Protect The Sharks

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.

SAVE OUR SEAS FOUNDATION – ISPE shark photographer and shark conservationist Peter Verhoog and his partner Georgina Wiersma are taking the helm of the Save our Seas Foundation starting January 1st, 2011.

Read more…

The European Parliament today endorsed a resolution on shark finning that calls on the Commission to deliver a proposal to prohibit the removal of shark fins on-board vessels.

Read more…

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.

BAHAMAS – As some of you already know we are fighting a huge battle in the Bahamas to prevent shark finning industry to start around our islands.

The government is thinking about issuing an export permit that would then allow companies to fin sharks and export them to China.

We have a petition going together with letters and meetings with the different departments involved. Could you please go to our petition and sign it, if you have not already done it and spread it.

Your help is needed and much appreciated,
Thank you so much
Cristina Zenato

Brussels (Belgium) – Environment and Health NGO’s recommendation: support amendment 541 about toxic mercury in fish, ENVI Committee report on the proposed regulation on food information to consumers.

Read more…

DOHA (Qatar); A U.N. wildlife meeting has rejected efforts to regulate the trade in overfished porbeagle sharks, reversing an earlier ruling at the conference and leaving none of the proposed shark species with protection.

Read more…

DOHA (Qatar) – Sharks were the big losers today at the 15th Conference of the Parties (CoP 15) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Doha.

“CITES Parties voted by the slimmest of margins to protect porbeagle sharks, but rejected all other shark proposals at this meeting,” said Dr. Ralf Sonntag, Director IFAW Germany. “An Appendix II listing would have given sharks a fighting chance against the devastation that shark finning is causing around the world.”

Read more…