Unique Experiences

Item Description

Lunch or Dinner with Jupp Baron Kerckerinck zur Borg — Ocean Activist, Shark Conservationist — in Millbrook, NY or Rinkerode, Drensteinfurt, Germany

Jupp is a dashing aristocrat who grew up in a castle in Germany. When he was born, Adolph Hitler attempted to present his mother with the Golden Mother Cross for giving birth to six “Aryan” children. However, she spurned the award and was almost tossed into a concentration camp because of her “disrespect to the Fuhrer.”

After completing his education and military service, he opened an advertising agency and soon became a race car driver for Abarth and Alfa Romeo.

In 1977 he moved to upstate New York, where he founded the first commercial deer farm in North America, the Lucky Star Ranch. Jupp hunted in Africa, UK, Denmark, USA, and Canada, but lost interest in hunting when he learned to dive.

When he joined his daughter Philipa on a cage dive with white sharks at Isla Guadalupe, he fell in love with sharks. “I was so intrigued by these wonderful animals that I decided to spend my time talking to people about sharks, and the senseless slaughter of sharks throughout the world.”

Since that dive at Guadalupe, Jupp has been on hundreds of dives with sharks, always without a cage, to show people sharks are not as dangerous as humans and has dived with reef sharks, lemon sharks, hammerheads, and great white sharks, but tiger sharks have become his favorites.

Today, Jupp is President of the Shark Research Institute. He is also a very hot item on German television, appearing on such shows as the popular ZDF Markus Lanz Talk Show which  regularly attracts two million viewers. An eloquent advocate for sharks, Jupp lectures about sharks, why people fear them, their worldwide decimation, and the alleged ‘danger’ they pose to humans. He eloquently describes the perils these beautiful and still-misunderstood animals face due to the ever-increasing demand for their fins, and the crucial role they play as apex predators in the marine food chain. He also fights for their protection at the United Nations and international forums such as CITES.

Jupp, a Fellow of the Explorers Club is also founder of the nonprofit organization, Shark Protect, and author of Sharks: A Love Story.

www.sharks.org

www.sharkprotect.com

Item Special Note

Being auctioned is dinner or lunch with one the world’s foremost shark experts or celebrities. It is a unique opportunity to “talk shark” face-to-face, one-on-one, with a real authority on sharks. 

How it works:

1. Bid on a celebrity, shark scientist or conservationist that lives or works in your area, unless you are willing to drive or fly to meet them in their area.

2. The winning bidder pays for the lunch or dinner and may bring as many guests as he or she wishes.

3. We will introduce the winning bidder to the celebrity, scientist or conservationist. The two of you then set a mutually agreeable  date, time and place to meet within one year of the close of the auction.

All winning bids are charitable contributions deductible from US Federal 2013 income taxes.  Funds raised by the auction will be used to support shark research and conservation programs.