The Book
Synopsis
These thematic stories tell dramatic tales of mid-ocean adventure, live capture, and tricky transport logistics in capturing and moving sharks and ungainly sea creatures to public aquariums around the world. Wildlife gathering operations link to clients across North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle-East and Asia by this dynamic fish finding team who work with the agency called Flying Sharks.João Correia is the driving force and the central character among his strapping marine biologist colleagues and divers in each first person account. Published New York-based co-author Anna Ray-Jones keeps the prose upbeat as it relates what João and his team do for love and for a living. At the same time the book depicts the coming of age of a (sometimes) fearless marine conservationist as João’s colleagues enjoy after-dive high-jinks, discover strange critters, and reveal related natural history.
"Astonishing logistics expose trials in moving live animals across great distances. Informed opinion also surfaces on conservation issues, the politics of finning, commercial fishing, ocean resources, and species depletion. A dynamic speaker, João described one Flying Sharks mission at a Regional Aquatic Workshop hosted by Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, winning 2012’s “Best of RAW” award. See Core business.
The Book
Features/benefits
Among the main characters, sharks are charismatic creatures that draw consistent public fascination. Trade books about them can sell big time. Here the authors’ style combines stand-up “rap” script, Nature magazine authority, and hyper-friendly après dive stories about a guy in thrall with the creatures he works with. Imagine a lively amalgam of Seinfeld meets Cousteau! In addition, too few other books on sea critters adopt a conservation approach.
Audience
Appeal is especially to folks who have visited a public aquarium. Also, folks interested in ocean adventure, nature, wildlife preservation, and underwater diving:- General adult and young adult readers include 630 million people who visit aquaria each year. Aggregate visitation figures include: 70 million in Europe; 50 million in North America; 55 million in Japan; 106 million in China. Asian patronage is growing exponentially as Shanghai adds to its existing six big public aquaria.
- 450 large public aquaria worldwide are noted on The International Aquarium Forum website www.intaquaforum.org: Over 70 in USA/Canada; 150 in Europe; 130 in China/Japan.
- 15+ million cumulative dive certification holders can be reached via The Professional Association of Diving Instructors’ - www.padi.com.
The Book
Extent
A word count of approximately 100,000 fills 17 chapters for which ample original permission-free images are available from the authors. Links to some candidate images can be seen on João’s Flying Sharks business website www.flyingsharks.eu, and suggested images can be seen in sample chapters on this website.
The Platform - Marketing, Publicity and Promotional Opportunities
Correia has logged over 50 international trips for shark transports and scientific meetings. Widely connected in the aquarium world, he can easily identify and staff book tour promotion opportunities.- A charismatic speaker, João, armed with video images of his field exploits can ably share his most dramatic (sometimes embarrassing) stories with broadcast talk-show hosts.
- Event opportunity on Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week is one viable media target.
- Modern public aquaria marketers promote books as well as featured animals, e.g.: California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) in 2004 introduced a rare live juvenile female white shark drawing a visitation increase that in just three months paid the whole cost of mounting that $1.3 million dollar White Shark Project! Its bookstore sales rose proportionately.
- News of unexpected shark sightings off of New England continues to raise consumer interest.