LAUSR

Many museum exhibits feature fishes and marine mammals (especially cetaceans) with the aim of informing and educating the public, but also providing a conservation message. Recent examples include the blue whale Balaenoptera musculus exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Ottawa (www. rom.on.ca/en/blue-whale) and the shark exhibits at the New England Aquarium (www.neaq.org/exhibit/science-of-sharks) and the Boston Museum of Science (www.mos.org/4d/shark). However, it is much less frequent to see an exhibit that expresses the conservation message through art. Such a combination has the possibility of incorporating strong emotions in an abstract way, thus making the message that much more powerful. A unique example of such an exhibit is the On Sharks and Humanity exhibit at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. The exhibition, which has both inside and outdoor sections, is on its fifth stop after successful stays in Monaco, Moscow, Beijing, and Singapore. Thirtysix international artists from seven countries (China, Austria, Germany, Monaco, Spain, France, and the United States) were commissioned to make statements on our relationship with sharks with the aim of raising public awareness of the pivotal role sharks play in oceanic ecosystems and the urgent need for shark conservation. As might be expected, the artists tackle the topic in largely unique and personal ways. The outdoor exhibits are large, engineered, and interact with their environment in interesting ways, providing distinctive day and night perspectives. The massive steel shark fin made up of weblike bubbles (Butterfly in Love with the Flower