A group of divers swim with a sandbar shark off Jupiter, Florida.

AFP via Getty Images

The first time you lock eyes with a shark underwater, time does something strange. It stretches, slows, sharpens. You suddenly become acutely aware of your breathing (and to me, it usually sounds very, very loud), the sound of the ocean around you, the fact that you are sharing space with an animal that has been perfecting its existence for hundreds of millions of years. And then, just as quickly, the shark disappears into blue water. Worldwide, people are encountering sharks for either their very first time or their thousandth, eyeballs glued onto the predator as it comes into our personal space. And a global brand is tapping into all these eyes to answer one of the most pressing questions: what happens to these animals when scientist are not watching?

That very question sits at the heart of a global effort launched by PADI, timed with its 60th anniversary and developed in partnership with Swiss watchmaker Blancpain. The initiative combines a worldwide shark and ray census with a new conservation specialty course at a time when nearly one-third of these species face extinction largely due to overfishing, habitat degradation and the global wildlife trade. For animals that often grow slowly, reproduce late and have relatively few offspring, these pressures add up quickly, causing populations to decline faster than they recover. In many cases, as often happens with wildlife, we do not even realize the extent of the loss until it is well underway. But how do you monitor animals that are constantly moving through vast, often inaccessible environments? Traditionally, scientists have relied on fisheries data, tagging studies and limited field surveys to understand their movement patterns. And, yes, these methods are valuable, but they can be expensive, time-intensive and geographically constrained. There are simply not enough researchers to keep track of what is happening everywhere.

Enter divers.

The Global Shark & Ray Census is built on a deceptively simple idea: people are already in the ocean every day, observing marine life in real time. What if those observations could be systematically recorded and shared? Developed with James Cook University, divers log sightings of sharks and rays across designated areas, including Important Shark & Ray Areas and sites within the Adopt the Blue network. PADI asks that details like species, behavior, location and environmental conditions be recorded, then submit that information through a dedicated platform. “Citizen science becomes transformational when it’s part of the everyday diving experience. Divers aren’t just witnessing change, they’re documenting it and helping drive solutions,” Kristin Valette Wirth, global brand & membership officer for PADI Worldwide to Dive Magazine. “The Global Shark & Ray Census will help us understand where these animals are, and where they are not, so protection efforts can be targeted where they are needed most.” While individually, a single dive log might seem small, collectively it leads to thousands of these points painting a better picture of what is happening with these predators. Where are certain species showing up consistently? Where have they disappeared? Are behaviors shifting over time? These are the kinds of questions that long-term, large-scale datasets such as this one can start to answer. But data is only as good as the people collecting it. That is where the new Shark & Ray Conservation Specialty Course comes in. While it is designed for scuba divers and freedivers, there is also a non-diver option for those who can’t or don’t want to enter the ocean but still care deeply what happens beneath its surface. Participants will learn how to identify species accurately, understand the threats they face and engage with them responsibly in the wild. A key component of the course is training divers to collect and report data in a way that is useful for science. Citizen science has long been described as a way to democratize research, but there are practical challenges, of course (i.e., ensuring data accuracy, managing large datasets and protecting sensitive location information all require careful planning). The program addresses some of these concerns by validating submissions and withholding precise details for vulnerable species.

We know where many threats to sharks and rays come from. Overfishing and bycatch are no mystery, and habitat loss is not an unknown variable. In that sense, the problem is a lack of information, per se, but a gap between what we know and action. So if we are given the tools to document change on a global scale, are we willing to respond to what we find? Let me rephrase that in another way: when (not if) the data shows declines in places we love to dive, what responsibility comes with that knowledge?

The ocean has always been vast, but it has never been unknowable. It’s been there, waiting, for curious eyes to gaze upon her and ask the questions that need to be asked to shed light on her shadowed mysteries. With more eyes in the water than ever before, we have a chance to understand this vital ecosystem in finer detail. The real question is what we choose to do with that understanding.