We are heartbroken to hear of the news that our friend Bernard Schober, aka The Klute has passed away on July 18. He was 49 years old. He was a slam poet and an ocean activist.
The first time I met him was in Fiji when he joined us on our scuba diving adventure. I was amazed to find out how much he knew about sharks and how much he treasured them. We spent one afternoon at a school talking to kids. The kids loved Bernard. He showed them his tatoo and spoke about the importance of having sharks in our oceans.
Since then he joined us on one other trip where we dove with whale sharks, thresher sharks and manta rays in the Philippines. While we were all lounging about the pool one afternoon, I remember Bernard just breaking out in a great white shark poem. I was amazed, entertained and truly fascinated. His rendition even had different voices and characters. It was fantastic.
He also volunteered to help us in our booth during a trade show in Las Vegas. Here is a video I took of him while he recited one of his poems.
He was truly one of a kind. He was very generous and kind. He loved to talk about ocean conservation and would engage anyone that had questions or just wanted to “shoot the breeze” for a bit.
He will be missed.
To view the donations in his name please visit our Shark Tribute Wall.