An Audience with a Rutgers Alum Turned Shark Expert to be Auctioned Off as Part of Shark Week Fundraiser

Don't go in the water before talking to this guy.

Matthew Potenski of Sayreville, is the director of field operations for the Shark Research Institute in Princeton. 

Potenski, now 32, said he knew he wanted to study sharks from the time he was 12.

"These animals are the largest fish in the ocean and yet we know very little about them," Potenski said, an email to New Brunswick Patch.

Potenski, along with seven other New Jersey shark experts, are being auctioned off as part of a Shark Week fundraiser to raise proceeds for the Institute.

Shark Week has become a bit of a phenomenon in popular culture, stemming from a week's worth of shark-related programming on the Discovery Channel.

But aside from being wowed by the dramatic footage of feeding sharks, why should we care about them?

"The biology of sharks are predicated on them being on the top of the food chain, and they are slow growing and slow reproducing animals.  Even light fishing pressure can decimate a shark population and it will take decades for the population to recover," Potenski said. "Sharks are very important to the ecology of the oceans and already their decline has scientists starting to see its effects ripple down through marine food webs."

Participants can bid until Aug. 10 on an audience with one of several shark experts through the fundraiser.

Winning bidders will then be introduced to the expert they have won an audience with, and will be able to take them out for a meal and face to face discussion on all things sharks.

Potenski's field of expertise centers around whale sharks and underwater photography.

Potenski said that most of his research centers around population ecology, in the hopes of finding ways to conserve sharks by studying their patterns in biology and behavior.

A Rutgers alum, where he double majored in marine sciences and biological sciences, Potenski also completed his masters studies at Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center, and plans on beginning PhD studies in the near future.

His field studies have taken him to Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, Honduras, Tanzania, and the Bahamas, where he volunteered as a student, and has returned to since for additional research.

"My research found me traveling and I decided to get a camera to record my trips. The hobby became an addiction, and now I strive to capture the wonders of nature in my photographs and use them promote conservation," Potenski said.

According to a release from the Shark Research Institute, the other New Jersey researchers participating in the auction include Debra Canabal, a shark behaviorist and conservationist with an expertise in oceanic whitetip sharks, marine artist David Dunleavy, author Richard Fernicola, whose book "Twelve Days of Terror, the Matawan Creek Shark Attacks" discusses the famed 1916 shark attacks, field researcher Dean Fessler, who works with white sharks, filmmaker Maureen Langevin, Marie Levine, founder of the Shark Research Institute, and conservationist Capt. Steve Nagiewicz.

For more information on the auction, or to place a bid, visit the Shark Research Institute website at www.sharks.org.

"Feel free to make a bid and I can tell you more about these amazing and largely misunderstood marine predators," Potenski said.