In Iran, Shark Awareness Day was more productive this year than any other year before. During the second half of July 2022, scientists, environmentalists, governmental managers, and reporters jointly held a series of outreach programs aiming to raise public awareness of shark and ray diversity and conservation status in Iranian waters. QECI was among the presenters in all these shark and ray awareness programs:

• (July 13) ASRIRAN News Agency released a short film as documentary news about ray fishery and trade along the Iranian coastline of the Gulf of Oman. The documentary was based on the QECI research project that had been launched earlier this year.
• (July 16) Further, the Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute held a half-day online webinar on the occasion of Shark Awareness Day. In this webinar, Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour, QECI’s Director and IUCN Shark Specialist Group member was one of the presenters and talked about the conservation status of sharks and rays along Iranian waters based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Mohsen also talked about threats to sharks and rays across national waters and also suggested some solutions. 
• (July 25) Furthermore, Mohsen also published a report in Shargh Newspaper about the conservation status of shark and ray population ns in NW Indian Ocean, including Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. 
• (July 26) On the occasion of Shark Awareness Day, the Nature 360° Tv program (In Farsi: Barnam-e Tabiat-e Sisad-o-Shast Darajeh) dedicated one episode to sharks and rays. The program was shown on the national channel 2 at midnight on Tuesday, July 26. In this Tv program, Mohsen talked about shark and ray diversity in Iranian waters and the importance of having these marine predators in our national waters.