Jim Toomey, renowned ocean life cartoonist, says there's a lot we can learn from Sherman the shark.
For 15 years, Toomey has been creating the daily comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, which appears in over 150 newspapers in North America. It combines Toomey's two lifelong passions: drawing and the sea. Now, he's partnered with the Pew Environment Group to create a series of short films to help educate people about ocean life.
The inspiration for Toomey's comic strip can be traced back to a family vacation in the Bahamas where he saw a real shark swimming in a remote lagoon. The Bahamas also happens to be the site of one the world's first shark sanctuaries, a place where sharks are completely protected from fishing. Since they are at the top of the food chain, protecting sharks is an important part of maintaining a healthy marine life balance. In a new film, Toomey enlists the help of Sherman himself to illustrate just how important sharks are to ocean health.