SEX SHARKS E ROCK N ROLL

Marine biologist João Correia’s thematic stories relate (1) his oceanic live capture and transport of sharks and other sea creatures to support public education and conservation awareness efforts of aquaria around the world; and (2) the story of his online lingerie and adult toy business, which he's been running in parallel since 1998.

João was born in 1972 and is a raconteur with a Ph.D. in marine biology, who's been focusing his academic research on shark fisheries and conservation. A featured TEDx speaker, he began his career in Bimini, studying lemon shark behavior, then became curator of sharks at the Lisbon Zoo (a very pompous title, considering he did little more than clean their poo), researched deep-sea shark growth, and then joined the Oceanário de Lisboa, where he'd become Head Diver and Curator of Collections.

In 2006 he founded his own collections firm, Flying Sharks and, as a professor at ESTM, he teaches future marine biologists. He also started an online lingerie business (Alalunga Lingerie) back in 1998 with his first wife, and their Facebook page offers delightful discounts. Apparently he ships worldwide too, and he never shamelessly takes every opportunity to advertise his business - EVER! :p

"There really is no clean way to say this, so here goes: for as long as I can remember I have always loved animals, sex and music, especially percussion. In fact, I have been told I jerk harder than Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes when I’m shaking my booty to a decent beat. Anyway, it is therefore no surprise that I steered my career into working with sharks and other marine animals, while keeping a private side business selling seductive lingerie and a few other toys – of the adult nature - and also occasionally playing my drums with friends. It’s not easy to explain how did this all come to be. There really was no master plan at the onset and I certainly didn’t imagine I’d be doing half of the stuff I did over the years back in the days I was thinking about my future.

I certainly didn’t imagine my first marriage would open before it ended, nor did I imagine I’d be marrying Princess Leia in Vegas and I certainly didn’t imagine I’d be sitting down to tell a whole lot of stories… Some involving sharks, some planes, some stockings, some boats, some public aquaria, and some ball-gags and leather restraints, among many other things. But that is the way things happened and these pages kind of explain how all the pieces fit in the puzzle."