Mission
Projects
Contact
Take action
Shop
Blog

≡

Mission
Projects
Contact
Take action
Shop
Blog

Get in Touch

Contact Info

Email: peopleofthewaternonprofit@gmail.com

Navigate

Mission
Projects
Exploration
Education
Conservation
Contact
Take action
Blog

Twitter

Unable to load Tweets

Instagram

Words from our founder

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
When I am cave diving, I imagine being in a library with the biggest and most beautiful book about our planet's geology, a live history of everything that has happened before us, continues to happen, and a glimpse of the changes to come. I swim through these passageways and read in between the lines; my ears seem to catch the sound of those ancient drops that one by one created the beautiful flowstones we glide by. The more I read the book, the more details I find. It's as if each time the book writes additional lines for me to discover and deepen my knowledge.
@kewinlorenzen swims through a phreatic tunnel decorated with flowstone at a later stage in Ben's cave in the Lucayan National park.
#exploration #education #conservation
@kissrebreathers @waterproofinternational
@lightmonkeyofficial @diveshearwater @fourthelementdive @scubapro @isotta_underwater_housings

"What do you do with a chance?" is our next blog b

"What do you do with a chance?" is our next blog by our founder @cristinazenato ; a personal observation on the chances we take in life. Read the whole blog with link in bio.
With @kewinlorenzen #exploration #education #conservation

For the love of cave diving #repost @cristinazena

For the love of cave diving

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
The delicate features of the slender columns in “candle light dinner room” welcome @kewinlorenzen sparkling under the light. The place appears at the end of a long swim through a low ceiling, dark, with heavy halocline area of Ben’s cave, causing the diver to almost squint at so much light. #exploration #education #conservation #themagicofcaves
@kissrebreathers @waterproofinternational @diveshearwater @fourthelementdive @scubapro @lightmonkeyofficial @isotta_underwater_housings

The team keeps going! #exploration #education #co

The team keeps going!
#exploration #education #conservation

#repost @kewinlorenzen
・・・
What is better than surfacing with an empty reel?
Surfacing with four!
Svartalfheim just got a whole lot bigger.
With @cristinazenato

#cavediving #sidemount #rebreather #nature #adventure #blueholes #bahamas #exploration #caveexploration #conservation #caveconservation @kissrebreathers @waterproofinternational @diverite84 @fourthelementdive @diveshearwater @lightmonkeyofficial

Recognizing each shark provides information about

Recognizing each shark provides information about life, movement and patterns but also a connection and understanding.

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
To be a Grandma, it takes strength, resilience, and longevity. At 2.15m (7ft) Grandma is one of the biggest and strongest of the group displaying a dominant attitude towards the smaller and younger sharks and perhaps the one with one of the longest presence on the site. Grandma is named after her lighter gray color, like the hair of a grandma, and her soft attitude. Her physical recognizing marks are a series of shreds to the right pectoral fin, the little blemish in her left pupil, and dark shade on her bottom teeth line. Although the last feature might disappear with time, this is currently the fastest way for someone diving with Grandma to recognize her from a distance. For me Grandma is one of those I recognize from her swimming pattern, I do not even need to see her eye or fin, I just see her coming from afar and I know it's her. The oldest record I have found so far pins her at ten years' presence on the dive with me, but as I keep going through older (and more scarce footage) I hope to be able to verify that she has been with me longer.
#exploration #education #conservation
All the images were taken with @isotta_underwater_housings as part of the cataloging project of all the sharks at the site.
@neptunic_com

“Cristina major belief system is that everything

“Cristina major belief system is that everything is linked; she feels that she has to protect the whole of it for her sharks to be safe” @mfanno

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
❤️🙏🏼❤️

#repost @mfanno
・・・
A little BTS clip from my time with the mother of sharks, @cristinazenato . Not only did she teach me about the importance of sharks in our ecosystem, but she was one of the reasons I was able to get up close and personal with these beautiful creatures again. To watch the whole documentary, head to Nat Geo on Tuesday the 15th September #savethisshark

@thisfilmstudio
@taylorsteele
#savethishark

Save This Shark launches on National Geographic, 7:30pm Tues 15th September

This is too amazing not to share, our team is doin

This is too amazing not to share, our team is doing great work. To support our conservation efforts you can donate using link in bio

#repost @kewinlorenzen

・・・
Svartalfheim is the land where the dwarfs live beneath the mountains and build their remarkable creations and the name for our new cave. @cristinazenato and I explored two different sides of the cave and ended up with 2700 ft of surveyed passageways. One side has massive rooms, that are low and wide. The other side has big chambers where the dwarfs have been busy creating incredible decorations.

#cavediving #sidemount #rebreather #nature #adventure #blueholes #bahamas #exploration #caveexploration #conservation #caveconservation
@kissrebreathers @waterproofinternational @fourthelementdive @diverite84 @diveshearwater @lightmonkeyofficial

#repost @cristinazenato ・・・ Baby sharks are

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
Baby sharks are born to absolute independence; to this day no species of sharks have been recorded to provide parental care. Many of the species in the Bahamas and other places in the world rely on mangroves, coastal areas, bays, and estuaries to provide a safe shelter for the young sharks as they navigate their first years protected from big predators, including other sharks while they figure out their way in their world. When cave diving in some areas it is common to have baby sharks swim by my ankles as I stand in knee-deep water preparing my gear off the back of a flatboat. Protecting sharks means protecting their environment too, preventing key birth and nursery areas from being destroyed by high demand for development, reducing plastic pollution which reaches everywhere, and understanding that everything is vitally interconnected. A lot of the cave identification, mapping, data collection that @kewinlorenzen and myself are conducting is to the goal of creating a comprehensive protection program to areas that are key to the survival of sharks, reef, environment, and ultimately ourselves.
Image of a baby shark taken in a mangrove creek on the east side of Grand Bahama.
#exploration #education #conservation

Link in bio to support our work in locating key areas necessary for the survival of not only sharks but the entire world that rotates around mangroves, such as reefs, fish, and ourselves.
As Dr. Sylvia Earle says, "No blue, no green"

“When are you going to get a real job?” A blog

“When are you going to get a real job?”
A blog from our founder @cristinazenato about the most asked question she has received countless times while building her career. It is very easy to look at the end product and think what a lucky life this is, but the journey to this moment is a long and not easy one.
#exploration #education #conservation
Link in bio

One of the jobs our team is always completing is c

One of the jobs our team is always completing is collecting images of the resident Caribbean Reef sharks, measuring them through laser photogrammetry, and creating a database for each shark presence, sex, growth, and physical details that allow easier identification. Next year, we are planning to satellite tag some of the older females who have already shown mating behaviors and possible pregnancies and monitor where they go for giving birth and reproduce. While sharks are protected in The Bahamas, it is important to know which areas are vital for their continued conservation, such as birthing and reproductive grounds to be able to create MPA that will guarantee the future of sharks. Thank you as always to @kewinlorenzen and @cristinazenato for the continued work through these hard times.
#exploration #education #conservation
Images by Cristina Zenato with @isotta_underwater_housings

“I wish there were sharks in caves” Our team m

What would you be able to observe if you took the

What would you be able to observe if you took the time to sit still while diving? The next blog "Under the magnifying glass" gives us some insight into the small underwater world. Link in bio
We want to thank Lynn Funkhouser for sending us an amazing selection of images to pick from.
#exploration #education #conservation
Blog by @cristinazenato

Our plastic pollution has far reaches. In this vid

Our plastic pollution has far reaches. In this video Cristina Zenato is filming an ocean blue hole vortex, caused by irregular tidal changes between the south and the north shore of Grand Bahma. These changes are caused by the shallow waters of the Little Bahama Bank and the ocean blue holes siphon and spring water on rotation twice per day for each cycle with an interval of twenty minutes between cycles. These ocean caves reach under the island, under people's homes and connect the open ocean. Cristina and Kewin have proved this by swimming through these ocean holes and mapping the sites, showing where the caves are. They also connect with the mangroves and the land. What is discarded in one place will use these underground rivers to reach the other. Our pollution has no borders and can be found in the most remote locations. One of the major goals of the team is to document each hole, with location and map, but also identify the sources of pollution to mitigate some of the environmental effects
#exploration #education #conservation
With @kewinlorenzen
Filmed with @isotta_underwater_housings by @cristinazenato

#repost @cristinazenato ・・・ This wonderful g

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
This wonderful girl is Forficula, named after the small split in the upper lobe of the caudal fin, reminding me of the insect from which she takes her name. At 8'8" she is one of the big girls in the group of Caribbean Reef sharks I work with. She is easily recognized as she swims towards me for the dark 8 shaped on her head. The scars showing on her side are the marks left from the mating season which occurred just recently. Males hold on to females to insert their claspers by using their jaws to clamp on the body. Females'skin is designed to withstand the bites and the marks will heal in two to four weeks, depending on the severity. We now have to wait a full year to see if this mating season was successful for Forficula. Sharks like Forficula take a long time to reach sexual maturity and have a slow reproductive rate, making the removal of sharks from the ocean catastrophic even in low numbers, as it takes a long time for a female to become reproductive. We take these videos as a collection for each shark and catalog them away together with their measures taken with photogrammetry and records of their mating and possible pregnancies. #exploration #education #conservation
@neptunic_com @scubapro @diveshearwater @waterproofinternational @isotta_underwater_housings

We are so thankful to @sharktopia for the creation

We are so thankful to @sharktopia for the creation of this additional coloring page of "Cristina and her dad" available for free download here: https://pownonprofit.org/educate/
This page has been a work of love from both parts and a reminder to all the people that if we believe strongly enough in our dreams we can make them come true.
We hope to inspire the young and the old to pursue what their hearts desire the most.
#exploration #education #conservation
To download this and other coloring pages link in our bio or Sharktopia

Beautiful work by the talented @kewinlorenzen #r

Beautiful work by the talented @kewinlorenzen

#repost @kewinlorenzen
・・・
"If you have knowledge,
let others light their candles in it."
-Margaret Fuller

@cristinazenato teaches a student to relax and interact with Stumpy, one of the resident female Caribbean Reef during the shark course.

#sharks #sharkdiving #safesharks #protectsharks #scubadiving #scuba #nature #conservation #bahamas #underwaterphotography #neptunic @neptunic_com @waterproofinternational
Music: Spirit Of The Dream by Keys of Moon https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The next blog from @cristinazenato “size doesn’t matter, or does it” brings to attention some of the trends and attitudes of the shark diving world she has personally experienced.
Link in bio
Image: @cristinazenato
#exploration #education #conservation

We are extremely thankful for the support of @anim

We are extremely thankful for the support of @animal.stone to our small organization through the sales of Bahama the Shark.
By wearing Bahama, designed by @delanecooper you connect to its energy of constant movement and its keen sense of smell to swim through the oceans of opportunity with the positive energy of physical strength, mental acuity, and emotional intelligence. Cristina @cristinazenato promotes shark conservation through her work and outreach programs.
#exploration #education #conservation
Available on Animal Stone website, link in our bio

Explore. Dream. Explore. In order to find places w

Explore. Dream. Explore. In order to find places we need to keep exploring and we need to keep dreaming about finding new places regardless of the failures. In his blog, @kewinlorenzen shares the discovery of Niflheim.
Link in bio #exploration #education #conservation
Images @cristinazenato
@shelbyreef @animal.stone @delanecooper

A message of love and strength for The Bahamas and

A message of love and strength for The Bahamas and especially for Grand Bahama Island from our team members @kewinlorenzen and @cristinazenato

#repost @cristinazenato
・・・
This island has already gone through so much and it needs both, love and strength. As we barely started to see some progress coming out of the destruction of Hurricane Dorian from September last year the first lockdown hit us hard; three months later as we slowly started to see improvement from that lockdown we were hit with a massive surge of COVID cases (155 new cases in the last week, against the 8 total during the first lockdown) which has brought us back to another full closure for the next two weeks, as we speed through the new hurricane season.
Send love to this little island. #BahamasStrong
With @kewinlorenzen
The @neptunic_com Bahamas Relief shirts were created to fundraise after the hurricane and are still available on their site

“Our view of sharks” blog is available with ou

“Our view of sharks” blog is available with our link in bio #exploration #education #conservation
Words and image @cristinazenato

Our next blog, “Our view on shark” is from our

Our next blog, “Our view on shark” is from our founder @cristinazenato
Link in bio
#exploration #education #conservation @shelbyreef @animal.stone @delanecooper

More incredible footage from our team member @kewi

More incredible footage from our team member @kewinlorenzen while exploring the new cave system Niflheim #exploration #education #conservation @shelbyreef @delanecooper @animal.stone

Our founder @cristinazenato interview with @freeth

Our founder @cristinazenato interview with @freetheoceanofficial will hopefully change your views on sharks and share a uniquely personal perspective on why we might be so afraid of them. Link in bio
#exploration #education #conservation @shelbyreef @animal.stone @delanecooper

Our next blog is “The quest for Anaconda swamp” by our founder @cristinazenato with @kewinlorenzen
Link in bio
#exploration #education #conservation @kissrebreathers @waterproofinternational @diveshearwater @lightmonkeyofficial @fourthelementdive @isotta_underwater_housings

© All content copyright Cristina Zenato. Website by 3deep Media.