There needs be more focus to end the U.S. Shark-Fin Trade
I clearly remember my first giant stride off a dive boat to do my very first Open Water training dive. I looked around at the sandy bottom below, taking in the beauty of the living coral reef, and then out of no where a large black tip reef shark swam across the bottom below me.
Seeing a shark while diving gives you a real feeling that we are not the top predators in all environments.
We are a guest in their home, and we need respect this.
I remember a time when I was very young living back home in Pennsylvania. We had this coffee table picture book and in it was a photo of a famous painting of a boat sinking and a young boy about to be eaten by a huge shark. I remember staring at this image many times when I was just a small child. It terrified me. It made me think that every time I was out on the ocean in a boat, there was a huge shark right under the boat wanting to eat me up at it’s first chance to do so.
How different my World is today, being able to dive side by side with sharks, and not evening thinking that they would attack me.
Divers more than anyone need help Ban Shark-Fin Trade
Divers more than anyone should be outraged at the horrid treatment of sharks. Purely to only satisfy a demand for shark-fin soup, sharks all over the World are tracked, fished, caught and hauled onto boats, where while still alive and breathing their fins are brutally hacked off their bodies, and then while still struggling to be alive and suffering in pain their mutilated bodies are tossed back into the ocean. Sharks need to keep moving to be able to breath in the water, so with no fins, they now suffer the worst possible death. They lay on the bottom bleeding to death and drowning, while other fish proceed to eat them while dying.
Oceana reports that around 73 million sharks are killed this way every single year for the shark-fin trade.
This is just disgusting to me. This needs stopped!
You can help right now:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/banthefin-US/
An all-out trade ban would solve this problem
If divers would just join together from every nation around the World to put a stop to shark-in trade, we can make a difference.
If there was a way to promote a Ban on Shark-Fin Soup, this would be a huge first step in solving the problem.
There is much being done for putting an end to the Ivory trade, and the slaughter of elephants, It is time for the sharks to receive the same protection.
For these much needed bills to be passed there needs to be support by as many people as possible.
We the diving community need to band together and make a stand to support an all-out shark-fin trade ban.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/796/761/442/ban-the-sale-trade-of-shark-fin-products-in-the-usa/
An ocean without sharks will be out of balance
Divers stop and think about this for a moment, what would it be like to know you would never ever again see a single shark during any scuba dive anywhere in the World. It would be horrible. It would be so sad.
Sharks give a thrill to every dive when you get to see one. I cannot image a world of diving without sharks.
Call your members of congress to support this bill.
It only take less than a few minutes out of your day to place a simple phone call, or fill out an online petition, won’t you please help.
http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/ars/petition/Oceana-SharkFinTrade
Save our sharks, one signature or 1 phone call at a time. It costs you nothing, just a few minutes of your time.
