5 Ways to Make A (MAKO) Difference: Free Shark Coloring Page

I get SO excited when we see wildlife on our weekend paddle boarding adventures — if you’ve watched any of our video shorts, you know that’s the truth.

I was stoked when we saw a shark a couple weeks ago.  It must have been good luck that Rett and I were both wearing our mako difference™ shirts!

See the shark, not far from my board:

Shark Love

Sharks deserve some love too, and July being Shark Awareness Month (and includes Shark Week + Shark Awareness Day), it’s the perfect time to shine a positive light on sharks.

To celebrate, we’ve just released our new Mako Difference™ Eco Recycled Sun Shirt, and are so excited to have a positive vibes shark in our collection. There’s a story behind it too, and Rett designed it!

Sharks Are Vital

Here are a few things about sharks that are often overlooked:

1. Many are fin-omenal toothy predators, but not all (examples: the basking + whale sharks are gentle giants that filter feed)
2. They don’t have a “taste” for humans – in fact, they’ll often spit humans out after taking a test bite
3. They’re vital to the health of the oceans – without them, and the food web becomes seriously unbalanced
4. They often help improve the health of their prey populations by choosing to eat ones that are sick or injured

Mako Difference™

The mako shark, which inspired this design, puts us in awe. (We even included one in our first children’s book, Zale’s Tales: The Quest for the Magic Pearl.)

Mako sharks:

• are the fastest shark in the ocean
• have an awe-inspiring combo of speed + agility
• bring balance to the ocean world

Mako difference™ means making a positive impact by helping the ocean + world around you become a better place.

5 ways to take action:

1. Steer away from toxic sunscreens that harm reefs

Coral is actually an animal, and some types have a symbiotic relationship with special algae that feed them. The chemicals in many sunscreens can cause distress to the coral, causing them to “bleach” or lose the colorful algae they rely on.

And it’s not just when you’re swimming in the ocean — the water that goes down your drain has an impact on the health of the ocean too.

Here’s our guide to reef-friendly sunscreen:

2. Cut down on plastic use

Eliminating or reducing plastic is better for your health as well as the ocean’s.

Swap to reusable or biodegradable solutions, like a reusable water bottle, reusable snack bags, grocery bags, and food containers.

You can also gradually replace things you use, like soaps, laundry detergent + shampoo, with plastic-free options.

3. Go hunting for eco + sustainable products

The less you can use, the better! And what you do use, making informed decisions about the product + company’s impact can go a long way.

It’s why we started offering eco-products in our online shop, packaged plastic-free. We wanted to be a part of the solution, and believe that being intentional about what we buy is a beautiful and important step toward being kinder to the planet.

Dive into our shop here to SEA what we have in store:

There’s lots to learn + dive into! With clothing as an example, look for recycled materials and materials like organic cotton + bamboo which are more environmentally friendly since they don’t use harmful pesticides and are biodegradable + sustainable.

Cleaning products, bath + skincare, lawn fertilizers — all of these have an impact.

4. Bite into sustainable seafood

Much of the world’s seafood is overfished, making it vital that we take action and support only sustainable fisheries.

This is something I always loved to share with my marine science students, because it’s an action that has a direct impact on the health of our oceans.

We’ve created fun sustainable seafood activities to help make it simple:

5. Spread your jawsome love for the ocean

Let’s not keep the amazing ocean a secret.

It’s easy to think that it’s far away, or not relevant — but in fact, it’s vital to our survival. When you share your love + enthusiasm, it gets others excited too!

So, we’ve made a fun shark coloring page that has these 5 ways to make a (mako) difference! We hope you love using this page to share your jawsome love for the ocean, my shark finatic (yes, FINatic) friend.

You might also love our children’s books to make a splash with young readers! Rett and I create them together. He draws all of the artwork, and we both hand-paint them:

If you love the ocean + want to get more content like this each week, come join our pod! It’s a weekly email list, full of positive vibes + porpoise. Sign up below:

Enjoy and SEA you soon!

Live with porpoise,

Eve + Rett