Jupp Baron Kerckerinck zur Borg
President of Shark Research Institute

Jupp is a dashing aristocrat who grew up in a castle in Germany. After completing his education and military service in Germany, he learned banking which was so boring for him, so he opened his own advertising agency. Soon after establishing his business he became a race car driver for Abarth and Alfa Romeo. After 4 years of racing he took over the management of the family business in Germany, consisting of an agricultural operation, real estate holdings and a 40 room hotel.

In 1977 he moved to upstate New York, where he founded the first commercial deer farm in North America, the Lucky Star Ranch. Jupp grew up hunting but lost interest in it when he learned scuba diving at the age of 60, because his daughter Philipa wanted him to.

When he joined Philipa on a cage dive with great white sharks near Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, he fell in love with sharks. “I was so intrigued by these wonderful animals that I decided to spend my life talking to people about sharks and their senseless slaughter throughout the world.”  Since that cage dive at Isla Guadalupe, Jupp has been on two hundred dives, most of them with sharks and never again in a cage. He wants to show people that sharks are not as dangerous as humans believe. He has dived with numerous sharks like reef sharks, lemon sharks, hammerheads and his special favorites, tiger sharks. Jupp recently returned from another shark dive at Isla Guadalupe where he, now 72 years old, could celebrate his 15th dive with great white sharks in open water, outside of a cage.

There is a video on his Facebook site "Jupp Kerckerinck", by Amos Nachoum, the famous underwater photographer, showing Jupp and others swimming with white sharks at depths of 50 to 60 feet, without any protection.

Today, Jupp is President of the Shark Research Institute. He is also a very hot item on
German television, appearing on such shows as the popular ZDF Markus Lanz Talk Show, which regularly attracts two million viewers.

An eloquent advocate for sharks, Jupp lectures about sharks, why people fear them, their worldwide decimation, and the alleged ‘danger’ they pose to humans. He eloquently describes the perils these beautiful and still- misunderstood animals face due to the ever-increasing demand for their fins, and he talks about the crucial role they play as apex predators in the marine ecosystem and food chain. He also likes to point out the financial impact they have on local economies, like eco-tourism, dive operators, the whole dive industry as well as local businesses like hotels, boat owners et cetera. He fights for the protection of sharks at the United Nations and at all kinds of international forums such as CITES. His book "Sharks, A Love Story" is finished and will be printed soon.

Jupp, a Fellow of the Explorers Club is also founder of the nonprofit organization "Sharkprotect", where one can find much more information about him and his background.
www.sharkprotect.com
www.sharks.org