Shark Finning

[Dive Bunnie]

Well I shall start this one off.

It was only recently that I discovered the brutal decimation of the shark population that has been happening in the name of shark's fin soup, and feel that I cannot sit by and keep quiet about it.

Basically the sharks are captured, their fins chopped off and then sent on their way to inevitably die a slow death unable to swim properly due to their fin amputation. Whilst it is inevitable that people will always eat fish, we can at least try to ensure that in the process we are as humane as possible in our gathering of food. There has been great publicity about dolphins getting caught in tuna nets, so much so that dolphin friendly tuna is readily available. Now is the time to focus on the sharks.

EU legislation has been brought out, however due to the protests of the Spanish shark fishermen, changes to this legislation mean that it is unlikely to make a huge difference to the way the sharks are treated. If we carry on like this, there is a fair chance that we may be seeing our last few years of shark encounters, which will not have a huge impact on our diving experiences, it will have a devastating effect on the fine balance of the marine ecosystem.

To add your name to the petition to really curb the shark finning effectively, please pop along to the following link:www.sharktrust.org/cgi/petition.asp

[Steve]

Ok Ok i know i am a guy but i agree we must stop it, i have friends in Honduras that are doing work with shark and starting a big reasearch program with Whale Sharks. Ithink they are starting to put info on their message board about it.

Fisherman have also killed them not in Honduras but around the world

Look at www.deepblueutila.com it was one of the owners there that told me about your site

[Dive Bunnie]

Hey Steve,

No worries, we may be dedicated to women, but you guys are still always welcome aboard!

Great to hear that Dive Bunnie has been talked about in Honduras! Somewhere I definitely want to head at some point. Good to hear that they too are doing what they can to help. Do keep me posted.

We have had two recent examples of people's action actually making a difference, with Princess cruises promising to improve their sewage systems and the Egyptian government opposing the development of Giftun Island. So let's hope we can continue with the good work.

[Dive Bunnie]

Well, I'm sad to say that the same old shark finning issue, is still here and not yet going away, however I have found a new site where you can actually take some action to help make a tiny difference! And we all know every action has a consequence, no matter how small.

If you pop along to the following site: www.bite-back.com you can send emails to supermarkets adding your voice to the chorus asking them to remove endangered species from their range.

This action has already proved successful with Asda, so there is hope and you can do something to help.

Let us know if you hear of any other sites like this, so that we can all do our bit.

[Diva Diva]

I did it i went on shark bite sent my email so hope my local store starts being somehwat more sensitive with its choice of stock
I'm all fired up now, what else can i do?

[swordfish]

Dont forget this site either:

www.sharktrust.org

[scubadooba]

So does anyone know what is going to happen to the bull sharks that got the woman in OZ this week?

Reports say they're hunting them down. Forget shark finning, they are just going to hunt them for doing what they do. You wouldn't kill a tiger if it attacked someone who ventured into its territory