The number of manta rays that exist worldwide is unknown. They used to be hunted commercially for their liver oil and skin. The hunters would kill them by harpooning them from small boats in eastern Australia and the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). Today, they continue to be hunted in Mexico, Indonesia, and the Philippines, where their meat is considered a delicacy. Heavy fishing in Mexico has caused manta populations to collapse. Additionally, fishing efforts in the Philippines have been growing in the past decade enabling local markets to expand to national and international market places. There is an increasing concern about the sustainability of such a fishery. Hunters who are economically dependent on the fishery refute any conservation measures to limit the fishery.

There are 5000 signatures needed! Here is the link to support it: Stop The Over Fishing Of Manta Rays

Shark’s fin soup is a traditional Chinese delicacy that is popular at celebratory occasions such as the Chinese New Year, as well as a weddings. Available at many “high-class”, pricey Chinese restaurants – often as part of some 7/8-course set meal – it is considered a luxury dish and also a status symbol of sorts. If you can order shark’s fin at a meal with your friends, it shows everyone that you are rich enough to afford it. As the middle class of China expands, so has the demand for shark’s fin soup in China. The same is also happening in Singapore, which is one of the largest ports for shark’s fin trade in the world.

However, the production of shark’s fin soup is a gory, brutal story, and the subject of controversy all over the world. To get shark’s fin, sharks are trapped and caught by fishermen. Their dorsal fins are then cut off, and the still-living shark tossed back into the sea (so as not to take up valuable space on the boat).

A shark’s fin is like what arms are to humans. Without their in, they are unable to swim, and without their normal movement their gills are unable to take in oxygen. They then sink slowly to the bottom of the sea to die a slow death, or get attacked by other sea creatures.

If you go to Google Images and search “shark finning”, the photos that come up will simply break your heart. So much cruelty, death and pain, just so people can show off to their friends and family over dinner.

To make things worse, not only is shark finning animal abuse, sharks are being killed in such large numbers each year that it is having an adverse effect on the marine eco-system.

By itself, shark’s fin is tasteless. It is actually nothing much more than cartilage. The nutritional content of shark’s fin soup is not that much more than the nutritional content of a vegetable soup, and even so the nutritional value comes from the vegetables, not the fin.

Project: FIN is a Singapore-based non-profit organisation that is part of the Global Shark Initiative that hopes to increase awareness about shark finning, and to get more people to oppose the cruelty that is carried out on millions of sharks each year.

Some countries like the United States and New Zealand have put in regulations on shark finning. However, as far as I know, Singapore doesn’t have any such regulations, because we don’t really have shark finning in our seas – we are just a port for import/export. The best way, then, would be to educate the public, and make people aware of the horror of shark finning, and to get them to boycott shark’s fin soup.

A third of all animals and plants on earth face extinction — endangered blue whales, coral reefs, and a vast array of other species. The wave of human-driven extinction has reached a rate not seen since the fall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

But there is a plan to save them — a global agreement to create, fund and enforce protected areas covering 20% of our seas and lands by 2020. Right now, 193 governments are meeting in Japan to address this crisis. But without public pressure, they are likely to fall short of the bold action needed to avert the collapse of ecosystems the world over.

This summit ends on Friday, October 29 — we have no time to lose. Let’s rapidly build a global public outcry urging governments to save all life on earth from runaway decline. Sign the petition below and it will be delivered directly to the meeting:

Take action now!

Write to your Members of the European Parliament and ask them to close the loopholes in the EU finning ban

This autumn Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a unique opportunity to support shark conservation and provide much needed protection for these vulnerable species. We need to persuade them to sign a Written Declaration calling on the European Commission to deliver a proposal to completely prohibit the removal of shark fins on-board vessels and finally close the loopholes in the shark finning ban.

The Written Declaration will only be effective if a large number of MEPs from all EU countries sign on. MEPs as elected representatives listen to their constituents. We need your help to encourage them to sign on.

Link to campaign: European Shark Week 2010: Focus on Finning

The Shark Conservation Act is a proposed bill that aims to put an end to shark finning in U.S. waters and closes the loopholes that exist in previous shark finning legislation.

This bill is a necessary step in preventing fishermen from removing fins at sea and will make it illegal to have a fin that is not naturally attached to a shark carcass aboard any type of vessel. The bill will also require that the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) identify and maintain a list of countries that target sharks during fishing activities across the globe in order to encourage other countries to stop shark finning.

To email your US Senators:
http://www.oceanfutures.org/action/sh…

People who do not live in the US can support the Act here:
http://www.oceanfutures.org/action/sh…

Honduras and Palau, two countries that have stopped shark fishing in their waters, are urging the rest of the world to conserve the world’s dwindling shark populations or run the risk of losing the ocean’s top predator and throwing the marine food chain out of balance.

Listen to an audio recording (MP3) of the press conference.

To coincide with the High Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to review the Millennium Development Goals, which include a target for preserving global biodiversity, President Johnson Toribiong of the Republic of Palau and President Porfirio Lobo Sosa of the Republic of Honduras issued a challenge to other world leaders to work together to save the world’s sharks. The two Presidents are calling on coastal countries to establish shark sanctuaries in their waters, where no shark fishing is permitted, and for all fishing countries to end shark finning and the global overfishing of sharks.
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Eine Besatzung eines Rettungshelikopters hat vor der Küste Australiens spektakuläre Bilder eingefangen: Mehr als 100 Tigerhaie machen Jagd auf einen Schwarm Fische. Ein sehr seltenes Naturschauspiel.

Aber seht selber: Link zum Video

Ein sehr geiles Video direkt vom Surfbrett gedreht. Es zeigt mal wieder das Haie alles andere als Killermaschinen sind.

Einzelnes Unternehmen für 300.000 Hai-Tötungen verantwortlich gemacht

Brasilianische Umweltgruppe geht gegen exzessives Shark-Finning vor

Aufsehen erregende Anklage gegen ein Unternehmen: Das Environmental Justice Institute in Brasilien hat den Fischexporteur Siglo de Brasil Comercio beschuldigt, für rund 300.000 Hai-Tötungen verantwortlich zu sein. Damit hat das Unternehmen eine massive Schädigung des marinen Ökosystems verursacht, lautet die Anklage. Die Umweltgruppe fordert 790 Millionen Dollar Schadenersatz für die rund 300.000 Haie, die seit 2009 verkauft wurden. “Da wir den Wert für das Leben nicht bestimmen können, haben wir den Schaden auf das gesamte Ökosystem hochgerechnet”, so Cristiano Pacheco, Direktor der Umweltgruppe. Die Umweltgruppe wirft dem Fischgroßhändler vor, keine ausreichende Dokumentation über die an Land gebrachten Haifischflossen zu besitzen.