Painting a brighter future for an endangered species

Holger is owner of Phuket-based Sea Bees Diving and has been a keen diver himself for over 35 years. Along with fellow German expat dive instructor Alex Loew, they have been alarmed to see shark numbers declining off Phuket waters for many years now.

The waters around Phuket are home to blacktip reef, whitetip reef, grey reef, bamboo, nurse, bull, and whale sharks but their numbers are diminishing rapidly. Leopard sharks have disappeared completely.

As a result, Holger and Alex established The Fin Arts in 2017, a Phuket-based social enterprise that displays and sells shark sculptures, each one handpainted by its growing network of local and international artists, with a percentage of proceeds going to shark and marine…