With needle-like teeth and a sharp-pointed nose, a gray nurse shark isn't a creature that most people would want to meet. But Shalise Leesfield isn't one of them.

The Australian teenager couldn't think of a better creature to meet when scuba diving off the coast of South West Rocks, near her home in Port Macquarie, a coastal town north of Sydney.

"Many people say gray nurse sharks look frightening, but I think they are the sweetest animals ever," she says.

The slow-moving sharks, which like to stay near the sea floor in warm, shallow waters, are — for the most part — harmless to humans. But the gray nurse shark is on the brink of extinction. Populations have dwindled and habitats have been lost due to ocean warming and human development, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists the species as seriously endangered.

One area where they can still be seen is Fish Rock, an underwater cavern with a unique ecosystem, 40 miles up the coast from Leesfield's home. But fishers are allowed to access within 200 meters of Fish Rock. This is leading to a drop in the number of gray nurse sharks and increased pollution, says Leesfield. She wants to enlarge the no-fishing area, establishing a protected zone.

With Leesfield's efforts, the area has been nominated (提名) as a Hope Spot, which is part of the Mission Blue program launched by famous oceanographer Sylvia Earle that identifies places as critically important to the ocean's health and supports protection.

"When people think about Hope Spots, they think about Sydney Harbour or the Great Barrier Reef. So to get Fish Rock up on that list is just such incredible news," she says.

Now, Leesfield is working with politician Cate Faehrmann, marine spokesperson for the Australian Greens party in New South Wales, to legalize protection of the sharks and make the no-fishing zone protected by the law.