Petitions Galore...

As promised, here is a list of current petitions for you shark lovers to sign and share amongst your friends. I've tried to gather ones to cover a wide variety of shark-related issues, and also many regions of the world. However, knowing there are endless petitions out there I haven’t included every one made. Also, petitions are complex, and need to be written well to ensure the intended level of protection is considered, or the right issues addressed, have correct background information and also aimed at the right people to ‘sort it out’. So I've tried to include ones I feel meet this ‘criteria’.

As well as banning shark fin imports, you can ban exports, the practice of shark finning in the first place, the sale, or the possession of shark fin. Almost all of these petitions in different areas are written differently. Obviously, to ban all shark products, and remove all man-made threats to sharks would be ideal too, but there are other petitions for that! We need to show that we care about these issues though, so maybe when some sorts of regulations are put in place that those are properly enforced, and have a better chance of not being ‘lifted’, or taken out of effect. The more pressure we put on governments the better, in my opinion. And after each failed attempt, we can only keep trying to relive the pressure currently crushing shark populations worldwide.

An example of a recent success, Project Aware petitioned for EU vessels, operating anywhere in the world, have to land sharks with their fins naturally attached. This means we know what species, how many were caught, and reduces the amount of sharks able to be exploited for their fins. However, vessels from other countries, will abide by their own laws, and illegal activities by certain EU vessels, unfortunately, is not guaranteed to not take place. Still, no doubt an achievement to be proud of and a hop, skip and a jump in the right direction! But let's keep going..

Fin Free/ Finning Practices

Let’s start with a big one. For a worldwide shark fin ban- 120,000+ and still going, let’s keep this up (there’s over 7 billion of us that *could* make a difference..

For a ban on the sale, possession and distribution of shark fins in the UK & EU (Shark Aid UK)

For a ban on the sale and trade of shark fin in New York (Shark Angels)

Ask major worldwide hotel chain, Hilton Hotels, to stop serving shark fin soup- everywhere! (Stop Finning)

Ask Muji, Japan to stop selling shark fin soup- Japan is an area to focus on, and this young activist definitely deserves a fins up!

For a ban on the sale, possession  distribution and consumption of shark fins in Calgary- By, Hannah, a passionate teenage activist (worth a follow on twitter @Bushbabey)

Shark Meat & By-products

Tell eBay to stop selling shark cartilage and other Shark related products (Cyber Whale Warriors)

Tell eBay (again!? Tut tut...) to stop selling the teeth of the endangered Great White Shark (The Nautical Tribe)

(Tried to get some on shark meat but most are now closed, if you have any you’d like to share, please do!)

Hunting/ Culling of Sharks

Stop the West Australian government’s plans to cull sharks that dare swim along its beaches

A petition to remove shark nets in South Africa

I think I have the main ones, but there are many others and if you are looking for something area or issue specific, I suggest you Google away! Many are closed too. If any major ones spring to mind, I will add them in! If anyone has any they’d specifically like to share, please do so in the comments.

Finally.. If you were thinking of creating your own petition for your own cause (whatever it may be!), then I direct you to this blog post all about how not to write a petition. As I’ve said before, it should be well planned for the best possible effects! So, be my guest, change the world in your own little ways!