Brought up on the water in a fishing family, in his teens Sean Van Sommeran worked on commercial fishing boats. Then he worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for the California Department of Fish and Game. He founded the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, California, in 1990. Self-taught, he has developed techniques to lure and tag sharks with minimal disturbance. He also works as a kayak guide and wildlife consultant.
When was your first encounter with a shark?
I was too young to remember it – I…
