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! 

Doing Your 'Bit'

Hello again shark lovers! I return once again to give you some ‘food for thought’.. I recently gave a talk at an Animal Aid meeting in Bournemouth, and the rather enthusiastic bunch were quite keen to hear how they could get involved. So, whilst we continue to work toward a few other (hopefully) upcoming projects, I thought I’d share a few things that you can easily do to ‘do your bit’ in saving sharks. So here goes..

First and foremost, signing petitions, including ours is a simple way of saving sharks whilst sitting comfortably on your bottom! These CAN be effective, if written well and presented to the right people in the right departments, and so on. They can range from stopping shark finning and the sale of shark meat, lobbying against culls and the use of shark exclusion nets, and probably almost all of the threats I listed in one of my previous posts. I will, as it seems apt, shortly be constructing a blog post with a series of petitions you can sign & share, and point you in the right direction of information on how best to create a petition, if you wish to do so!

Secondly, going ‘Fin Free’ seems to be a big thing at the moment and there are several initiatives in the UK coming up to get people (and counties/ cities) involved in this movement.  This kind of project requires a lot of effort and attention to detail, so I will hopefully be able to focus yet another blog post on this in the future and also personally be a part of pushing for one of these projects close to my home. So with this one, please watch this space!!
     In the meantime, shark fin and shark meat is sold in restaurants and markets all over the world. If you shark fin soup available, you can always put your thoughts forward about getting it removed from the menu- just make sure, again, you have a few facts to back yourself up. An unaggressive approach will most likely work best!
     Similarly, with shark meat, it is worth asking the fishermen/seller where they got it from, how it was caught, what species it is etc. Again, not to be offensive, as this will only cause conflict. If there is cause for concern, try to take the issue further and contact the appropriate legislative body. You’re probably not going to make the fishermen change his mind on the spot after all. The important thing is to always gather your research before making a proposal, and if you can, gather as much support as possible. Sharing your concerns with us, we can hopefully get other shark lovers to write the same/ similar email/ letter to the same people to put more pressure on the issue. It’s well worth a go.

Newspapers are the shark lovers’ worst enemy. Most of them are all over ‘attacks’, little or big as they may be, and make sharks out to be the enemy. An unforgiving force of nature whose only aim is to consume the entire human race. Very often, they miss out or pay little attention to the fact that, as previously stated, these incidents are rare and require more research. They can also advocate the mistreatment of sharks, or potentially showcase such things as okay (depending on the views and impressionability of the reader).
     Now, to stop moaning about them and encourage you to ‘be the change’. Inform the newspaper (via email, or comment on the online article) that you are unhappy about the language used, the lack of correct information (always try to provide a source to back yourself up!), or whatever it is about the content that could affect the perception of sharks. If you’re lucky, they could take it down from the website or think twice about their next shark article. It’s a long shot with media folk, but worth a go, and as always the more voices, the better! It’s quite evident that conservation topics or animals in general needs much work in the media department.

The main lesson of the day is that every action counts, and we need to flag up all the little issues that are building up to this huge conservation problem. If you see something you do not like, then try to change it as best you can. Take the time to make a well thought out action plan in order to get the best results. If you fail, then keep trying! We are here if you need our help, and please email sharkaiduk@live.co.uk if you want any advice or assistance. We will always try to do our best!

     Please, if you will, share past, present or pending future experiences on this blog post, with regards to making a stand for what you believe in. Additional advice or information is always welcome, and most definitely as is inspiration from other projects or campaigns.  

Why Sharks? (Part 2 of 3)

The second thing I feel compelled to share is why sharks need our help. I’d hate to regurgitate facts used by Shark Aid UK before through our social media sites, and by others, but I want to try and accommodate for everyone, so will state their threats here. Hopefully there is something fresh in here for you somewhere!

‘Shark finning’ is thought to be the biggest threat to sharks. It concerns all species, and happens globally, and there is now a global demand for the infamous shark fin soup, which this particular practice is carried out to supply for. For anyone looking for more information see our finning fact sheet here with 10 quick facts on the issue.

Over-fishing causes several problems. Methods such as long lining and trawling mean that not only ‘target fish’ are caught, but so are thousands of sharks (as well as dolphins, turtles, seabirds and more!). Furthermore, some of the sharks prey species are reduced meaning they have to adapt feeding behavior find new territory, or starve. The gear used for these methods is very damaging to ocean habitats and inhabitants. Sharks can get entangled in lines and nets (which either drowns them or embeds in their skin leading to infection), and trawlers pick up sediment and rip corals which support all life in the ocean, including sharks.

As a direct consequence of their bad perception, they are often caught in shark nets and drum lines set up off the coast Australia and South Africa originally to reduce the amounts of attacks! The effectiveness of these is questionable. Also, there are often threats from governments, particularly in Australia, to cull them as a form of ‘pest control’ (please refer to my last post as to why this idea is so utterly ridiculous, should you need reminding!). Furthermore there are active shark hunters in some parts that kill the biggest & most ‘threatening’ of sharks to ‘save the public’, and trophy hunting of sharks, particularly Great whites is a big business.

Copyright Rob Allen Photography: As seen here, sharks and divers can swim together quite happily ..

To add to the list further (and I know, its long, but all the more reason to care) their teeth, contrary to popular believe, are often taken from dead sharks as opposed to the many that they shed throughout their lifetime. So please, avoid this type of jewellery item at all costs. Also shark liver oil is used in some Chinese and western medicines so be wary of these. Here is an article on this issue, shared by Shark Aid UK some time ago. I also recently saw some pictures on the Sharks Need Love page, which is run by the lovely Annie Anderson (worth a follow on twitter) showing dead baby sharks being sold in jars of fluid as ornaments in Miami (See here).

Phew.. I think that’s everything. It’s hard because it literally seems that the list of threats to sharks is never ending. Now the natural history of sharks, as a whole, indicates they are slow reproducing. This means that any vast population declines are a struggle for them to recover from. We don’t exactly know the population trends of sharks, some estimates have been as bad as 90% in 50 years as a whole, some regional populations having disappeared entirely, and obviously this varies between species. If you want to delve into the details check out this blog.

In doing my dissertation last year I found some worrying figures. Of approximately 350 sharks listed, there are currently 68 species of threatened sharks (classed as vulnerable or worse on the IUCN Red List), but what is perhaps more frightening, is that 210 species are data deficient. This just highlights that sharks really do need our help to better assess how we can help them. Yet we’re letting them slip through our fingers. Only 7 are protected under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). I found out by doing a species search here). However, this convention offers varying degrees of protection dependent on species and country, and is somewhat flawed, which I will probably try to explain at a later date. A further 7 species are protected under the CMS (Convention on Migratory Species), as shown here, but as with CITES, these laws and regulations are barely enforced.

For now, I’m sorry for depressing you all, but if we close our eyes to these issues they will continue to worsen. We need to give our beloved sharks a much needed helping fin! I have tried to provide up-to-date information, but as always, if anyone has different information please share and I will update if necessary!