Protect The Sharks

From 19-08-2009 to 25-08-2009

The short documentary “Gimme a Hug” from Geert Droppers remains to draw attention from a broad audience. Following the successes at many festivals all over the world this documentary is now officially selected for the “Chinese International Animal and Nature Film Festival“. This festival will be held from August 19-25, 2009 in the City of Ya’an, Sichuan Province, China. Sichuan is well known for the last number of Panda’s, living in the wild.

Geert, who was invited to attend the festival personally, accepted the invitation gratefully; “It’s a great opportunity  to offer free screenings at schools and universities in China. We even designed a special, Chinese DVD cover for this”.

The Festival is supported by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, China Film Archive, Chinese-French Culture Promotion and Exchange Association, Menigoute Animal Film Festival in France and Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival in Canada.

From 10-10-2009 to 18-10-2009

EUROPE. Join us in European Shark Week 2009, 10-18 October 2009
and sign the petition.

June 6-7, the Protect The Sharks Foundation was present at Blijdorp Zoo in Roterdam to create awareness and inform the visitors about the threats sharks are facing. During this weekend everyone could participate in a contest and come up with a cute text for a shark and a diver encountering each other in the ocean.

Winner of the first prize, a Protect The Sharks T-shirt, is 9 year old Martijn Molendijk from Capelle a/d IJssel. Congratulations Martijn! Your T-shirt will be send asap.

The Shark-Free Marina Initiative has a singular purpose, to reduce worldwide shark mortality. They encourage shark conservation at sport fishing and resort marinas by prohibiting the landing of any shark at the participating marina.

The SFMI works with marinas, fishermen and like minded non-profit groups to form community conscious policy and increase awareness of the need to protect our sharks, our ocean and our legacy. Read more…

Schotland - Finning in Schottish waters is actually not allowed, except for 16 special permits mainly given to Spanish fishing fleet sailing under British flag. In about 4 years the number of sharks in the waters around the UK have been reduced to pratically nothing.

There is currently action taken by the Scottish Sea Anglers’ Conservation Network to provide evidence to help protect the sharks in these waters.

For the video look here.

Please see here how YOU can help

For the first time on the mainland, fishery officials are using SPLASH, a state-of-the-art navigation technology, to tag and track two whale sharks – an endangered species and the world’s largest shark. The two sharks were released yesterday at Sanya, Hainan Province. Read more…

San Sebastian (Spain) – Sharks caught in high-seas fisheries are among the oceans’ most vulnerable animals. Their
low reproductive rates make them particularly susceptible to overfishing in the face of
increased demand for shark products.  Read more…

GLAND (Switzerland) - The first study to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays reveals that 32 percent are threatened with extinction, primarily due to overfishing, according to the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.

The percentage of open ocean shark species threatened with extinction is higher for the sharks taken in high-seas fisheries (52 percent), than for the group as a whole.

Read more…

From 06-06-2009 to 07-06-2009

ROTTERDAM. This weekend  (June 6-7) the Protect The Sharks Foundation will be present in the Rotterdam Zoo ’Dierentuin Blijdorp’, as part of the World Ocean Day events on Monday June 8th.
 
Saturday and Sunday we will have a booth in the Oceanium, right after the ‘Shark Tunnel’. At the booth we will have all kind of activities for children and their parents; shark movies, shark tattoos and information brochures about sharks and why we need to protect and conserve those beautiful and fascinating animals. So, visit the Oceanium and meet us at our booth, next to the shark tank! 
 
Monday June 8th, World Ocean Day, a very interesting program is organised during the day in the Rotterdam Zoo ‘Dierentuin Blijdorp’, while in the evening an additional program will be organised at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. During the day, many celebrities will speak about the future of our oceans. Among them;  Fabien Cousteau, Captain Paul Watson (founder of Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace), David Doubilet (underwater photographer National Geographic) and Professor Dr. Michael Braungart (Cradle-to-Cradle).
 
For more information, please visit: www.worldoceanday.nl
 
We are looking forward to meet you this weekend!

From 15-05-2009 to 17-05-2009

VALENCIA – Protect The Sharks’ latest documentary GIMME A HUG (DAME UN ABRAZO in Spanish), is selected for screening at the prestigious CINESUB 2009. CINESUB 2009 is organised at the AUDITORIO MAR ROJO at the OCEANOGRÁFICO, the aquarium in Valencia (Spain).

All 20 for screening selected films have won many important awards at highly respected festivals from all over the world.

Read more…