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NEWS! Eating shark meat can cause irreversible neurological damage (August 23rd 2010) It has been known for a number of years that methyl mercury is a highly toxic chemical that can cause severe damage to the central nervous system. But it's only recently that scientific analysis has revealed the high concentrations of methyl mercury in shark meat, including, of course shark fins.
The Shark Project recently compiled a report titled "Methyl Mercury: The danger from the sea". The organisation found that even small amounts of shark meat can contain dangerous quantities of the chemical. Due to its nature, methyl mercury can pass the blood-brain barrier, causing irreversible neurological damage; it can also affect unborn babies causing mutations, cancer and damage to vital organs. It also causes a massive reduction in male fertility - something that may be of surprise to those who consume shark fin soup as it is traditionally thought to improve male fertility. Apparently nearly all the methyl mercury consumed is assimilated by the body, it is not excreted, so it just keeps building up and potentially causing more damage to the body's organs and nervous system. The conclusion of the Shark Project's report is that sharks are dangerous - but only if you eat them. For more information read the report here, or download it in pdf format. Campaign Against Shark-Finning in Costa Rica (August 16th 2010)
The practice of shark finning has been banned in Costa Rica. But fishermen have found bizarre loopholes in the legislation that allows them to continue finning. For example, Taiwanese finning ships are now docking illegally, at private facilities, to escape the reach of the law. Ethical Traveler are campaigning to get the Costa Rican authorities to take steps to save the sharks in Costa Rica. They are demanding: — Costa Rica's customs laws be strictly obeyed, even in privately owned docks; — Shark meat be properly labeled, so that consumers are not misled; — Directed shark fisheries be banned, and shark quotas established; — Marine Protected Areas be created in coastal waters that serve as critical habitats for sharks, and in oceanic migratory corridors between Cocos Island National Park (Costa Rica) and Galapagos Islands National Park (Ecuador). Visit this link for more info and sign the campaign letter to show your support for sharks in Costa Rica.
Update: Citibank withdraws shark fin soup restaurant promotions. (July 27th 2010) Citibank has withdrawn all of its shark fin soup restaurant promotions, both in Singapore and Hong Kong. "In response to the feedback received, Citibank has stopped all shark fin promotions in Singapore (with effect from 24 July 2010) as we are committed to conducting our business in line with our corporate social responsibilities... Citi will continue to consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of our operations and business activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment." Please notify Stop Shark Finning if you come across any more similar promotions, either from Citibank, or any other company. Citibank promotes shark fin soup restaurants. (July 23rd 2010) Citibank recently withdrew
a promotion that offered clients 15% off shark fin
soup at a Hong Kong restaurant. A short campaign by Facebook
activists caused the bank to quickly back pedal and see
sense. However, while the promotion in Hong Kong has been
withdrawn, they still have similar ongoing promotions
in Singapore, including one with Thai
Village Sharksfin Restaurant. The public is being
asked to contact Citibank to let them know that we want
all shark fin soup promotions
stopped. You can contact them at these emails: F-IN FUNNY! Live near Kingston/London? Have a laugh and support Bite-Back! (May 30th 2010) OK, if you live anywhere near Kingston, this is a no-brainer, win-win proposition for you. Have a great night out having a laugh with some of the funniest comedy talent around, and support Bite-Back, a British charity working to protect sharks. You can book online right here. But HURRY... the show is this Wednesday 2nd June!
Help Stop Singapore's Hotels and Restaurants from Serving Shark Fin Soup (May 26th 2010)
A cause has been started on facebook with the aim of stopping the sale of shark fin soup in Singapore. The aim is to persuade hotels and restaurants to stop selling shark fin soup by campaigning, boycotting and educating people about the dangers that finning poses, not only for sharks, but for the oceans and our own health. The cause administrators believe that as a leading Asian country, Singapore should be at the forefront of environmental conservation. Their latest campaign is to bombard DIAN XIAO ER restaurant with emails to get them to stop selling the soup. We walked into a rather reputed Chinese restaurant chain called 'Dian Xiao Er'. We were offered the menu and were dismayed to find that they only had the Mother's Day set menus available, rather than the usual ala-carte menu. There were 3 types of set menus, and guess what? 2 out of 3 options had their first soup course set as Shark's Fin Soup. So basically, customers had either to eat there (consume shark's fin soup) or go eat someplace else. I was really annoyed and got my family to get up and out of the restaurant, not forgetting to tell the manager there that we wished the restaurant would refrain from serving shark's fin soup in future and that we would not be patronizing the outlet. Her reply? "Everybody serves shark's fin soup!" I urge you all now to please write to DIAN XIAO ER restaurant and tell them why we think they shouldn't serve shark's fin soup. Please feel free to mention (if you like) the Causeway Point outlet's manager's curt reply. Email is enquiry@dianxiaoer.net Please join the cause and send an email to DIAN XIAO ER restaurant! The Sixth Extinction (May 18th 2010) Most of the people reading this will be aware that nature is a complex web of interconnected species and dependencies - if you remove too many of the building blocks the whole structure of the living world will start to integrate and eventually collapse. Well, Erik Brush's first book, titled "The Sixth Extinction" is essentially about that - but Erik says that sharks, as well as whales and other cetaceans, are a key element in the oceans, and that their elimination will have devastating consequences for Planet Earth and for almost all forms of life on it, including human life. Their removal, he says, will result in a massive sixth extinction. 
In his book Erik describes the issues surrounding shark over-fishing, finning, whaling and ocean pollution as well as his proposals to stop the slaughter in the oceans, including a "WEEC" law (World Extinction Event Crime). The seriousness of the crimes being committed are such that they should be treated the same way as crimes against humanity (for that is what they are, as they could lead to the annihilation of the human race and most other life forms). There is a lot more useful information in "The Sixth Extinction" such as tactics to use when sending letters to politicians, companies, etc, ideas for protests, killing the demand for shark fin soup and resources for ocean activists. "The Sixth Extinction" is not a perfect book by any means - it would have benefitted from a good proof read and the elimination of some sections, such as the UN World Charter for Nature which is needlessly reprinted verbatim. But this book contains a lot of useful information and can be used as a kind of shark/whale activist's guide. And there is no denying the passion that Erik has for the oceans, hopefully some of his enthusiasm rubs off on those that come across his work. Forest And Bird campaign to stop shark finning in New Zealand waters (March 31st 2010) Forest and Bird is a conservation group based in New Zealand who are campaigning to stop shark finning. New Zealand has 112 species of shark recorded in its waters. Of these 79 species are known to be caught in their fisheries, including 28 that are listed as threatened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Only one threatened shark species – the Great White Shark – is protected in New Zealand. On average 24,000 tonnes of shark are caught each year in New Zealand (Ministry of Fisheries figures).
Among their short-term goals are obligating fishing companies to land shark carcasses complete, implementing a National Plan of Action for Sharks, with a 2 year review and providing full protection to basking shark, whale shark, deepwater nurseshark, manta ray and spinetail devilray. A long term goal is to ban the importation and trade in all shark products. Read the full article here. New Campaign: Ask China to take action to cut the consumption of shark fin soup! (March 9th 2010)
A new campaign has been launched to tell China that we want to see more action to curb the shark fin trade and the consumption of shark fin soup. For more information on how to take action click here. New video posted "Man And Shark" (March 8th 2010) Man and Shark is a powerful, disturbing and shocking look at the shark fin trade, created by Paul Hilton and Alex Hofford. Please share this video with as many people as possible. It communicates the urgency of this situation far better than any words can. Yao Ming public service announcement from Wild Aid (February 13th 2010) Wild Aid also have an on-going billboard campaign in China, to publicise the problem of shark fin soup. For $100 you can fund a "Say 'no' to shark fin soup" bus stop billboard featuring basketball star Yao Ming. Read more here. Save Sharks - Save the World (February 11th 2010)
That's not idle conjecture - because according to Erik Brush, author of "The Sixth Extinction", there is a direct link between the worldwide decimation of shark populations for the shark fin soup trade and climate change. In his book Erik describes how the removal of whales and sharks from the ocean could lead to a huge mass extinction event. The book is available here in hardback and paperback. Visit Erik's website here. This is dedication! (February 10th 2010) I wanted to share this photo of Nicole's tattoo that she posted on the Stop Shark Finning facebook page. Nicole says: "I'm honestly very proud to have this symbol because anywhere I go, if people ask me about it, I can inform them of what's really going on out there. I live in IL, most people hate & are terrified of sharks. So I feel it's my job to educate and raise awareness to this problem." 
Petition to ban the slaughter of sharks in the Bahamas (January 18th 2010) A petition has been launched to urge the government of the Bahamas to ban the importation of shark related items and to ban shark fishing. Please sign it here. Stop Shark Finning 2009 Review (January 2nd 2010) So what did Stop Shark Finning do in 2009? Well it might be a good idea to ask first of all "what is Stop Shark Finning?", or "WHO is Stop Shark Finning?". Well it's a movement - a group of people who are outraged by the disgusting behaviour humankind has shown to a 400 million year old predator, and who are determined to protect it. So it's me, but more importantly, YOU. It is hundreds and thousands of people making a stand and rejecting the stereotyped image of sharks as dangerous man-eaters. It means saying NO to shark fin soup and shark products, it means letters and emails to shark fin dealers, companies and politicians, it means educating people around us about sharks. This year we have been successful in persuading two large business-to-business websites to remove shark fins from their sites: TradeKey and EC21. In 2010 I plan to target more sites like these because shark fins are still very easily available on the internet - just search for "shark fins" on Google. It's pretty scary what's out there. We have been working to encourage action on a local level by publishing contact information for people in cities around the world who want to take the lead in taking shark fin soup off the menu of Asian restaurants. This is ongoing and we still need as many people as possible to start working on this in their local area. We have taken part in numerous campaigns started by other groups and individuals, spreading the word via Facebook (over 5200 fans), Twitter, MySpace (over 3900 friends) and the StopSharkFinning.net website. But numbers don't mean a thing unless those people are taking action and doing something, no matter how small, to protect sharks. So let's make sure that 2010 is the year that EVERYONE knows what shark finning is, and that NOBODY would want to be seen dead eating shark fin soup, any more than they would eat any other endangered animal. Because without sharks the oceans are nothing and without oceans, WE are nothing. Everything is connected, let's take care of sharks and make sure our children and grandchildren get the chance to see them in the wild for generations to come.
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