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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “Sharks were his pet project.” Sharks? Pet project? My comments: Saving sharks, that is. Sharks are an important link in the food chain or ecosystem of the seas. Some of them are being overhunted, facing extinction. “He” did a lot in saving those sharks – raising public awareness through advertisements on TV against eating shark fin, for instance. Or perhaps even rowing out in a boat to stop fishermen from catching sharks. Or perhaps something else. At any rate, saving sharks were one of the things he particularly liked to do. That’s why it is called his pet project. A project is a carefully planned piece of work or activity that is intended to build something new or to deal with a problem. A housing project, for instance, is a project to get news houses built in a certain area. Pet project is, on the other hand, one’s favorite project, something in which one indulges and gets the most kicks out of. In fact, a pet project is a project one treats like a pet, as if it’s a pet dog or pet cat. Yes, that’s the way to look at it. If you understand how people raise dogs and cats as pets and how they pet them, you’ll have no problem understanding what one’s pet project means to them. The person mentioned in our example may be involved in many other projects besides saving sharks, but saving sharks is the one activity that he is most interested in and particularly passionate about. He would give up all the wealth he has to help sharks. He probably talks about it in his dreams. | 
