The Bermuda Zoological Society today announced virtual Shark Week.

The event will offer daily presentations from experts and marine experts and will also coincide with the BZS’s World Ocean Day celebration on June 8.

Alex Amat, the co-ordinator of Shark Week, which will run from next Monday to Friday, said that the event would highlight the important role that sharks and their relatives, including rays, played in the marine environment.

Dr Amat said: “If this apex predator disappears from our oceans, the whole structure could collapse as they are a vital piece of the puzzle to keep a healthy balance.”

She added: “We are thrilled to be able to host this Shark Week event in honour of World Ocean Day.”

Dr Amat said the shark week event was a collaboration between the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo and its support charity the BZS.

She added it was an “excellent opportunity to highlight such a misunderstood ocean creature and its relatives”.

Winston Godwin-DeRoche, a former BAMZ aquarist who now works at Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, will join in by video to discuss the sharks and rays that he works with.

Kate Cooper, of BAMZ, will introduce viewers to a cow-nose ray – the newest resident at the aquarium and the first of its kind.

Matt Ajemian, an expert on sharks and their relatives who has worked with eagle rays in Bermuda, will assist Ms Cooper and answer any questions.

Shark Week will also feature Choy Aming, a senior BAMZ aquarist, who will discuss the history of sharks in Bermuda and around the world.

He will also discuss shark conservation efforts and how the Bermuda Shark Project, a group he cofounded, had explored their migration into island waters.

Beth Neale of the BZS, a free-diving champion, will showcase footage from her recent documentary series where she free dives with sharks and rays off the coast of Mozambique in Africa and the Maldives near India.

Shark Week will also feature presentations from members the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, such as Noah da Silva, a recent Warwick Academy graduate who will discuss his shark teeth collection, and watercolour artist Barb Freda, who will run classes on how to paint sharks.

All the shark week presentations will start at 5.30pm.

Packages to register for the event start at $50 for BZS members and $60 for non-members.

For more information or to sign up, visit BZS’s Shark Week website.