Protect The Sharks

Olympic Village (Greece): The best closure of a very successful and active year for shark’s conservation was the third grade’s activities of 26th school – “Ioannis Melissanidis and Fani Chalkia at Olympic Village” in Athens. Our friend and member of “Protect the Sharks Foundation” Andreas Maragos, suggested to expand ESW-2011 activities for kids inside a classroom, and made the necessary contact with the enthusiastic teacher of 3rd grade, Karakosta Vasiliki.

After sending lots of material with docs, pdfs with info about sharks, images and color me pages, the teacher organized a week dedicated to sharks, with actions, paper constructions, tons of shark draws, the design of a t-shirt and a the most touching letter we have ever received…!!

“Dear shark defenders,

we are the students of class C1 from the 26th Acharnon Primary School. We learned about you and that you try to save sharks and tell people about the endangered shark species.

We saw video of fishermen who illegally put sharks on boats, cut their fins and throw them back into the sea. We were impressed when we saw the diver to tender the shark, to touch her nose and lift her with her hands.

We learned about and draw several shark species. We made stickers to show you that we the children care about sharks. If you want you can share them with other children. We created a graphic and printed it on a t-shirt which we offer you with our love. We expect to hear from you soon!

With shark-kisses,

The Petit Allies Titus, Theodore, Mary, Komnenos, Angelos, Hermes, Elizabeth, Angelos, Dimitrios, Agathi, Vivian, Michael, Sotiris, Nikos, Ellie, Nefeli, Georgia, Chris, Evie and our wonderful teacher Karakosta Vasiliki!

P.S.
We forgot to tell that our English teacher taught us words related to sharks and we put those words into clouds in our drawings just imagining what shark would like to tell to humans. Bye for now!”

All those sweet things along with a beautiful set of photographs in a cd where sent to us in a magic package. No words to describe the feelings jumped out of the package when opened! We have 19 new enthusiastic allies and their captain!!!

Photos of our allies and their captain,  can be found here or here.

The schools website can be found here.

Rabea (miss Rabi) Iatridou and

Nicholas Samaras

Pátras (Greece) During the launch of the 5th European Shark Week events in the town of Patras from 21 to 23 of October, we made many new friends for sharks that signed our petition to push the European Union (EU) fisheries ministers to protect sharks from overexploitation and finning – the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea…

• Day one – Friday 21st of October we had programmed the kid’s events. While drawing happy sharks with millions of colors, we talked about sharks, how they look, what they eat, how they swim, explained the differences  between species and how many of them are alive in the sea in order to make the children understand that many shark species are endangered and are threatened of extinction and need to be protected. Children are very enthusiastic and their drawings made us realize how easily they can learn and how important is that they don’t have that learned fear for sharks as the adults do. We had fantastic drawings of basking sharks, great whites and all kinds of sharks especially the threatened species!

• Day two, had in program a more typical character with the signature selection, the presentation and the screening of documentaries but the discussion during the presentation became the cause to dispel many myths about sharks. At the end all the attendants were informed about the endangered species, the sharks living in Greek waters, the meaning of shark fining and the enormous quantities of shark fins ending in Hong Kong to be consumed as shark fin soup… Some of the questions were like “bull’s eye” hits, so straight and so clear that we hoped that some Fishery Ministers should be there with us to answer… We hope that our new friends contribution will be added to the PUSH for
  • a complete ban on removing shark fins at sea,
  • Shark and ray catch limits based on scientific advice and the precautionary approach
  • EU and national protections for endangered shark and ray species

• On day three, we met on a beautiful spot of the Corinthian gulf to dedicate a dive to sharks even though Greece is not famous for shark diving! Many divers participated to the dive even though the weather conditions were not the more suitable.

We want to give our warm regards and thanks to all those that helped us organize the ESW events, especially Mr. Konstantinos Milionis for his enthusiasm and the Scuba Diving Club “OCEANOS” for the invitation and the hosting!

Click here or here for more photos.

The petition is still available on-line, so sign it here quickly if  you didn’t yet.

Το ίδρυμα για τη προστασία του καρχαρία Protect the Sharks Foundation και ο Σύλλογος Αυτοδυτών Αχαΐας “OCEANOS” σας προσκαλούν να συμμετάσχετε στο τριήμερο εκδηλώσεων για τον εορτασμό της Ευρωπαϊκής Εβδομάδας Καρχαρία που θα πραγματοποιηθούν από 21 έως 23 Οκτωβρίου 2011 στην Πάτρα, στα πλαίσια των εκδηλώσεων που οργανώνονται σε δεκάδες Ευρωπαϊκές πόλεις υπό την αιγίδα της συμμαχίας για τον καρχαρία Shark Alliance.

Το τριήμερο εκδηλώσεων θα περιλαμβάνει εκδηλώσεις για παιδιά και ενήλικες, προβολές ντοκιμαντέρ, παρουσίαση και συζήτηση και κατάδυση αφιερωμένη στους καρχαρίες. Ελάτε μαζί μας στον εορτασμό της Ευρωπαϊκής Εβδομάδας Καρχαρία και βοηθήστε μας να πιέσουμε την Ε.Ε. να κλείσει οριστικά τα νομικά τα κενά στην απαγόρευση της αφαίρεσης των πτερυγίων και τους υπουργούς να κάνουν πράξη τις δεσμεύσεις του Σχεδίου δράσης της ΕΕ για τον καρχαρία

Αναλυτικά το πρόγραμμα:

Παρασκευή 21/10/2011
Έκθεση Υ/Β Φωτογραφίας, προβολές ντοκιμαντέρ “Gimme a Hug”, επισκέψεις σχολείων, δραστηριότητες για παιδιά, ζωγραφική, χειροτεχνίες και δημιουργία κάρτας με θέμα τη θάλασσα και τον καρχαρία, φωτογράφηση με τον “Ζαχαρία”, ανάρτηση των παιδικών έργων και κλήρωση δώρου.

Σάββατο 22/10/2011
Έκθεση Υ/Β Φωτογραφίας
Συγκέντρωση Υπογραφών και Δημιουργία Καρτών με μηνύματα
Προβολές ντοκιμαντέρ
Παρουσίαση
Ανοιχτή συζήτηση
Κλήρωση δώρου

Κυριακή 23/10/2011
Κατάδυση αφιερωμένη στην Ευρωπαϊκή Εβδομάδα Καρχαρία
Υποβρύχια Φωτογράφηση με το πανό της εκδήλωσης»

Σας προσκαλούμε όλους στις τριήμερες εκδηλώσεις της Πανευρωπαϊκής Εβδομάδας Καρχαρία για να γνωριστούμε και να μας βοηθήσετε να προστατέψουμε τον καρχαρία. Ελπίζουμε να σας δούμε όλους στη Πάτρα

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“Protect the Sharks Foundation in cooperation with the Association of Achaia Divers “OCEANOS” invite you to participate to our 3-day event that will take place from 21 to 23 October in Patrai, in order to celebrate European Shark Week 2011 together with dozens of parallel events organized in many European cities under the auspices of Shark Alliance.
The weekend events will include activities for young and adults, documentary screenings, presentations and discussions dedicated to diving and sharks.

Join us in European Shark Week celebration and help us push the EU to ensure loopholes in the finning ban are finally closed and ministers live up to the commitments of the EU shark Plan of Action

Detailed Program:

Friday 21/10/2011
Underwater Photography exhibition, screenings of “Gimme a Hug” documentary, school visits, children’s activities, arts, crafts and card creation on the theme of sea and sharks, Shooting photos with “Zachary”, suspension of works and children’s prize lottery.

Saturday 22/10/2011
Underwater Photography exhibition
Collection of signatures and creating cards with messages
Documentary screenings
Presentation
Open Discussion
Lottery of a “shark” prize

Sunday 23/10/2011
Diving dedicated to European Shark Week
Underwater shooting with the ESW event banner”

We kindly like to invite you all, to visit this event and meet us there to help us protect the sharks.

Hope to see you in Patrai!

Wednesday April 13, the PROTECT THE SHARKS FOUNDATION attends the international cinema and television film festival “teleNatura Costa Rica 2011″ that will be held at Invenio’s university campus located close to Cañas  in Guanacaste, a province of Costa Rica.

This university is located not far away from Puentarenas, homebase for many longline fishing vessels and notorious for the landing of shark fins.

Roy Prendas Alvarez, director & founder of teleNatura Costa Rica: “I wish we did not question whether we should preserve nature or not, just like children don’t question whether they should play or not. However, it is clear that a lot of people really don’t care about ‘the cause’. In this scenario, it is smart to understand that taking care of the natural world is – in the end – the same as taking care of ourselves….because the greatest result of conservation will reflect on humans”.

Our short documentary GIMME A HUG, produced to create awareness and a better understanding for sharks, will be screened on Wednesday, April 13th starting at 1:30pm and 6:30pm.

The afternoon screening will be followed by a Q&A and a forum discussion about sharks and the need for shark conservation. This forum discussion will be lead by local representative Ilena Zanella.

Read more or visit the website of teleNatura Costa Rica or the website of the producer of the event Oliva Films. TV-show “Buen Dia” was also paying attention to the festival.

Athens (Greece) – The Society for the Protection and Promotion of the Underwater Environment and its Coastal Area – nonprofit company organizes in Athens on November 25th 2010, an International Meeting on “Biodiversity and Diving Tourism in the Greek Seas”, this event will be supported by the “Protect The Sharks Foundation” – a Dutch non-profit, non-governmental, organization.

During the conference the underwater documentary «Gimme A Hug» of Dutch underwater filmmaker Geert Droppers will be screened, in order to raise public awareness on the need to maintain all species, especially endangered species like sharks, because the subject of biodiversity. The need for conservation is a global problem not confined to specific areas or specific types of life.

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.

Write here to your Members of the European Parliament.

European Shark Week Opens With Call to “Focus on Finning”.

Read here the press release.

GUANGZHOU (CHINA) – In Guangzhou we were supported in a very special way by Michael He, Cultural Officer of the Dutch Consulate in Guangzhou. He managed to organize, in just a very short time, an additional screening of GIMME A HUG including Q&A at the Jinan University in Guangzhou. Like in Beijing, the students in Guangzhou were also very interested to learn more about sharks and shark related topics. The Q&A lasted almost one and a half hour…

Michael, after translating all the questions and answers, was also getting interested and enthusiastic about protecting and conserving sharks. He showed GIMME A HUG even to colleagues of 15 other Consulates and gave them DVD’s to pass on the education for protecting sharks. Besides that, he also supports us by forwarding free DVD’s to schools and universities in Guangzhou to create awareness and a better understanding for sharks.
Michael, thank you very much for all your support!

Here you can find some photos of this event.

BEIJNG (CHINA) – Thanks to the generous support of the organizers of the “Chinese International Animal and Nature Film Festival“, a lecture and screening of GIMME A HUG was organized as part of the “Green Eyes” project at the “Yew Chung International School of Beijing“. The presentation was given by Geert Droppers. The school management, represented by their co-principal Mrs Christine Xu, the organizers, but especially the almost 200 children were very enthusiastic.

During the Q&A many interesting questions were asked; “what is the difference between male and female sharks? “, “Do sharks all have the same kind of tail?”, “Do all sharks have the same teeth?” and “what enemies does a shark have except other sharks and us, humans?”. Here you can find some photos of this very successful event. Read more…

We hereby like to express our gratitude to both, the organizers and the school management, for this invitation.

SCHEVENINGEN, Netherlands – What a wonderful and successful weekened in Sea Life Scheveningen. We had a great central location in the aquarium for Protect The Sharks. Our pupose was to engage people on the poor state the shark populations are in and at the same time collect as much signatures for the European Shark week petition. We have collected 1000+ signed petitions and over 200 people joined our Shark quiz. In total worldwide over 100.000 signatures have been collected to be presented beginning of next year to the Spanish government.

Here, you can find some photos of the event.

The petition is still available on-line, so sign it here quickly if  you didn’t yet.

For more info on the European Shark week, click here…