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Red Posts: SCMP
Yellow Posts: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and NAT GEO WILD
Green Posts: PETA, Augustman, and New York Post
Blue Posts: WildAid and Shark Truth
Purple Posts: Articles with videos of any kind
White Posts: Fin Free Thailand and awionline

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Protesters Demand FEDEX To Stop Shipping Shark Finning

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Protesters Demand FEDEX To Stop Shipping Shark Finning

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protesters demand fedex to stop shipping shark fins

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Protesters demand FedEx to stop shipping shark fins

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Enviromental protesters in Hong Kong stage a protest calling on courier FedEx to stop transporting shark fins. (Photo: SCMP's Nora Tam)

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International Shark Finning Bans and Policies

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Currently, there are nine states and two US territories with bans in place. Although the states have varied exceptions and statutory penalties for violations, all the bans make it unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute shark fins within that jurisdiction.

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Hong Kong Art Exhibit Aims to Deepen Connections With Sharks

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Hong Kong Art Exhibit Aims to Deepen Connections With Sharks

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An exhibition of contemporary art geared at raising awareness about the negative impact of shark finning has opened in Hong Kong this week.

"On Sharks and Humanity" showcases 36 works of sculpture, painting, film, photography and poetry at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

Artists' works express their unique perspectives on the relationship between humankind and the oceans, the individual, the city and nature, and reflect the concerning and disturbing future the oceans and sharks face.

Fins from up to 73 million sharks are used in shark fin soup each year.

The conservation-themed exhibit, which has also toured to Monaco, Moscow, Beijing and Singapore, is presented in partnership with WildAid and Hong Kong Parkview Arts Action.

"Declining shark numbers pose a fundamental threat to the health of the world's oceans," said Parkview Arts Action Founder George Wong. "Through the artists' varied interpretations, 'On Sharks and Humanity' can inform and confront audiences in ways that strike more directly into the human psyche than the abstract language of scientific debate," Wong said.

"WildAid is calling on the public to visit this important art exhibition and to stop buying and eating shark fin soup," said WildAid Hong Kong Campaigner Alex Hofford.

WildAid is petitioning Maxim's restaurants to drop shark fin, and staged a protest against the chain earlier this month.

"It is time for Hong Kong's big restaurant groups like Maxim's/Jardine's to act ethically and sustainably by phasing out all shark fin from their set menus - including unsustainable blue shark," Hofford said.

Nearly 60 transportation companies, including airlines and shipping lines, have banned all carriage of shark fins. WildAid is calling on FedEx, Hainan Airlines and United Airlines to follow suit.

About WildAid

WildAid is a non-profit organization with a mission to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes. While most wildlife conservation groups focus on protecting animals from poaching, WildAid primarily works to reduce global consumption of wildlife products such as elephant ivory, rhino horn and shark fin soup. With an unrivaled portfolio of celebrity ambassadors and global network of media partners, WildAid leverages nearly $230 million in annual pro-bono media support with a simple message: When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too.
Journalists on deadline may email communications@wildaid.org

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Hong Kong Art Exhibit Aims to Deepen Connection Between People and Sharks - WildAid

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An exhibition of contemporary art geared at raising awareness about the negative impact of shark finning has opened in Hong Kong this week. "On Sharks and Humanity" showcases 36 works of sculpture, painting, film, photography and poetry at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Artists' works express their unique perspectives on the relationship between humankind and ...

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Ecuadorian Fishing Vessel Transferring Apprehended Sharks In The Galapagos (WildAid

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Ecuadorian Fishing Vessel Transferring Apprehended Sharks In The Galapagos (WildAid

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On Friday, an Ecuadorian fishing vessel was caught transporting sharks and other protected species in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. Its 23 crew members and eight minor fiberglass vessels were apprehended by the Galapagos National Park rangers and Ecuadorian Navy for illegal possession and transport of protected species.

The Manta, Ecuador-based fishing vessel, Don Gerard V, was detected using the Galapagos National Park Service's VMS system procured and installed by WildAid, WWF, Conservation International and Sea Shepherd in 2009.

The Galapagos National Park control center monitored its trajectory while the park's patrol vessel and plane sped towards the fishing vessel, having been alerted to this suspicious activity. Galapagos Park Rangers and Ecuadorian Navy officials intercepted the vessel two miles within the reserve, near the island of Genovesa and arrested its crew of 23.

Upon inspecting one of its cargo holds, they found 30 sharks on board including thresher, silky and blue sharks, as well as albacore tunas and swordfish. The vessel contains one more cargo hold that will be searched pending judicial approval.

Galapagos National Park Director, Walter Bustos, stated that "this new apprehension reflects the high level of preparation and professionalism that the park rangers of the Galapagos National Park Service have."

The crew of the boat, was taken to Baltra Island for processing and after approval from a judge on December 16, they are being detained for possession and illegal transport of protected species. The vessel was seized and is currently in the Navy's custody pending court proceedings and the judge has ordered destruction of the catch after the appropriate procedures.

An estimated 73 million sharks are killed each year for the illegal shark fin trade around the world. To stop shark finning in the Galapagos, WildAid works with park rangers to monitor the vast reserve and prevent illegal fishing. Last year, Ecuador announced that all its vessels, no matter their size, will be monitored in real time.

The previous legislation mandated hourly monitoring only for larger vessels, leaving small vessels to navigate unchecked. Together, WWF, Sea Shepherd and WildAid procured and installed AIS transceivers and software to complement the existing VMS satellite technology system in the park's control center to track all fishing and tourism vessels.

In August, the Galapagos National Park rangers arrested a Chinese cargo vessel with over 6,000 sharks in its hold. This apprehension marks the second arrest since the installation of AIS this year and the third since the announcement last year of a marine sanctuary at Darwin and Wolf to protect sharks.

WildAid has used its comprehensive marine protection model to decrease illegal fishing and protect nearly 3,000 marine species in the Galapagos Marine Reserve since 2002 thanks to the support of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, Angermeyer Cruises, Conservation International, IGTOA, the Walton Family Foundation and WWF.

About WildAid

WildAid is a non-profit organization with a mission to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes. While most wildlife conservation groups focus on protecting animals from poaching, WildAid primarily works to reduce global consumption of wildlife products such as elephant ivory, rhino horn and shark fin soup. With an unrivaled portfolio of celebrity ambassadors and global network of media partners, WildAid leverages nearly $230 million in annual pro-bono media support with a simple message: When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too.
Journalists on deadline may email communications@wildaid.org

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Ecuadorian Fishing Vessel Transporting Sharks Apprehended in the Galapagos - WildAid

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On Friday, an Ecuadorian fishing vessel was caught transporting sharks and other protected species in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. Its 23 crew members and eight minor fiberglass vessels were apprehended by the Galapagos National Park rangers and Ecuadorian Navy for illegal possession and transport of protected species.

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Message to MUJI (Origami, Fin Free Thailand, and Youtube)

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Message to MUJI (Origami, Fin Free Thailand, and Youtube)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=LO7hM6lA-Rw This link is also very useful
Materials needed:
-Small sized origami paper
-AND OF COURSE HANDS!

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Taking shark fin off the menu to protect endangered species and public health.

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Taking shark fin off the menu to protect endangered species and public health.

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For interviews or surveys

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Taking shark fin off the menu to protect endangered species and public health.

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100 Sharks lead to billboards: Humans have the deadliest jaws (PETA)

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100 Sharks lead to billboards: Humans have the deadliest jaws (PETA)

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Mobile, Ala. - Because nearly 100 bull sharks have washed up along Mobile Bay beaches-40 of them tangled in fishing nets-PETA is negotiating with outdoor advertisers to place a local billboard pointing out that fish, including sharks, have far more to fear from humans than the other way around, but that doesn't have to be the case. The ad features a huge human mouth and the words "The Deadliest Jaws? Yours. Go Vegan." For each human killed by a shark, 2 million sharks are killed by humans-about 11,000 sharks die by human hands every hour. And every year, humans kill and consume trillions of marine animals, including billions of fish who are caught, processed or-together with turtles, dolphins, and other sea life who get entangled in nets-discarded as "bycatch."

"While sharks kill an average of five humans a year globally, humans kill up to 100 million sharks every year for fins, flesh, and fun as well as billions of other fish we now know to be socially complex and intelligent," says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. "PETA's billboard is a reminder that each of us can save hundreds of aquatic animals, including dolphins and turtles, every year by choosing vegan meals instead of fish."

Humans consume more fish annually than all other animals combined, and the demand for shark-fin soup has resulted in overfishing and dwindling shark populations. Shark finning entails dragging sharks-who studies show have individual personalities-to the surface, hacking their fins off, and throwing them back into the ocean to die slowly from their injuries, stress, or suffocation.

Most fish commonly served in restaurants and supermarkets are caught using huge, sometimes miles-long commercial-fishing nets that stretch across ocean floors, trapping "trash catch" such as dolphins, turtles, and seals. When hauled up from the ocean, fish-who are highly sensitive to pain-are often crushed to death, and their eyeballs bulge out of their heads from the pressure change of sudden surfacing. Others are gutted alive.

PETA-whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to eat"-offers free vegan starter kits and encourages everyone to try healthy, humane vegan meals such as Gardein's delicious Golden Fishless Filets.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

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100 Dead Sharks Lead to Billboard: Humans Have "the Deadliest Jaws"!

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Because nearly 100 bull sharks have washed up along Mobile Bay beaches-40 of them tangled in fishing nets-PETA is negotiating with outdoor advertisers to place a local billboard pointing out that fish, including sharks, have far more to fear from humans than the other way around, but that doesn't have to be the case.

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Written by PETA

If the thought of sharks makes you envision a water skier meeting his end while the Jaws theme plays, think again. The reality is that there are only a handful of shark attacks around the world each year (only a few of which prove fatal), while humans kill about 73 million sharks a year. Hopefully that number will now take a dive, as the Bahamas has banned shark fishing and made 243,000 square miles of ocean into protected territory.

So why do we kill 73 million sharks every year? It certainly isn't in self-defense. One of the main reasons is to fulfill the demand for shark-fin soup. Since only the fin is desired, sharks are dragged to the surface, their fins are cut off, and they are thrown back into the ocean to slowly die from their injuries, stress, or suffocation.

The United States, Canada, the European Union, and several other countries also have laws against shark finning. Only if compassionate people continue to decry shark fishing and refuse to purchase any shark meat or shark products (including shark cartilage supplements) will sharks be protected from the truly dangerous predators: people.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

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Written by PETA If the thought of sharks makes you envision a water skier meeting his end while the Jaws theme plays, think again. The reality is that there are only a handful of shark attacks around the world each year (only a few of which prove fatal), while humans kill about 73 million sharks a year.

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Found this website inspiring to use art work for exhibition during art class.

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The late Pablo Picasso once said that "we all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand." It's the same ethos Vicky Hwang (below), managing director for the Parkview Group in Singapore, applies to On Sharks and Humanity, a fantastical travelling art exhibition that will reach our country's shores on March 2017.

"Art appeals to the heart, art brings about emotions in ways that words cannot, art crosses all language barriers. More importantly, art brings people together," explained Hwang.

"What started out as two sculptures and two paintings soon grew to 29 artworks by 26 artists. In 2014 the exhibition was seen by 500,000 visitors at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, then it moved to Moscow in 2015, then onto the National Museum of China in Beijing where it looked to make an impact in raising awareness and inspiring change for the country credited as the number one consumer of sharks fin."

'Swimming' sculpture by Zou Liang

The exhibition hopes to shed light on the scourge of illegal shark fishing and to encourage today's generation to refrain from eating shark fin soup. While the movement has been gathering steam in the past few years, thanks to the efforts of numerous environmental advocates, Hwang believes more can and should be done.

Humans have a tendency to only initiate corrective action when it's far too late. Cases in point: irreversible climate change and animal extinction. The shark is an apex predator and a keystone species, and its extinction will result in a collapse of the oceanic world and the complete loss of many other marine animals further down the food chain.

"Some of the works show the beauty and grace of sharks, in an attempt to awaken the viewer's sense of aesthetic appreciation, while others show the barbarity of shark slaughter in an effort to stir the public's sympathy. All have the common goal of promoting activism on the behalf of sharks," Hwang said.

'The Butterfly In Love With The Flower' by Zheng Lu

On Sharks and Humanity is the first of many educational exhibitions and programmes that will be organised by Parkview Arts Action, under Parkview Group. Its new museum at Parkview Square will play host to these future shows. Good news: it will be open for free to the public in order to achieve "the twofold goal of involving the local community and to have an educational role by strengthening their appreciation and understanding of contemporary art".
On Sharks and Humanity will be presented from March 2017 at Parkview Museum. Admission is free.

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On Sharks And Humanity: A Travelling Art Exhibition - AUGUSTMAN.com

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The late Pablo Picasso once said that "we all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand."

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Take action to stop Shark Finning and Shark Fin Soup (Fin Free Thailand

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Take action to stop Shark Finning and Shark Fin Soup (Fin Free Thailand

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Taking shark fin off the menu to protect endangered species and public health.

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Thailand consuming too much Shark Fin (WildAid)

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Thailand consuming too much Shark Fin (WildAid)

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More than half of Thais have eaten shark fin and plan to consume it again in the future. A large proportion of people remain unaware about the magnitude and cruelty of the shark fin trade, suggesting a concerning potential for increased demand for fins in Thailand, according to a new report released today by WildAid. In addition, Thailand exports a significant amount of shark fin products, further increasing its impact on shark populations. The report "Shark Fin Demand in Thailand" compiles data on Thailand's role in the shark fin trade and results from a shark fin consumer survey conducted by WildAid and Rapid Asia.

The survey was part of a regional effort to better understand shark fin consumption and overall awareness and attitudes on issues relating to sharks and the shark fin trade in Southeast Asia.

Survey results show that the consumption of shark fin in Thailand is already widespread with potential to become a significant market for the trade. Fifty-seven percent of urban Thais have ever consumed shark fin and 29% have eaten it within the previous 12 months. Alarmingly, 61% said they will consume shark fin in the future, citing curiosity and having heard from others that it tastes good, although shark fin itself has no flavor (flavor comes mostly from the broth that it is cooked in and added ingredients).

Survey respondents reported they consumed shark fin most often at weddings (72%), family meals at restaurants (61%) and business meetings (47%). Preliminary market research by WildAid recorded at least 100 restaurants serving shark fin in Bangkok.

An estimated 100 million sharks are killed every year and fins from up to 73 million sharks each year end up in shark fin soup. Thailand is home to an active domestic market for fins, with many consumers unaware of the wasteful practice of "finning" behind each bowl of shark fin soup: a shark's fins are often cut off at sea and the rest of the animal is thrown back into the water to die.

"These survey results confirm that there is a strong need in Thailand to raise awareness of the impacts of shark fin consumption and to reduce the demand for shark fin products. When the buying stops, the killing can too." said John Baker, Managing Director, WildAid.

According to Food Intelligence Centre Thailand, between 2012 and 2016 alone, Thailand has exported over 22,467 tonnes of shark fin and processed shark fin products and imported over 451.57 tonnes. In 2015, Thailand exported over 5,000 tonnes of shark fin, roughly equivalent to the amount that was imported into Hong Kong in that year. It is not clear where the fins are sourced from, as Thailand's domestic shark population would appear insufficient to account for reported quantities. This data ranks Thailand as the world's number one exporter of shark fins.

The prices for a bowl of shark fin soup ranged widely, from as low as 300 Baht on the street to as high as 4,000 Baht in a high-end restaurant.

WildAid also surveyed the Thai public to better understand their awareness of issues facing sharks and found worrying results. At least half of all respondents lack adequate awareness of the consequences of the fin trade on shark populations worldwide, both unaware that sharks are often killed just for their fins and that some shark populations have already declined by 98%, while 85% don't know about the number of sharks killed each year.

In an effort to build public awareness on the issue, WildAid in partnership with Infographic Thailand also released motion infographic encouraging the Thai public to say no to shark fin soup.

"This year WildAid hopes to work closely with the government, increase restaurant and hotel partnerships, and recruit celebrity ambassadors for media and public outreach. The more people learn about the consequences of eating shark fin soup, the less they want to participate in the trade. Together, we can end the demand for shark fin in Thailand," added Baker.

About WildAid

WildAid is a non-profit organization with a mission to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes. While most wildlife conservation groups focus on protecting animals from poaching, WildAid primarily works to reduce global consumption of wildlife products such as elephant ivory, rhino horn and shark fin soup. With an unrivaled portfolio of celebrity ambassadors and global network of media partners, WildAid leverages nearly $230 million in annual pro-bono media support with a simple message: When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too.
Journalists on deadline may email communications@wildaid.org

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Thailand Eating Too Much Shark Fin - WildAid

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More than half of Thais have eaten shark fin and plan to consume it again in the future. A large proportion of people remain unaware about the magnitude and cruelty of the shark fin trade, suggesting a concerning potential for increased demand for fins in Thailand, according to a new report released today by WildAid.

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Shark Finning in Peril (WILD AID, YOUTUBE)

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Shark Finning in Peril (WILD AID, YOUTUBE)

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WildAid - Planet in Peril: Shark Finning

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The story goes that shark fin soup was created by an emperor in the Sung Dynasty (AD 968) who wanted to show how powerful, wealthy and generous he was to his banquet guests. Serving the expensive dish came to be seen as a sign of respect.

"The Big 4"

The dish became a popular delicacy and is now known for being part of what is known as the Big 4 - a set of dishes representing different things in Chinese culture such as prosperity and health at a traditional dinner banquet. Often reserved for special occasions like weddings, the Big 4 consists of:

Shark fin as a symbol of status & face

Like many dishes in traditional cultures, shark fin is served as a symbol of class and wealth. Shark fin - like a brand name car or bag - is known as a "conspicuous consumption" product, meaning that it is served as a public display of social status.

Traditionally, the groom's side of the family pays for the wedding banquet and folklore used to say that "a bride marrying into a family without shark fin soup on the table, is marry into a poor family." Although we now know that is simply not true, this dish now has become an ingrained tradition of status, "face" and respect. Much like how one may expect turkey at Thanksgiving dinner, banquet guests may expect shark fin at the wedding table.

Shark fin as an act of generosity

In Chinese culture, there is a strong virtue of "sharing your fortune" with others. Many elders (our parents and grandparents) who emigrated out of their home country did it to build a future for their children. Often times, these elder struggled with poverty and segregation and serving shark fin at their children's or grandchildren's banquet is their way of saying, "look how hard I have worked my whole life. Now I can finally afford these expensive dishes and I want to share it with you all - my family, my friends."

A value we are proud of at Shark Truth, we remind folks that we can showcase our generosity through other means, like giving a donation to nonprofits as wedding favours!

Fish wing soup?

Using expensive products to display your social status is a pervasive tradition in many cultures and shark fin is no exception to this cultural norm. Language is another reason why many consumers don't know about the issue. In Chinese, shark fin is called Yu Chi which literally translates into English as "fish wing."

In other words, it is only in recent shark conservation history that the general public is beginning to learn that the "fish wing" in Yu Chi is actually made of shark, and that sharks are in danger of becoming extinct.

How shark fin is served & what it's made of

A Culinary Art
Shark fin soup is a thickened soup made with chicken and ham broth (and likely some MSG). It can be accompanied by shredded chicken and is either served in "threads" (torn up strands like thick vermicelli) or the fin can be served whole (more expensive). The price per bowl can range from $5 a bowl up to upwards of $2,000 a bowl depending on the type and style of shark fin served. But no matter how it is served, none of the soup's flavour actually comes from shark fin. It is essentially symbolic.

There is also a rich tradition behind the preparation of the soup. The New Yorker Magazine interviewed Corey Lee, the former chef de cuisine at The French Laundry, who worked on a recipe for a faux shark-fin soup. The article talks about how the cooking of the soup is really a culinary art that was perfected over thousands of years. There is no question that shark fin itself has no nutritious or taste value. Nowadays, it is often said that shark fin is eaten for its texture, a texture that Corey Lee, the former chef de cuisine at the French Laundry in San Francisco has proved that can be replaced by other non-endangered seafood or fake shark fin.

Alternatives & change

With all the alternatives available for banquet hosts, we're already beginning to see a shift in consumer behaviour and a desire to go Fin Free. To see how values are changing, watch Tides are Turning.

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The story goes that shark fin soup was created by an emperor in the Sung Dynasty (AD 968) who wanted to show how powerful, wealthy and generous he was to his banquet guests. Serving the expensive dish came to be seen as a sign of respect.

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Hundreds of sharks and other fish have been discovered dead after getting tangled in a floating "ghost net" in the Caribbean.

British fisherman Dominick Martin-Mayes made the horrifying discovery off the Cayman Islands, where he and his friends found the "solid net of decomposing fish and sharks" on Monday afternoon.

Heartbreaking photos show an oceanic whitetip shark trapped in the outer web - one of up to 30 sharks believed to be floating in the vast weighted net measuring 40 feet deep and 40 feet wide.

Martin-Mayes, also a diving instructor, told The Independent: "At first we thought it was a log, but as we got closer, we could see it was a net with floats.

"I jumped in the water first and was shocked at what I saw. It took my breath away - the first thing I saw was the juvenile oceanic whitetip [shark].

"I got my buddy who was with me to grab a knife and jump in. We did what we could to free some of the trapped life but most of it was already dead."

The marine biology graduate thought it "likely" the net had traveled more than a hundred miles from where they first discovered it, four miles north of Grand Cayman.

Martin-Mayes said alongside a mass of sharks there were also jacks, triple tails, big ocean turbots and a variety of pelagic fish caught inside.

The dead and trapped fish created a bloody slick, which attracts sharks and other predators.

He described the sight as "heartbreaking," adding: "The fish come and eat what is there and get caught up in it themselves, so it just snowballs and becomes this gigantic floating net of death."

The Cayman Islands Department of Environment has scrambled a mosquito plane and issued a warning to boaters in an effort to recover the net.

Tim Austin, deputy director, told the Cayman Compass: "If we can locate it, we can assess whether we can recover it or tow it somewhere to secure it till it can be dealt with safely."

"We don't want it to end up in the reef and we need to stop its deadly ghost fishing."

Martin-Mayes said he hoped his find would draw attention to the dangers of dodgy fishing practices, as well as the dumping of nets and other dangerous rubbish in the ocean that have been highlighted by "Blue Planet."

He said: "When you see this sort of thing on television, on documentaries, you think that's terrible, but when you see it firsthand, it is genuinely heartbreaking."

"The sad thing is it is not likely to be the only one out there."

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'Ghost net' full of tangled sharks is a giant marine graveyard

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Hundreds of sharks and other fish have been discovered dead after getting tangled in a floating "ghost net" in the Caribbean. British fisherman Dominick Martin-Mayes made the horrifying discovery off the Cayman Islands, where he and his friends found the "solid net of decomposing fish and sharks" on Monday afternoon.

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The Push to Stop the Killing of Sharks for Their Fins (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC)

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The Push to Stop the Killing of Sharks for Their Fins (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC)

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This story appears in the July 2016 issue ofNational Geographic magazine.

A hammerhead shark is pulled aboard a fishing boat 500 miles off the coast of Indonesia. Its flesh is not worth much, but its fins could fetch $100 a pound. The fishermen grab the shark, slice off its fins, and throw the animal, still alive, back into the sea to sink to the ocean floor.

According to some estimates, 100 million sharks from a variety of species may be killed annually, mostly to feed China's demand for shark fin soup, scientists say. Historically most fins have gone to southern China, where the soup is a popular wedding dish. But an anti-fin campaign has emerged, using celebrities such as actor Jackie Chan and former NBA star Yao Ming.

Some say this effort may have cut Asia's shark fin demand by 70 percent. The Chinese government has outlawed shark fin soup at government events. But it's not clear whether the wholesale slaughter of sharks has really slowed. Fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly says the government action "is enough to eliminate finning from the radar of Western organizations. And it may continue under the radar until the last shark is caught."

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The Push to Stop the Killing of Sharks for Their Fins

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This story appears in the July 2016 issue ofNational Geographic magazine. A hammerhead shark is pulled aboard a fishing boat 500 miles off the coast of Indonesia. Its flesh is not worth much, but its fins could fetch $100 a pound.

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Proposal to protect Blue Sharks may hit shark fin traders hard (SCMP VIDEO)

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Proposal to protect Blue Sharks may hit shark fin traders hard (SCMP VIDEO)

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Proposal to protect blue sharks may hit shark fin traders hard

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Hong Kong is one of the world’s largest hubs for shark fin trade, and up to 80 per cent of these come from bluefin sharks. A proposal to elevate the blue shark to a...

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New Shark-Fin Pictures Reveal Ocean Strip-Mining (NAT GEO WILD)

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New Shark-Fin Pictures Reveal Ocean Strip-Mining (NAT GEO WILD)

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New Shark-Fin Pictures Reveal Ocean "Strip Mining"

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Pictures taken by the Pew Environment Group in Taiwan suggest that fishers are "strip mining" the oceans of sharks, conservationists say.

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Indonesia’s fishermen turn to shark finning to satisfy demand for shark’s fin soup and earn some extra money (SCMP)

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Indonesia’s fishermen turn to shark finning to satisfy demand for shark’s fin soup and earn some extra money (SCMP)

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Indonesia's fishermen turn to shark finning to feed demand for delicacy

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Shark finning - slicing the fins off live sharks, then dropping them back into the ocean to die - earns fishing crews millions of rupiah, with most fins exported to markets including Hong Kong and Singapore for use in shark's fin soup

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Can the Ocean’s Fastest Shark Out-swim Our Appetite for It? (NAT GEO WILD)

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Can the Ocean’s Fastest Shark Out-swim Our Appetite for It? (NAT GEO WILD)

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I suggest you looking at the 6th image of the first album out of 20 pictures.

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This story appears in the August 2017 issue ofNational Geographic magazine.

Zane Grey made his name writing adventure novels about the American West, but his real love wasn't gunslinging or cowpoking; it was deep-sea fishing. He held 14 world records for catching saltwater fish, including the first billfish over 1,000 pounds landed with a rod and reel, a marlin he caught in Tahiti in 1930. But nothing compared to the shortfin makos he encountered off the coast of New Zealand in 1926.

The first mako Grey got on the line was a 258-pounder, and when he reeled it to the side of the boat, "quickly I learned something about mako!" he wrote in his book Tales of the Angler's Eldorado, New Zealand. "He put up a terrific battle, broke one gaff, soaked us through with water, and gave no end of trouble." Once the shark was landed, Grey marveled at its build-streamlined, muscular, with a head like a bullet. "I had never seen its like," he wrote. "Every line of this mako showed speed and power."

But it was the 1,200-pounder that the captain of his boat battled that led to almost mythical superlatives. After a long fight in which the mako "leapt prodigiously and made incredible runs," the shark bit through the leader and escaped. "I was terrified," the captain told Grey. "It seemed that mako filled the whole sky. He was the most savage and powerful brute I ever saw, let alone had on a line!"

Almost a century later, shortfin makos still have a herculean reputation among fishermen, who love them for their fight and their meat in equal measure. But a century of fishing appears to have taken a toll. Shortfin makos-which are distinguished from their much rarer cousins, longfin makos, by, among other things, their shorter pectoral fins (in this article, "makos" will refer to shortfin makos)-are eagerly targeted by recreational fishermen and frequently caught as bycatch by commercial long-liners. Their meat rivals swordfish in quality, and their fins are prized in Asia for shark fin soup, a combination that has put makos under significant pressure. But how much pressure, and to what ultimate effect, is uncertain. Scientists have no clear idea how many makos there are in the Earth's oceans, and most of the data on catch and mortality rates come from commercial fishing operations, which famously tend to underreport catches. So biologists studying makos are trying to fill in some huge knowledge gaps.

In the summer of 2015 I was invited to join a mako-tagging operation off the Maryland coast with scientists trying to bridge some of those gaps. I thought it would go like this: We catch big makos; they put on the kind of show that Zane Grey saw; and I get great color for this story. Instead, I learned firsthand that Mark Twain was right about seasickness ("At first you are so sick you are afraid you will die, and then you are so sick you are afraid you won't") and was woozily indifferent when the fishermen on board reeled in two small makos, neither of which put up much of a fight. So I decided to try again-this time with a seasickness patch-in Rhode Island later in the summer. And that's when I saw what I really needed to see.

On each trip I accompanied scientists affiliated with the Guy Harvey Research Institute, which has been tagging and tracking makos in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico since 2008, with the primary objective of studying the sharks' movement patterns. Makos in the western North Atlantic are highly migratory, traveling northward during the warmer months and then south as winter approaches. The excursions off Maryland's coast in May were a resounding success: Over two weeks, 12 makos were fitted with satellite transmitters. By contrast, the Rhode Island excursions in August were a resounding failure: one week, zero makos. But that contrast offered a clue as to what might be happening with makos in the Atlantic.

To pick up on the clue, you have to know one of the first things you learn when you're fishing for makos: They share territory with blue sharks. The two species are kind of like lions and hyenas, coexisting in the same areas as they pursue different feeding strategies. Shortfin makos are the fastest sharks in the ocean, capable of reaching 35 miles an hour as they chase down speedy prey such as bluefish and tuna, and sport fishermen love their power. Blue sharks, on the other hand, are relatively laconic and focus on slower prey, like squid. Catching them is like, in one fisherman's words, "reeling in a barn door," and their meat is not nearly as good to eat as a mako's. So you can guess which one is the lion in the analogy and which is the hyena. Everyone wants to bag the lion.

On our second day out of Narragansett, Rhode Island, as we hauled yet another blue shark to the side of the boat, I finally took note of the obvious.

"It seems like all the blue sharks have hooks in their mouths," I said. Brad Wetherbee, the marine ecologist from the University of Rhode Island who was there to tag any makos we caught, said, "Yup. Every one we've brought back to the boat so far has had a hook in it."

Removing a hook from a shark's mouth can be dangerous, so fishermen just cut the leaders and leave the hooks to rust away. And because the fishermen are after makos, they're much more likely to release blue sharks. "I've never seen a mako with a hook," the ship's mate, Lucas Berg, told me our first day out. "People don't ever let them go. But we've caught blue sharks with four hooks in their mouth."

The fishing pressures on makos are intense, Wetherbee explained. The ones we were trying to catch swim northward up the Atlantic coast in the summer, and between everyday recreational fishing and the dozens of shark-fishing tournaments held between Maryland and Rhode Island, it's a perilous journey for the sharks. "A lot of them have been weeded out by the time they get up here," Wetherbee said.

"Is the catch rate sustainable?" I asked him. Makos, like many sharks, are especially vulnerable to overfishing because of their small litters and high age of sexual maturity. (One study suggests that female makos don't reach maturity until around 15 years old or later, but these figures are not definitive. Biologists agree more research is needed.)

"We don't know," he said. "These are far-ranging, international sharks-some of our [tagged] makos have gone into the waters of at least 17 different countries-and there's not enough data for management agencies to come up with a good estimate of whether the population is going up or down or staying the same. There's probably some number of mako sharks that would be fine to catch and kill. But we don't know if it's 100, or 1,000, or 100,000."

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates fishing in U.S. waters, makos are being fished at a sustainable level. This assessment is based largely on catch figures supplied by commercial long-liners to the international organization that regulates fishing for tuna and other pelagic fish in the Atlantic, and those figures show a relatively consistent harvest over recent years, suggesting that mako populations are stable. But the figures are an imprecise measure. The catch is recorded in metric tons, and basic information like the number of sharks caught, and the size and sex of those sharks, can be missing. On top of that, many catches go unreported, leading scientists to question the reliability of both the data and the stock assessments.

What Wetherbee and his team do know is that the sharks they're tagging are not faring well. The tags they use-about the size of a Zippo lighter, mounted on the dorsal fin-send signals to satellites every time the sharks surface, allowing researchers to create detailed maps of their movements. When the signals start coming from land, they know the sharks have been caught. "We've tagged 49 makos, and 11 have been killed," Wetherbee told me. (Within a month, that number had increased to 12.) I said that seemed like a lot, and he agreed: The sample size is small, but the catch rate is troubling.

Back on land, I called Mahmood Shivji, the Nova Southeastern University scientist who leads the tagging project. "What amazes me," he said, "is that it's a vast ocean out there and these animals move a lot, and yet these tagged animals are running into fishing hooks to the tune of 25 percent. No shark fishery can sustain a 25 percent removal every year."

After my seasick cruise, I returned to the Maryland shore for Mako Mania, an annual shark-fishing tournament held at the Bahia Marina in Ocean City. This Mako Mania should not be confused with the Mako Mania tournament in Point Pleasant, New Jersey-or, for that matter, with the Mako Fever tournament in New Jersey or the Mako Rodeo tournament, also in New Jersey, or with any of the other 65 or so U.S. tournaments that include prizes for pelagic sharks like makos, threshers, and tiger sharks. After Jaws hit theaters in 1975, tournaments popped up along the eastern seaboard, and ever since, summer has not been a good time to be a shark in the North Atlantic.

I arrived at the marina just as the first sharks were being brought to the docks. It was a festive scene-hundreds of people eating and drinking and cheering for the anglers and their kills. Next to me a woman and a young boy watched as a 282-pound mako-the winner in the mako category, it turned out-was hoisted to be weighed. The anglers pulled up the snout for photographs, and the woman turned to the boy and said, "This is really cool, right?" The boy nodded silently, transfixed by the shark's bloody grimace.

As the sharks continued rolling in-147-pound mako, 466-pound thresher, 500-pound thresher, 174-pound mako-I talked with the tournament's organizer, Shawn Harman. "What's more fun than seeing sharks?" he asked, surveying the cheering crowd. When we got to some of the knottier questions about the controversy over "kill tournaments," as critics call them (versus "no kill" or "catch and release" tournaments, which are rare but do exist), he explained that his tournament was not like those of old-back in the 1970s and '80s, when the sharks would pile up on the docks and go wholesale into the Dumpster afterward. Here, the only sharks brought to the dock were threshers and makos, the best tasting sharks in the ocean, with minimum sizes and a catch limit of one fish per boat per day. (Over the course of three days, 16 sharks were brought to the dock to be weighed.) "Nobody's wantonly killing fish here. Everyone here eats what they kill."

I asked him where I might find mako on the menu, to see what it tastes like, and he fetched a fillet from one of the sharks just brought in, had it blackened, and served it to me on a bun with wasabi mayo. It was delicious-as good as any billfish I'd ever had.

But the tasty sandwich and the festivity of the scene could not entirely conceal the problematic nature of the event. Later in the day, one of the fishermen told me that a 500-pound thresher shark brought in earlier had been pregnant, and when it was gutted, the tournament staff tried to hide the pups from the crowd. Threshers, like makos, are considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and though killing the pregnant females of vulnerable species may be legal, it makes for bad publicity.

I asked Harman about the pregnant shark. He denied the story, so I asked one of the guys cleaning the fish, and he said yes, there had been three or four pups, each two to three feet long. I went back to Harman to ask him why he denied it. He got a little flustered and told me he was afraid of being the "bad guy" in the story. "We're following the law, according to what the law says is sustainable," he said. "If they make it illegal, we'll stop."

The captains of the boats I went out in for those tagging operations in Maryland and Rhode Island are both longtime shark fishermen. They are not reflexively against the capture and killing of fish, and they are not squeamish about what deep-sea fishing entails. But both men have qualms about how sharks are being fished.

Mark Sampson, the Maryland captain, started a prominent shark-fishing tournament in Ocean City in 1981 and ran it for more than three decades. But he became increasingly concerned about the conservation of shark populations, so he made his size limits more restrictive to reduce the number of sharks caught. He also insisted that anglers use "circle hooks," which, in contrast to conventional "J-hooks," don't lodge in a shark's stomach when swallowed and result in fewer unnecessary killings. Some fishermen balked, participation declined, and because of the higher size limits, he said, "we had days in our tournament where not a single shark was brought back to the dock.

"That's not the recipe for a successful tournament, because people want to see those fish being brought in and weighed," Sampson said. He shuttered his tournament in 2014, and he doesn't accept charters for anglers who want to use his boat to participate in other shark tournaments.

Charlie Donilon, the Rhode Island captain, has run shark-fishing charters since 1976. Where Sampson is quiet and circumspect, Donilon is talkative and emotional, and on one of those days in August when we were on the boat waiting for the fish to bite, he told me about the time a client reeled in a mako that refused to go gently.

"I threw a harpoon in it, then I hit it with a flying gaff, and then tied it down to a side cleat, and the thing is scratching and blasting blood everywhere, and it's all being recorded by the client. The guy sent me the video, and I watched it with my wife, and she asked, 'Does that bother you?'"

It did, he said, and he started trying to persuade his customers to release the sharks they caught. "I'd tell people, a 100-pound mako is just a tot, just a kid, because they have the potential to grow to 1,000 pounds or more. So I'd really like to let it go, because it's an immature fish." But since almost all the makos they catch out there are juveniles, it stopped making sense to even ask the anglers. So in 2015 Donilon instituted a catch-and-release policy, no exceptions. His business has taken a hit. "I'm way off what I used to be," he said.

Donilon accepts the loss of business because it doesn't seem to him that the fishing is sustainable, no matter what the government says. "The sharks we tag, there's like a gantlet they have to go through coming up the coast. They've got to go through Maryland, New Jersey, Long Island, Massachusetts-and everyone in the world is out there fishing," he said. "They've got to be at least 15 years old in order to reproduce, the females. Now what are the odds of that shark making it up here 15 times without being caught? Pretty slim."

I thought of all the blue sharks we'd seen with hooks in their mouths, and it seemed to me he was right: pretty slim. Although most of the tagging study's casualties had been killed by commercial fishermen in international waters-not by recreational fishermen-the Fisheries Service's statistics attribute the majority of the mako kills in the U.S. to recreational fishermen. So who is fishing too much, and where? Empirically, it's still too soon to say. But Donilon, at least, doesn't need to wait for more data to render his verdict.

"I did my share of killing," he said one afternoon on the boat. "You know how there might be a guy in Africa who used to be a poacher, and he used to kill all the lions ..." And as he said this, his eyes teared up and his voice started quivering, and finally he choked out a half whisper: "You've got to give back. We just take, take all the time ..."

Society Grant Your National Geographic Society membership helped fund this project.

Glenn Hodges wrote about oceanic whitetip sharks in the August 2016 issue. PhotographerBrian Skerry has been named the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year for 2017.

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Can the Ocean's Fastest Shark Outswim Our Appetite for It?

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This story appears in the August 2017 issue ofNational Geographic magazine. Zane Grey made his name writing adventure novels about the American West, but his real love wasn't gunslinging or cowpoking; it was deep-sea fishing. He held 14 world records for catching saltwater fish, including the first billfish over 1,000 pounds landed with a rod and reel, a marlin he caught in Tahiti in 1930.

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Slaughterhouse said to process "Horrifying" number of sharks annually (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC) 

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Slaughterhouse said to process "Horrifying" number of sharks annually (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC) 

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Whale sharks are being slaughtered: That's the shocking news from a report issued by WildLifeRisk, a nongovernmental organization. A three-year investigation provides evidence that a factory in southeastern China is cutting up about 600 of the 21-ton (19-tonne) fish a year.

It's illegal-whale sharks are a protected species under Chinese and international law. But it's easy to understand why: A single carcass is worth about $30,000. The shark meat is sold for food, the fins are sold to restaurants for shark fin soup, the skin is sold to manufacturers for bags, and the oil is sold to companies that make fish oil supplements.

The factory is also reportedly killing and processing other species under international protection, including basking sharks and great white sharks.

Hong Kong-based activists Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton, who founded WildLifeRisk, visited the facility in PuQi township (map), China, three times between 2010 and 2013, posing as buyers. They obtained covert audio and video recordings of the factory's activities.

In a taped conversation between factory general manager Li Guang and a translator, Li states the facility processes between 500 and 600 big sharks each year, including whale and basking sharks.

A nongovernmental organization in China tipped off Hofford and Hilton to this factory. "But to protect them, we can't reveal their name," writes Hofford in an email to National Geographic.

"If they're in fact processing 600 a year, that's pretty horrifying," says Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. The worldwide population is estimated to be in the thousands. (Read about whale sharks in National Geographic magazine.)

The report states that local fishers supply these sharks to the factory, but that the animals also come in from as far away as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Mexico.

Hueter can recall only one other similar instance of whale sharks being slaughtered: a legal fishery in Taiwan that took about 800 whale sharks between 1995 and 2008. That fishery folded six years ago due to international pressure.

All three species- whale, basking, and great white sharks-are protected under CITES Appendix II, meaning that although they are not currently threatened with extinction, "they may become so unless trade is closely controlled," according to the CITES website.

Countries that have signed the treaty-which include China-must demonstrate that the export of species listed on Appendix II is done sustainably and legally, explains Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International in Washington, D.C.

The report states that China has its own national protections in place for these three shark species, and that a special permit is needed to hunt them.

A statement by the Bureau of Fisheries-which is under China's Ministry of Agriculture-in the South China Morning Post noted that "the hunting and sale of the three shark species was illegal on the mainland and punishable by a fine or jail sentence."

Hofford says that he and Hilton are now working with the director of The Cove-the documentary detailing the roundup of dolphins in Taiji, Japan-to bring wider attention and awareness to the issue of shark fisheries. (See also "Albino Dolphin: Uncertain Fate Awaits Rare Calf Captured in Japanese Hunt.")

Hueter himself is reaching out to colleagues in Asia to get more details on this factory.

"What bothers me about this report is that this is an undercover operation going on in China," Hueter says. "So if there's one of these [factories], the chances that there's more than one are pretty good, I'm guessing." (Learn about citizen scientists tracking whale sharks.)
Follow Jane J. Lee on Twitter.

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Slaughterhouse Said to Process "Horrifying" Number of Whale Sharks Annually

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Whale sharks are being slaughtered: That's the shocking news from a report issued by WildLifeRisk, a nongovernmental organization. A three-year investigation provides evidence that a factory in southeastern China is cutting up about 600 of the 21-ton (19-tonne) fish a year. It's illegal-whale sharks are a protected species under Chinese and international law.

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About one month ago I stumbled across another SCMP article on the phone, but this time it was about animal abuse but they were mostly focusing on Dogs and cats.

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Dog lovers bite back: can Hong Kong do better to fight animal abuse?

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Activists and pet owners call for special law enforcement team to handle animal cruelty cases, but it seems an overhaul of the system, down to public responsibility, may be needed