Forget Whaling For Five Minutes...

Just a short one this week.


With all the focus on whaling and its negative impacts, some may not realise the effects that shark hunting is having. Check out this link to see what I'm talking about: http://seashepherds.ning.com/group/SharkShepherds/forum/topics/operation-trident-sos-now
It is a call to action from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) regarding NOW Foods and its production of Shark Cartilage Caps which as SSCS puts it "are seriously causing negative impacts on the ocean's ecosystem and ... massive decline of 250 targeted shark species that are now threatened or endangered". To their credit Nutrition House and Holista Health (two of the culprits) responded promptly and agreed that "any harvesting of sharks at this time creates a potential for ecological harm". They both also stated there would be a stop in purchasing Shark Cartilage raw materials and production of Shark Cartilage products.
This is of course good news but another issue continues to ravage shark populations worldwide.
Finning can be defined as the removal and retention of shark fins and the discard at sea of the carcass. Fins are a delicacy in some asian cooking, primarily shark fin soup. There are laws which prevent finning but they are obviously lax as each year 73 million sharks are killed. How long can this continue before the 440 or so species are whittled down to 200, 50, 10?


In the United States, Senator John Kerry has introduced The Shark Conservation Act which would "ban removal of shark fins at sea, close other loopholes in the current U.S. shark finning law and promote the conservation of sharks internationally". This bill is currently pending in the Senate but you can help by sending a letter to your local Senator (if you live in the US) at http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/sharkconservationact/nqrj7e7j6n?source=pewsharks
If you live in the EU visit http://www.scribd.com/doc/20481649/Shark-Alliance-Pocket-Guide-to-Helping-Sharks to assist in pushing Spain (Europe's leader in shark fishing/hunting) to stop stalling and ratify amendments in the EU constitution essential for the end to this atrocious practice.
For those in Australia, or worldwide for that matter, sign the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/400108473?ltl=1178439019 which is aiming to stop the distribution of shark fins.
If you're still not convinced by the facts or unsure whether you want to sign a petition, take a look at www.alibaba.com, search 'shark' and see what comes up. While you're there send the suppliers a message, but be polite, we wouldn't want to offend these useless twats.