 gill slits on the sides of their heads.

Shark skeletons are made of cartilage.

Sharks are fish.

Sharks have been around since before dinosaurs.

The whale shark, the biggest fish in the ocean has very tiny teeth.

The basking shark is the second biggest shark in the ocean.

Sharks do not kill people on purpose.

Great white sharks eat sea lions because they love the taste of blubber.

There are over 400 different kinds of sharks.

Shark Facts from Students in Shark Science Class

Robert and I will share this mural with other students, as we travel around the country showing The Shark Riddle at schools and museums. If you want to make your own shark mural, get an old sheet. Trace the shape of a shark on it, and start coloring with fabric markers. It’s lots of fun! And if I may say so, I would have liked to have a shark sheet on my bed as a kid.

One of the week’s highlights was creating our own class story. The kids recorded sound effects to fill in the story – and you will see they had some creative ideas.

Get ready to hear loon calls, alligator growls, porcupine grunts, chickadee calls, a barred owl call, a bullfrog call and more. And if you know us at Sisbro, we believe in happy endings, so you won’t go away disappointed. Enjoy listening to Prince Arthur’s Dragon Forest Adventure.

The poster from the 2011 International Wildlife Film Festival. Art by Chris Robitaille

Well folks, with a happy song in my heart and a catchy melody in my spleen, it is my great pleasure to announce that First Snow in the Woods has won Best Original Music at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana!! What an honor, considering our competition was the best-of-the-best programming from the BBC, National Geographic and Animal Planet. I am totally thrilled to be recognized for our musical achievement. We have worked so hard to write music that is not only catchy for children, but that adults will find appealing. The movie starts with a duet between a groundhog (Robert) and a woodpecker (me), which I wrote as a tribute to the brilliant counter melodies from The Music Man, which my family watched while I was growing up.

I never intended to be a music composer, but I believe my first “animal music composition” was in the 3rd grade, when I did a class project about polar bears. Apparently I wrote a song on the piano, in which the left hand slowly and deliberately hit low notes, to mimic a polar bear ambling along an ice flow. Really it probably sounded like a kid smashing her hands on piano bass notes over, and over, and over . . . but I applaud my parents for telling me it sounded great. I would also like to thank my parents for not yelling at me to get off the phone when I was a teenager. What did they do instead? They sang show tunes into the phone receiver when my time limit was up, essentially drowning out my ability to hear my friends, and of course, it was funny. They often chose Sonny and Cher songs, if I remember correctly.

LauraSams holds IWFF Award with Erna Buffie

First Snow in the Woods was also a Finalist for Best Children’s Program, and it won a merit award for Cinematography and Use of Humor. It is so great to be recognized for the hard work that goes into a wildlife film. We spent two years filming the beautiful fall colors in Michigan, and I think the brilliant footage gives the movie a more magical feel. Also, it’s always nice to hear someone say you are funny. I must admit, the movie includes crying scarecrows, which may be one of our stranger ideas – though it makes kids from 3 years old to 83 years old laugh with surprise.

The International Wildlife Film Festival is the oldest-running wildlife film festival in the world, bringing together some of the world’s greatest talent in natural history filmmaking. This year, I was absolutely inspired by all the people who have dedicated their lives to promoting conservation through media, including Carl Safina, Greg & Barbara MacGillivary, Dr. Douglas Iain Hamilton, Chris Palmer, Charlotte Vick and the folks who have so passionately developed the graduate program in Natural History Programming at Montana State University. I have been reflecting on some of the highlights from this year’s festival, which I shall share here.

Group Hiking in Montana During IWFF

1. Hiking in Montana, which I have nicknamed the “This-Is-So-Beautiful-I-Think-My-Mind-Might-Explode-State.” We spent one day hiking with a member of the IWFF Board, who graciously invited us to his ranch for lunch. We were joined by Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the elephant conservationist and researcher from Save The Elephants. We were also joined by Carl Safina, the prestigious and award-winning author of books that explore the “scientific, moral and social dimensions of our relationship with nature.” I personally enjoyed the enthusiasm with which he scoured the landscape for birds with his binoculars.

People Watching First Snow in the Woods at the Wilma Theater

2. Making thousands of children talk like a crow. We were fortunate to screen First Snow four times (which I hear is a record at the film festival), often to crowds of 800 or more children. Since the children liked the crow character so much, Robert shared the crow voice with them, and then had everyone repeat after him, “You don’t want it snow? Then I’m going to stop the snow. For you. Done.”

Laura with Taiwanese Filmmakers

3. Meeting the Taiwanese students who made “Tree #73.” The best youth-made film was a hilarious short film, about Taiwanese students who wanted to save two trees near their school. To save the trees, they wrote a fable in which the trees fell in love, but were kept apart by a witch. It makes sense when you see it.

Pronghorn at the National Bison Range

4. Seeing bison and pronghorn. We enjoyed driving through the National Bison Range, an opportunity to play “I Spy” as adults. I spy a pheasant! I spy a huge pile of elk antlers! I spy the opportunity for conservationists to band together to create wildlife corridors for animal migration routes in the future! Oh wait, that last one was more of a concept that has been successfully implemented in Montana and other places around the world. Instead of protecting patchy islands of land, why not protect land that connects together, essentially creating a “wildlife corridor?” The concept is being used to protect tigers and other species across many countries.

5. Sharing our thoughts on children’s programming during Saturday’s panel. It was nice to see so many folks passionate about education. The panel included Ian Foster, the IWFF Education Coordinator, Andrea Heydlauff, from Panthera, Debra Howell, a teacher, and Chris Siefert from Montana PBS. Can natural history children’s programming provide us with hope for saving the planet? Can children’s nature programming make money for broadcasters? What do kids need and what do they want to watch? It was a great discussion that I dare say, could have inspired even the most cynical of characters.

I have been attending IWFF for about eight years, and it is always a good festival. This year certainly rose to the top of the list. Thanks to all who made it happen, and to the Missoula community for attending the screenings in droves!

Parents' Choice Gold Award for DVD

We just found out that First Snow in the Woods: The Movie has won a 2011 Parent’s Choice Gold Award for DVDs. According to Parent’s Choice reviewer Gina Catanzarite, the movie is “quite an accomplishment thanks to spectacular visuals and brilliant editing.” To see the full review, click here.

Established in 1978, Parents’ Choice is the nation’s oldest nonprofit guide to quality children’s media and toys. According to their website: “Millions upon millions of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles have been using Parents’ Choice as a guide to children’s media since 1978. Many an educator, librarian and storekeeper won’t make decisions about buying or borrowing children’s media without recommendations from Parents’ Choice.”

First Snow in the Woods DVD

We are absolutely thrilled to win a gold award. Robert and I have worked very hard to make children’s programs, films and media that are smart, funny and beautiful – especially so we can keep enticing children towards nature in positive ways. First Snow in the Woods is an ode to the fall season, and to creatures who must prepare for a sudden snowfall. Before my Grandma Max died, I talked with her about the plot for the movie. She agreed that it was a good one, with a quirky scarecrow and an overly confident crow – and she was a big believer in accepting life’s changing seasons. I dedicate this award to her.

It is with great joy that we present The Great White Shark Tribute Song from our new project The Shark Riddle! If you were going to create a song about the great white shark’s role in the ecosystem, about how it is needed for a healthy food chain, who better to sing the song than . . . . a sea lion? Why not have a marine mammal sing about its own role in the food chain? Get ready for a song that I believe is one of our best . . . and I hope you find yourself cheering for the great white shark! The high definition underwater shark footage was filmed by the talented cameramen from the Save Our Seas Foundation. Much of the sea lion footage was filmed by Robert along the Oregon coast. And we used some additional shots from Tom Campbell.

Robert is performing the voice of the lead sea lion, but we worked with Portland musicians to bring the rest of the song to life. To add some unique percussion, we were inspired by “the food chain” and recorded the sound of a link of chain falling into our hands. We also used a slinky to add some fun rhythm . . . which was one of the crowning achievements of our audio engineer, who had secretly always left a slinky near his recording studio just in case, for one glorious moment when the stars aligned, he could finally use a slinky appropriately in a song. To create the whole group of sea lions singing “great white shark” we gathered a group of friends in the recording studio – mostly men, but a few women too, so we could add a bit of harmony to the shark chorus. We also stomped on planks to give an authentic, seaworthy beat.

A lot of people ask us how we write music. Robert and I spent months thinking about this song – what style should it be? Would it be catchy enough that people could sing it after hearing the song? How do you write a good tribute to the great white shark, deviating from the usual soundtrack of suspenseful bass tones? How do we surprise viewers and give them something truly unexpected? Then while Robert was driving across Montana on his way to the International Wildlife Film Festival, he thought of a bass line and a melody. He called me on on the phone and sang it briefly, and I knew . . . that was it! We batted around lots of lyric ideas. I wrote down a few phrases that were fun, like “sharks are blubber lovers.” Rob came up with the line about “living out here where the breeze is breezy, the water is wet and the fishin’ is easy.” We even debated on the line about octopii, checking to make sure that was a correct way to pluralize the word “octopus” (turns out you can use octopuses, octopii or octopodes). We really wanted to have an octopus in the song, because Robert filmed a giant pacific octopus in Hood Canal, Washington, in a very cold, but very rewarding dive.

Later, when we were pilot testing this section from The Shark Riddle, it was fun to watch kids’ reactions. We were trying to convey the food chain without being too gruesome, and the kids who have watched it so far have really loved it. Hopefully the song will be a good springboard for mapping a food web or a food chain, from the plants to the fish to the sea lions to the great white shark. I even developed a worksheet to accompany the song in our educational Shark Packet that will be available soon.

In any case, I truly hope you enjoy this song. — Laura Sams

Wild Shorts is a new series of wildlife shorts by us at Sisbro Studios.  Basically we just thought it would be fun to post a short animal-related clip each week, along with some facts about that animal. In our first installment, The Snowman Thief, a very clever pine marten (a member of the weasel family) shows its skills as a thief after meeting a snowman.  This footage was shot by Carl Sams while filming for the wildlife movie First Snow in the Woods.  Pine martens live mostly in the northern regions of North America, and are usually active when the sun is low or after dark. Pine martens are very good hunters and are so curious that you can lure one out of its den by making a series of mouse-like squeaks.