Shark Fins

(Dive Travel Business News - January 18, 2012) -- Hong-Kong based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has announced its "Sustainable Seafood Policy" including the commitment to cease serving shark fin in all of its operated restaurants as well as accepting new orders for shark fin products in banqueting with immediate effect.

Future banquet bookings made prior to this date will be honoured as per the signed contractual agreement. At the same time, Shangri-La announced that it will phase out Bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass in all its operated restaurants within the year. In December 2010 the company initiated the process with the removal of shark fin products from its restaurant menus. The new policy is a continuation of Shangri-La's journey towards environmental support.

The company launched its first CSR initiatives in 2005 which were streamlined and formalised in 2009 in the three main areas of Sustainability, Embrace and Sanctuary towards a strategic commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - October 23, 2011) -- Colombian environmental authorities have reported a huge shark massacre in the Malpelo wildlife sanctuary in Columbia's Pacific waters, where as many as 2,000 hammerhead, Galápagos and silky sharks may have been slaughtered for their fins.

A team of divers who were studying sharks in the region, reported the mass killing in the waters surrounding the rock-island known as Malpelo, some 500 kilometres from the mainland. The divers spotted 10 fishing trawlers “entering the zone illegally,” said a Colombian environmental official. All reportedly flew Costa Rican flags.

“When the divers dove, they started finding a large number of animals without their fins. They didn't see any alive,” the official said.  The shark kill estimate is based on calculating an average of 200 sharks per boat. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - Sept 13, 2010) -- The Shark Research Institute has been offered a matching grant of $50,000 for a media campaign project - which means in order to receive the funds, we must raise $50,000 for this project.

The project is a media campaign in Hong Kong to inform the public about the very high levels of methylmercury and other toxins in sharks, why it is so dangerous to consume sharks and other large marine predators, and the effects of methylmercury in humans and developing fetuses. (Hong Kong is the largest importer of shark fins in the world).

This project will receive the much-needed match grant if every member will donate $5 (a.k.a. a Fin) .

Donations can be sent by check to: SRI, PO Box 40, Princeton NJ 08540, USA, read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - June 3, 2010) -- The Maldives’ nation continues to be a frontrunner in environmental activism with their latest announcement that offers complete protection for sharks in its  90,000 sq.kms (34,750 sq.miles) of Maldives territorial waters. The huge shark sanctuary will be free of all shark fishing and finning, protecting more than 30 different species that make their home in the region. The Maldives has further banned all imports and exports of shark fins and shark products.

"The Maldives were one of the first countries to recognize that sharks were a key reason tourists went to dive there," said Matt Rand, Director of Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group. "Today's announcement protects the Maldives' tourism industry - the largest segment of their economy - from the ravages of the shark fin trade. It is a bold and farsighted move on the part of the government of the Maldives." read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - May 6, 2010 ) -- A proposal to ban the trade of shark fins was introduced by Sen. Clayton Hee on April 28, 2010 in the Hawaii Legislature. Senate Bill 2169 prohibits the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins in the state of Hawaii.

State Sen. Clayton Hee is rallying support for the legislation he introduced that would make Hawaii a leader in the global fight to end shark finning. The practice involves cutting the fins off sharks, then discarding the live animals in the ocean to drown. The debate over shark finning in Hawaii is a controversial issue in the legislature. But Hee says shark fishing is insignificant when compared with the total fish take in Hawaii, and longline fishermen do not even fish for sharks. read more »