Bethany (Bee) Smith (2001-2025) was a passionate shark conservationist. She studied at the University of Oxford and was a member of the Conservation Optimism team during her undergraduate years. She passed in a tragic accident earlier this year, while pursuing the conservation work she loved. Members of the Conservation Optimism family who knew Bee have written the following tribute to her.
To be a conservation optimist is to feel the weight of the present ecological crisis and, just as forcefully, to believe that you – we – can do something about it. If anyone embodied this, it was Bethany: ‘Bee’ as she was known by many. Her Dad shares that when she was just twelve she set out her mission: “to save the sharks; because someone has to.” Her life was far too short, but her legacy lives on in all the people she reached with her message of curiosity and compassion for these misunderstood and oft-maligned creatures.
Bethany’s conservation activities connected powerfully across academia, social media, public engagement, and on-the-ground community-centred work. Having started writing academically about shark conservation in sixth form, she studied a four-year integrated Masters Biology degree at the University of Oxford. Bethany completed a first-class Master project, devising an innovative methodology to address data deficiencies and evaluate the vulnerability of threatened shark species captured as bycatch in industrial fisheries. While at Oxford, Bethany started her TikTok account, @beelovesthesea, and over the next few years made more than 50 videos about sharks and marine conservation which amassed six million likes. These videos managed to be light-hearted, scientifically rigorous, and powerfully emotive calls to action.
While finishing her degree, Bethany started using filmmaking to connect with local communities on the frontlines of marine protection. She worked for several years on a documentary based in the Azores, and she led an expedition to Taiwan where she connected with local fishers to film the elusive megamouth shark.
Closer to home, she appeared on BBC’s Springwatch, talking about British shark species on live television. She was also president of the Oxford University Nature Conservation Society in her final year of university – supporting the creation of an urban biodiversity garden in the city centre and running forest school activities at a local primary school. As an educator with the US-based charity Sharks4Kids, Bethany worked to reach students in the UK and foster the next generation of shark advocates and enthusiasts. Her presentations – packed with more hardcore science than you could shake a stick at, yet engaging and amusing throughout – entertained children and adults alike. As the much-anticipated guest speaker for ‘Shark Weekend’ at All Things Wild Zoo, even an audience of unruly and excitable toddlers didn’t phase her – she soon had them reciting their new favourite shark facts by heart!
After graduating, Bethany moved to Cornwall to be close to the sea, continuing to make films and supporting local and international marine conservation research. Bee worked for a time in consultancy – researching, communicating, and informing businesses as to how global supply chains impact biodiversity. She was also in the process of refining her thesis, honing an academic paper to submit to a scientific journal later in 2025. Her coauthors still hope and plan to finish this. What would have been the first of no doubt many excellent contributions by Bethany to science.
Having secured a competitive scholarship, Bethany was about to start a PhD at the University of Southampton. Bethany proposed work that would address knowledge gaps affecting our understanding of the ecological roles and conservation of sharks – a hotspot for threatened, rare, and endemic shark species that has received limited scientific attention. Bethany was excited to work with fishers and coastal communities, and explore conservation and management strategies that are socially just. Bethany embarked on this research with (in her own words) “the aim of bridging the existing gap between the media’s portrayal of sharks and accurate scientific information, in order to help generate informed public support for shark conservation. Overall, my core motivation is to help save sharks from the decimation that they are facing”.
Bethany was in Indonesia when she died, volunteering for Project Hiu, an initiative in Indonesia supporting shark fishers to transition into leading marine tourism trips around Lombok.
Bethany saw the intrinsic value in the lives of every shark she encountered. These were beings with personality and beauty, ancient creatures we can be humbled by and learn from. But also animals who can appear bizarre and otherworldly, cute and adorable. She understood how human wellbeing was completely intertwined with the wellbeing of the oceans. A deep sense of connection to this blue planet was what enabled Bethany to work as hard as she did. And whether through academic policy analysis, grassroots initiatives, or far-reaching public engagement – doing the work to conserve marine biodiversity itself further deepens this sense of connection to the living world.
Bethany had a mission. A deeply-held purpose that guided her life. Inspired by her determination, we can honour her by letting the beauty of this watery world enchant us, defy despair and optimistically work together to “save the sharks; because someone has to”.
The Bethany Smith Environment Award is being established to support research-based projects in ecology, conservation, and sustainability for our undergraduate and Master’s students. This fund is trying to raise £20,000 help future generations pursue the kind of work Bethany cared so deeply about.. You donate here.
