Shark Defenders

How to write an effective online petition in 5 easy steps

2013-05-19T17:25:00.001-04:00

Guest Blog
by AJ Sablan

For the purposes of this exercise, we are assuming that you have identified an environmental problem and that you want to fix that problem.

Online petition signatures play a prominent role in the modern environmental movement and learning how to write better petitions will make us better campaigners and allow us to harness the power of our least active supporters. And when I say campaigners, I say it with the understanding that a petition is being created as part of a campaign. Writing and publishing an online petition should never in and of itself be considered a campaign, but it can be an important tool in a larger strategy.

On their own, online signature petitions are one of the least effective means of campaigning. This is not to say that they are completely ineffective, there are just more effective tools and strategies out there.

Online petitions are created so that the least active activists can add their name and support to an issue. Policy makers understand this and often times when a petition is submitted it is listed in the public record by its title and the number of signatures. Regardless of the number of signatures, it counts as one.

In the world of advocacy, emails are more effective than online signatures. Letters carry more weight than emails. Telephone calls get better results than letters. And face-to-face meetings, especially repeated meetings with influential people, lead to real change.

The perfect example of using a petition as part of a larger strategy is our Guam Shark Fin Ban campaign in 2011. We worked with students at Simon Sanchez High School and George Washington High School to develop an online petition, a paper petition, and a letter writing campaign. At a public hearing at the Guam Senate, hundreds of students showed up with stacks of letters and petitions and holding signs. The public support was so overwhelming the senators had no choice but to pass the law unanimously. The online petition played only a part.

It is also important to note that not all petitions are created to call for change. Sign a politician’s petition and you’ll quickly start receiving requests for campaign donations. Many member driven environmental organizations do the same thing. Shark Defenders does something similar, but we don’t ask for money. We ask you to sign our pledge and this adds you to our email list, which we use to follow up later when we need you to sign a petition, write a letter, or attend a public hearing. This blog is not meant to help you differentiate between other organization’s petitions, but to help you create your own.

#1. Use proper spelling and grammar
You know those emails you get from Nigeria asking you to send them money? That’s what policy makers think of when you send them your petition with grammar and spelling mistakes. Try to avoid that. And don’t use slang or emoticons, either.

#2. Be specific with what you are asking
In order to protect sharks, we can change laws, regulations, policies, or international agreements. This can be done by passing legislation, going through the regulatory process, issuing an executive order, or getting all members of an international body to agree on something, respectively. There may be other ways of protecting sharks, but this covers all the shark fin trade bans, shark sanctuaries, and international and regional agreements created thus far. For example, with the recent successes at CITES, petitions such as Shark Stanley, asked governments to vote yes on shark protections. In Guam we asked for support of Bill 44. A blanket call to protect sharks or end “finning” does not help. In fact, you should know the difference between finning, fin trade bans, and shark fishing (this will be the topic of an upcoming blog). You have to be specific by spelling out what it is you want to change.

#3. Target the person or organization you want to take action
Speaking of which, not only does your petition have to explain how you want to protect sharks, it also has to target the person who is going to do it. Are you asking your legislature to pass a law? Do you want the president to sign it? Do you want the foreign minister to support something at an international meeting? Whatever policy it is you want changed, there is a real human being who will have to either change it or carry it out. That person has an email address and an office with both a mailbox and a telephone. Figure out who that person or persons may be, and make them the target of your efforts. You need to understand the process of how that person will make that change, too. During the recent CITES meeting, many petitions called on CITES to protect sharks when in fact it was the members countries that did the voting. Some of the petitions were only delivered to the countries that were already supporting the proposals, too. It was the petitions that were delivered to the undecided countries that mattered. Take issues like this into account when you target your petition.

#4. Deliver your petition
All your effort creating a specific ask to a targeted person with proper grammar and spelling will have been a waste of time if your petition is not delivered. Some of the petition websites deliver emails to the targets, but not all of them do. You can also deliver your petition in person by printing it up, putting a cover sheet on it and carrying it to your target’s office. You can also deliver it via the media. Call up your local reporter and tell them how many people signed your petition and see if they’ll write a story.

#5. Be Creative
And most importantly, stand out from the crowd. Policy makers receive a barrage of communication from their constituents. There are already a mess of shark petitions out there, not to mention petitions for everything else under the sun including guns, jobs, abortion, government spending, education, and you name it. There is an advocacy group for every issue these days. You need to make your voice and the voice of your supporters heard above all that noise. We think Shark Stanley did a very good job of doing this. What’s your creative idea?

BONUS: Give your supporters something else to do
And remember, an online petition is the least effective tool in your advocacy arsenal. You should have it available for your least active supporters to sign, but at the same time you should also be helping your more active supporters send emails, make phone calls, and set up meetings.

We encourage your feedback and ideas you may have. Please leave them in the comments section of the blog (not Facebook and Twitter).

45 Minutes in Kiribati

2013-05-16T00:47:00.002-04:00

Working in shark conservation takes me to some exotic locations on the globe. This week I am in Fiji working with our partners. My flight from Hawaii made a connection in Kiritimati in the Line Islands of Kiribati on the way there. Here are a few photos I snapped out the window with my phone.

I've been to several atolls in the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia, but Kiritimati is unlike any I've ever seen before. The island is a raised coral atoll, so where there would normally be lagoon are sand flats and copra plantations.

That's the Kiritimati International Airport over my shoulder. We weren't allowed to deplane unless we were disembarking, but the airline attendants let us stand in the plane's door to snap photos.

Most of the people flying from Hawaii to Kiritimati were American tourists. The sand flats have some of the best bone fishing in the world. Flyfishermen fly in, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish, and then fly out when the weekly flight comes back.

We were only on the ground for about 45 minutes. I'm sure if you googled them, you'd be able to find photos of the island and the surrounding waters, but I thought you'd enjoy my photos. I uploaded a few more to Facebook if you are interested.

STOP - Hammertime!

2013-05-14T14:44:00.001-04:00

Guest Blog
by Annie Anderson

In my last blog you read about my experience volunteering at the Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation (BBFSF). This time you’re going to hear about all sorts including a very epic shark dive!

In February this year I was fortunate enough to head back over to Bimini to help support the Sharklab with a few projects, to indulge in some relaxation, and to dive with sharks!

Whilst at the lab one of the Ph.D. students Jean Finger hoped to capture Lemon sharks for his project on personality traits. He decided to place a gillnet in a popular ‘hot spot’ hoping that we could capture some sharks for his behavioural trials. So with the sun shining I headed out with a crew on one of the labs skiffs to assist with a day's gillnetting. As mentioned previously the Sharklab check the nets every 15 minutes to release any bycatch such as crabs, rays and other fish. With the net set it was a waiting game. Sitting on a boat for hours in 28 degree heat with no shade can be both relaxing (For those who desire a tan!) and draining (For those who get hot and bothered!) Drinking water, sunscreen and a hat were total necessities. For 5 long hours we waited with not a single shark in sight!

We did catch two very cute turtles though, which we released a short distance away from the net. So an unsuccessful day meant Jean would be heading back out within the week to try again. Needle in a haystack? Not entirely, these juvenile lemon sharks have quite a small home range when young so they rarely venture too far.

One of my other tasks while at the lab was to assist with data processing and input. You may remember in my previous blog how the lab takes small fin clips for DNA and stable isotope analysis when ‘working up’ sharks? All data taken needs to be entered into the labs database so every clip (a finger nail size piece of shark fin) is placed into small bags with a piece of paper stating crucial information such as shark species, length, sex, location, and date of capture. Samples are refrigerated before being shipped to New York and Canada for analysis by collaborators Dr. Demian Chapman & Dr. Nigel Hussey. As you can imagine this is quite a smelly job. To date the Sharklab has collected over 4000 DNA samples from lemon sharks. That’s a serious lemon shark family tree expanding by the day!

You probably want to hear about the hammerheads, right? Well, how can I possibly explain how it feels to see the odd looking, yet extremely impressive great hammerhead swimming towards you for the first time? Ok, well picture the scene.. You’re snorkelling in 5m of crystal clear water, patiently waiting. Looking. Waiting. Looking. Waiting. Looking. You see something.. It looks big. Your heart rate increases and you’re flooded with mixed emotions.. Oh, it’s just a Nurse shark (and I LOVE Nurse sharks!) You see another Nurse, and then another, and another! … You’re still waiting for ‘The one’. You’ve been in the water for over an hour now, you’re getting cold and your eyes are flicking left to right, left to right as you concentrate on any movement in the distance. Then you see her. A huge ~3.3m Great Hammerhead. She glides in effortlessly and the Nurse sharks are dwarfed in her presence.

The dorsal fin of a Great Hammerhead is MASSIVE and that along with her huge ’Hammer’ demands your attention. Everything blends into a blur as your focus is solely on her. She’s beautiful. She moves so graciously and smoothly turns and manoeuvres on the sandy bottom almost like she was dancing for us. It couldn’t get any better right? Wrong, another Hammer turns up. This one’s a little shy, he stays for 15 minutes and leaves after his curiosity is satisfied. The big female however stays for over an hour allowing us to free-dive down to the bottom where she accepts us and lets us take a closer look. She even stuck around after the Director at the station Dr. Tristan Guttridge tagged her with a external dart tag! The Sharklab have now tagged 28 Great Hammerheads in the past 4 yrs - one returning from 2.5 yrs ago! Using this unique location they have plans for tracking these sharks to see if they travel to Florida or other Bahamian Islands. Such information is crucial to help conserve and manage this endangered and enigmatic species! I felt blessed that these sharks let us share their space in such peace. It truly was a magical a experience.

So how do I follow that? I simply can’t! After a day like that a few drinks, a good dinner and a game of ‘Ring toss’ (The only game at the local bar!) doesn’t really cut it! But it did because the amount of adrenaline exerted on the dive meant we all slept well that night!

In my next blog I’ll be writing about my recent experience with Blacktip sharks, a little more on some of the BBFSF team and how YOU can help support their work, even from your armchair :)

Annie Anderson is the founder of Sharks Need Love. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger. More photos from Sharklab are posted to Shark Defenders Facebook Page. You can follow Sharklab on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates from the station.

Shark Defender in Training: Nick Silverstein

2013-05-04T05:49:00.000-04:00

Nick Silverstein, third grade, 8 years old from Jackson Heights, New York has been passionate about sharks since he was three years old, questioning their types, abilities and facts. Nick has visited many aquariums and researches sharks constantly. He has become very concerned about the threat of their extinction. He is adamant about becoming a marine biologist and saving sharks throughout the world. He is writing letters to our congressman regarding laws that are in place and wants to be a part of saving sharks. Nick has joined Shark Defenders in the hopes of becoming more involved with his passion. Although Nick is just 8, his knowledge far surpasses mine in regard to sharks. He wants to become more involved in any way he can. Nick hosted a booth at a local vendor fair on Sunday, April 21. He created a tri-fold board and handed out informational material to inform others of the shark populations of the world. He also made t-shirts "Save the Species" to advertise for his cause. A local paper put Nick in the paper for his "good deed". He has collected over 500 signatures and is determined to get the 1,000 to manage his own page.

Shark Defenders has several ways for you to volunteer and suggests 10 Things You Can Do to Protect Sharks.

Illegal Shark Fishing Vessel Fined $120,000

2013-04-18T20:30:00.003-04:00

Last month we reported that a fishing vessel carrying sharks was facing prosecution for violating the shark fishing laws of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Marianas Variety reports today that the owners of the vessel have been fined US$120,000, or about US$2,400 for each shark found on board. The vessel is owned by Hong Kong-based Luen Thai Enterprises.

MAJURO — A long-line fishing boat has been fined $120,000 and banned from fishing in Marshall Islands waters for violating the country’s ban on shark fishing.

Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph said Wednesday that the shark fins and skins confiscated from the vessel that fished under the aegis of the Marshall Islands Fishing Venture will be publicly burned in the near future. Marshall Islands Fishing Venture is part of Hong Kong-based Luen Thai Enterprises, which operates long-line fishing operations in Majuro and other parts of Micronesia to export sashimi to markets in Japan and the United States.

“We will not relicense the vessel to fish in Marshall Islands waters,” Joseph said of the offending vessel. The vessel is flagged in the Federated States of Micronesia. Shark fins and skins from an estimated 50 sharks were discovered on board the long liner during a regional fisheries surveillance enforcement program in February.

“The message we want to get out to anyone operating in Marshall Islands waters is we are serious (about the shark ban), and it is the law,” Joseph said.

Congratulations to Glen Joseph and his staff at the Marshall Islands Marine Resource Authority, as well as the people and government of the Marshall Islands. They continue to lead the world in terms of shark policy, as well as shark sanctuary enforcement. We look forward to the shark fin burning.

The Making of Revolution

2013-04-07T21:36:00.003-04:00

Excited about Rob's new movie coming out on Friday? Cineplex.com has an 11 minute video on the making of Revolution. The kids on Saipan make an appearance at the end, too!

Hope for the hammerhead shark

2013-04-04T17:03:00.002-04:00

Elizabeth Wilson of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Randall Arauz of PRETOMA, Shawn Heinrichs of WildAid, Eduardo Espinosa of Ecuador, and Dr. Fabio Hazin of Brazil with Shark Stanley at CITES.

Guest Blog
by Randall Arauz

With the listing of hammerhead sharks in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) during the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (CoP16) held from March 4th -14th in Bangkok, Thailand, the world expressed the urgent need to protect this species from the threat posed by the international trade of its products, particularly fins, which are highly prized to prepare shark fin soup in Asia.

The latest scientific information available indicates that up to 100 million sharks are killed each year to meet the demand of the international market, which has led to a 90-95% demise of global hammerhead shark populations. The need for action is compelling.

Costa Rica, along with Honduras and Brazil, proposed the inclusion of hammerhead sharks in Appendix II of CITES, hoping to finally interrupt this unsustainable extraction of sharks, which has been denounced for decades but for which no effective measures have been taken in a regional, or even less, a global context.

It must be pointed out that the listing of hammerhead sharks in Appendix II does not mean that a total ban on the international trade of the species will be installed, but rather guarantees through the issuing of a “Non Detriment Finding” by the exporting country that the extraction of specimens from the wild population was done in a sustainable manner. Failure to do so translates into economic sanctions.

This of course, directly interferes with the current unsustainable extraction of sharks, something that the Asian block of nations, led by Japan and China, weren’t about to allow.

Lacking any technical arguments, they claimed before the delegates of the world that this measure would not only be too difficult to implement, but it would also have adverse effects on artisanal fisheries in developing countries. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Is Cites meant to work only when implementations measures are easy?

In addition, artisanal fishers are not affected by Cites any way whatsoever, as they trade mainly juvenile sharks in domestic markets. In any case, if anything at all they benefitted by the measure, as it guarantees the sustainable exploitation of adults in the high seas.

Reprinted with permission by Randall Arauz of PRETOMA

Palau Shark Week 2013 Was A Huge Success

2013-04-04T13:36:00.000-04:00

Shark Week participants with Shark Stanley

The recent 2013 Palau Shark Week attracted over 70 divers from all over the world to take part in Fish ‘n Fins’ fascinating week of encounters.

Adam Baske of the Pew Charitable Trusts discusses sharks

Great shark dives in both new and classic dive sites were the highlights of the week as well as captivating evening presentations, which showcased a diversity of shark experts, including Dr. Mark Meekan of AIMS on the Micronesian Shark Foundation research update, Tova Harel Bornovski of the Micronesian Shark Foundation on Shark school education in Micronesia, Adam Baske of the Pew Charitable Trusts on Illegal fishing, Kate McKay of Melbourne Aquarium, and Michael Janssen of PADI on Project AWARE and shark conservation efforts. The Micronesian Shark Foundation debuted a documentary of a scientific Expedition to South West Islands of Palau and the grim effects of illegal fishing on these reefs.

The Shark Week Gala night with Palauan delicacies and many distinguished guests made a perfect ending to this Extravagant Shark Week. For those interested in joining Shark Week 2014, please send an e-mail to: info@fishnfins.com. Fish ‘n Fins will be hosting “WREXPEDITION,” which is dedicated to Palau’s WWII Wrecks from June 4-11, 2013. For more information, please visit www.fishnfins.com.

About Palau: Located in the westernmost corner of Micronesia, Palau is an archipelago of more than 586 islands with about 20,000 inhabitants and was the world’s first official Shark Sanctuary, setting the pace for many other destinations to follow suit. Consistently ranked as one of the world’s best dive destinations, Palau is the ultimate paradise for the adventurous traveler, boasting some of the most spectacular water features and beaches as well as the world famous, swim friendly Jellyfish Lake and Rock Islands, which was recently inscribed onto United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List. With 1,450 species of fish and 500 species of coral, some have called Palau the “8th Natural Wonder of the World”, while others have identified Palau as “One of the Seven Underwater Wonders of the World.” For more information about Palau, please visit www.visit-palau.com

100 Years of Shark Attacks and 60 Minutes of Attacking Sharks

2013-04-02T11:47:00.001-04:00

Last week the Huffington Post published an infographic: How Many Sharks Are Killed Per Hour? The visual is based on Boris Worm et al's new paper estimating between 63 and 273 million sharks are killed each year. Contrast that graphic with this graphic from the National Post: A Hundred Years of Shark Attacks.

Deconstructing Shark Fin Industry Spin III

2013-04-01T20:46:00.000-04:00

Guest Blog
by AJ Sablan

A letter to the editor in the South China Morning Post by Charlie Lim, Conservation and Management Committee Chairman of the Marine Products Association, contains some excellent shark fin industry spin. These are some of the first post-CITES messages coming from industry and they portend what we can expect in the coming years.

The victory at this year’s Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was the result of years of hard work. After losing all of the shark proposals in 2010, pro-conservation countries and NGOs reassessed and readapted their strategies to address the arguments against listing sharks on Appendix II. Now that they’ve lost, it is industry’s turn.

The science behind the shark listings was undeniable and the opponents did not even bother to question it. They questioned the implementation. Proponents worked tirelessly to prove the listings could work. For example, the Pew Charitable Trusts developed an easy to use shark fin identification guide and the European Union pledged 1.3 million Euros to support implementation.

The successful listings were a blow to industry, which has benefited from the unregulated nature of the shark fin trade for many years. Starting in 18 months when the CITES listings go into effect, the unsustainable and illegal trade of shark fins of these species will end. Exporting countries will have to issue non-detriment findings and permits for trade to continue.

Industry is trying to change that narrative. Like the United States during the Vietnam War, they are attempting to declare victory and go home. Lim writes that CITES was not a loss, but “an opportunity to cooperate to improve the sustainability of shark fishing. It is time to bury hatchets and work together to ensure the CITES decisions are implemented.”

Mr. Lim goes on to point out how implementation is the responsibility of everyone but the traders. He then ominously threatens that, “Future CITES involvement in fisheries will clearly depend on just how effectively the identification and strict trade controls are implemented.”

Expect industry to make implementation as difficult as possible.

Alyssa Sablan is Shark Defender's student intern.

Dispatches from Bimini: Hammertime!

2013-04-01T11:34:00.004-04:00

Guest Blog
by Jillian Morris

Kneeling on the white sand bottom I gaze into the blue haze, watching, and waiting. A nurse shark completely decorated with remoras cruises in. He nonchalantly checks out the area before inhaling a small piece of bait. Don’t get me wrong, I love nurse sharks even when most people turn their noses up at them, but today they are not our target species. We are waiting for something greater, the most magnificent creature in the ocean, rare, and elusive. I strain to make out a shadow in the distance. The distinct fin comes into view and soon a great hammerhead is gliding past. This is what we are here for.

March was certainly the month for great hammerheads sharks, especially here on the tiny little island of South Bimini in The Bahamas. January through March each year finds these incredible animals passing in close proximity to the coast and for nearly a decade the Bimini Biological Field Station (Sharklab) has been developing sites to observe, dive with, and tag this endangered species. Until this year, this aggregation had managed, for the most part, to stay off the radar. This created an ideal research and diving venue, uninfluenced by outside factors. Word spreads quickly though and divers around the globe have traveled and are making plans to travel to see this underwater shark Eden.

The crystal clear water and the shallow depth make this an ideal place for photo and video; It is probably the biggest draw for the masses now flocking to Bimini. The sharks cruise in and circle around the bait. These charismatic predators are bold, but not aggressive. They have comical faces, with their mouth on the underside and large cartoon eyes precisely placed at the ends of their odd heads. They appear to be laughing at a joke or smiling for the camera. They exude power and grace, with a Cheshire cat smile. In my opinion, there is nothing more beautiful to witness underwater than a solitary great hammerhead. Beautiful, but almost alien compared to the torpedo sleek body shape of a shark.

Sadly, the elusive nature of these creatures, which has launched a global interest in photographing and filming them, is also the reason why research to better understand them is absolutely vital. For over twenty years the Sharklab has been documenting the occurrence of these sharks around the islands of Bimini and in 2003 they began tagging and collecting genetic samples. The data is deficient on this endangered species and Bimini provides an ideal location for collecting this critical data. Science catalyzes the establishment of regulations to protect animals as well as being the backbone for conservation efforts. The work the Sharklab has done with lemon sharks was integral in getting them protected in Florida waters and will hopefully continue to do the same for other species on a local and global scale.

10,000 people from 135 countries helped bring Shark Stanley to CITES

Early in March, great hammerheads passed the initial stage of approval at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flaura, also known as CITES, in the early morning hours after I surfaced from an amazing dive with three of these incredible creatures. Diving with them is a remarkable experience, but seeing the Sharklab’s tags on them and knowing they might have a better future, solidified this as a dive I will never forget. I have had the great fortune of spending a lot of time in the water watching and getting to know these animals, so the approval of a CITES Appendix II listing was really the icing on the cake of an epic season here in Bimini.

Manta Rays in Sri Lanka

2013-03-28T15:49:00.001-04:00

KerriLynn Miller of the Pew Charitable Trusts and Daniel Fernando at CITES

Al Jazeera carries a story today about the manta ray trade in Sri Lanka Diminishing Ray of Hope. The story quotes Daniel Fernando of the Manta Trust, who was with us in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this month at CITES.

Marine biologist Daniel Fernando has been surveying Sri Lanka’s fishing industry for over two years. Today, he is in the western coastal town of Negombo, at one of the country’s busiest fish markets. He is passionate about saving manta and mobula rays from extinction. Fernando carefully examines a pile of rays on the pier, collecting DNA samples for population studies.

Researchers estimate that fisheries the world over net more than 100,000 such rays a year, mostly in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. Many catches remain undocumented. Until recent years, most fishermen avoided them. Their meat is cheap and they damage fishing nets when entangled.

But that has changed. The burgeoning demand for their gill plates in Chinese medicine – said to cleanse human blood of toxins – has increased fishing pressure worldwide, turning subsistence fishery into a commercial export industry.

Also a member of conservation group Manta Trust, Daniel fears the combination of slow maturation, long gestation and infrequent pregnancies means manta and mobula populations cannot sustain the slaughter. With a wingspan of up to seven metres, manta rays are believed to be at least 15 to 20 years old by the time they are ready to breed. A mature female usually produces one pup every two to five years, with each pregnancy lasting a year. Scientists estimate they live more than 50 years.

KerriLynn Miller of the Pew Charitable Trusts visited Sri Lanka in the weeks leading up to CITES to conduct a shark fin and manta ray gill raker identification training. She wrote a blog Dispatch from Sri Lanka: Observing the Trade of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks in a Local Fish Market and posted photos of sharks and mantas being traded.

Shark Stanley in Slate

2013-03-28T12:03:00.001-04:00

The Shark Stanley and Pew teams at CITES

Slate has a great article today Sharks are the New Whales and everybody's favorite paper hammerhead shark gets a mention.

Just as our fear of whales turned to awe, so has our attitude shifted about sharks. Bruce, the smiling shark in Finding Nemo, and friends chanted “Fish are friends, not food,” and a Shark Stanley campaign at the CITES meeting portrayed a friendlier kind of shark.

The story also mentions and links to Pew's shark fin ID guide.

Dispatches from Sharklab: Sharks, Sand flies, and Scrubbing Toilets

2013-03-26T15:22:00.000-04:00

Guest Blog
by Annie Anderson

In my first blog I explained how late last year I spent six weeks volunteering at the world famous Sharklab in Bimini, The Bahamas. In this blog I discuss some of the many activities I participated in.

Ok so the glamorous life of a shark researcher isn’t always that glamorous. Some of my first duties as a volunteer involved building semi-captive pens for housing sharks ready for experiments, shark night fishing off the dock, and supporting Ph.D. candidate Jean-Sebastien Finger with his video trials focusing on shark behaviour and personality. Several times however I was able to go on amazing shark dives with over 12 Caribbean reef and Blacknose sharks, which were breathtaking experiences! The not so glamorous duties meant I also had to assist with cleaning the lab i.e. scrubbing toilets and prepping meals; all necessary tasks but thankfully I love cleaning!

Weighting the sharks during Mini-PIT

The week ahead consisted of helping with the labs Mini-PIT Program. Mini-PIT is an annual, six-day tagging project named for the type of tag used (Passive Integrated Transponder - A rice-grain sized microchip identifier) that involves catching juvenile lemon sharks (Between 60 - 120cm) in gillnets at night within a known nursery ground. Our typical PIT day started at 5pm and ended around 7am! To help wrap your brain around the physical exertion needed for PIT, imagine crouching/lying on small, wet boats for over 12 hours, in TOTAL darkness, checking nets with flash lights every 15 minutes, and jumping in the sea at all hours to remove the sharks, fish and crabs from the nets. Some nights it rained and with temperatures dropping you found yourself counting down the hours for a hot shower!

Checking the gillnet every 15 minutes

So the PIT nights were cold, wet, and tiring, but fun (We often played Mad Libs over the radio to pass some time!) all of this hard work for a better understanding of these lemon sharks, which will ultimately contribute towards protecting them. All night the fish and crabs were continuously released from the nets, while the sharks were swiftly taken over to the tagging boat for processing.

Sharks in the tagging boat

The volunteers and staff measured the sharks, took DNA samples, and then tagged, weighed, and temporarily placed them in large holding pens ready to be used in behavioural trials in the coming days. Sharks were continually monitored to ensure they all remained healthy and unstressed. A stressed lemon shark quickly changes to a blotchy colour and I was personally surprised at how sensitive these lemon sharks were. The team had to work fast and efficiently, including monotonously checking the nets in order to remove sharks as quickly as possible. Shark safety was paramount and I was in my element being surrounded by people who care as much as me about sharks and their safety.

Repairing the gillnets during the day

For the past 18 yrs the Sharklab has monitored the lemon shark population in Bimini assessing survival, growth and mating characteristics. It is well known that female lemon sharks return every two years to Bimini to give birth and their pups can stay around the Bimini islands for up to 6 yrs! Incredible.

Another reason for their capture is to monitor shark behaviour ‘personality traits’ through various observations. Sharks are held and observed in pens for short periods of time, usually not more than two weeks, and are subsequently released.

Beach cleanup time!

Other than Mini-PIT, some of my other volunteer tasks included: repairing the gillnets (whilst being eaten alive by sand flies!), cleaning and collecting plastic and rubbish from the local beaches as part of the lab’s community outreach programme, data input, and supporting other scientists such as Craig O’Connell with his current magnet project, Rob Bullock with his accelerometer project, and Maurits Van Zinnicq Bergmann with his acoustic receiver testing project. All very fascinating and thought-provoking projects.

Days off

Days off were very welcomed and during our downtime we relaxed on the beach and snorkelled in the sea. Those were the hardest days, I swear!

The world famous Bimini shark snorkel

Towards the end of my time at Sharklab we set a shallow water longline, which is a fishing method using baited lines strung together on a “longline.” We set five lines each 500 meters in length, in 2-3m water depth to attract the ‘Big Guns’ and well, we certainly got lucky! We caught 9 tiger, 1 lemon and 1 nurse shark, and I was lucky enough to see them all! Just like with Mini-PIT, the staff and volunteers measured the sharks, took DNA samples, and then tagged and released them all.

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

What was the largest I hear you say? A huge 350cm tiger! An absolutely beautiful shark. I’ve posted several photos of this experience on my Facebook page, so feel free to add me if you’d like to see them.

Thanksgiving in the Sharklab kitchen

During my last week at the lab I spent an amazing Thanksgiving feast with the team and before I knew it, it was time to leave and head home to the cold UK for Christmas. I was so inspired by my visit that I started a week’s fundraising for the lab and raised $500 within the week which went towards a hammerhead tracking device! A great result.

So I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my time at the lab and that it inspires you in some way. In the coming weeks I plan to blog about my recent great hammerhead free-diving experience so watch this space fellow shark lovers and stay tuned!

Annie Anderson is the founder of Sharks Need Love. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger. More photos from Sharklab are posted to Shark Defenders Facebook Page. You can follow Sharklab on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates from the station.

Help This Shark Defender and Get the Gift of Music

2013-03-21T18:12:00.001-04:00

Shark Defenders: (from left to right) Filmmaker Rob Stewart, Laurie Peterka, Shawn Heinrichs, Cinta M. Kaipat, Meaghan Hassel-Shearer, and former Northern Mariana Islands governor Benigno R. Fitial.

Remember those great kids in Saipan who helped pass a shark fin trade ban back in 2011? They had a lot of help from some very caring adults including this lady, Cinta M. Kaipat. Need your memory jogged? She appears in our short film Saipan Sharkwater starting at about 2:08.

Cinta has been an environmental advocate for years. She was one of the main proponents for the 2009 creation of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, one of the largest marine protected areas on the planet, and more recently helped us launch the Shark Stanley campaign.

Cinta with a whole gaggle of Shark Stanley supporters.

Cinta's latest challenge may be her most important one as it is literally a matter of life or death. She's dealing with cancer. The medical facilities on Saipan are not adequate for the care she requires, so she has to spend some time in the Philippines. Her family is helping her raise money for the treatment and have released an album of Refaluwasch island music. Cinta's brother Gus is the lead singer on the album, which is titled Trip to Paradise. He is a professional singer and has been performing for twenty years around the island.

The album contains 14 original songs that are available for digital download and on CD. This link has samples of each song if you want to hear them. Information on the album and the songs is available here.

We never ask our supporters for donations to run our campaigns, but we would appreciate it if you would purchase an album and help out our friend, Cinta. All proceeds from the album will go towards her treatment. Thank you for your continued support.

US Military to Help Enforce Shark Protections

2013-03-21T08:40:00.001-04:00

But how will they enforce it? With the help and support of the United States Navy, that's how!

The Marianas Variety reports that the Marshall Islands and the United States have signed an amendment to a 2008 maritime surveillance and interdiction cooperation agreement known as the “shiprider” pact. The new agreement will allow Marshallese enforcement officers, many of whom attended an enforcement training sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts in September 2012, to travel onboard US Navy vessels patrolling Marshallese waters. Previously, Marshallese enforcement officers were allowed only on Coast Guard vessels.

Expanding a successful partnership between the U.S. Coast Guard and Marshall Islands law enforcement officials, the U.S. Navy will join in protecting the vast ocean area of this western Pacific nation following the signing of a new agreement in Majuro Tuesday.

U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Thomas Armbruster and Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Phillip Muller signed an amendment to a 2008 maritime surveillance and interdiction cooperation agreement known as the “shiprider” pact.

“This is a new development in our relationship,” said Muller at the ceremony. “Now we can include U.S. Navy ships working with our enforcement agencies to patrol our exclusive economic zone.”

Since 2008, the shiprider agreement has provided authority for Coast Guard vessels to assist the Marshall Islands with maritime law enforcement, primarily focusing on fisheries. Last year, Marshall Islands officials on board a Coast Guard vessel boarded a Japanese vessel and confiscated a large volume of shark fins that are illegal here. The boarding resulted in a $125,000 fine for the vessel.

The new agreement now allows Marshall Islands law enforcement officers to be “shipriders” on Coast Guard, Navy and other U.S. Defense Department vessels.

This is a game changer for marine enforcement in the Pacific and will have significant impacts on illegal fishing. It is impressive enough to have the US Coast Guard enforcing fishing regulations; it is quite another to have the US Navy involved. Imagine a Navy destroyer pulling alongside a suspected illegal fishing vessel!

Congrats and thank you to the people and governments of the Marshall Islands and the United States for this exciting development. Hopefully this successful partnership will spread to the other shark sanctuary countries in the Pacific.

The Evolution of Shark Stanley

2013-03-20T17:24:00.001-04:00

Shark Stanley in Bangkok in front of all his global supporters

The Shark Stanley campaign began on November 20, 2012 with little more than a name, an idea, and a handful of very determined people. After about a month of discussing how we could engage the world to advocate for shark and manta ray protections at the then-upcoming Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), we settled on something that was a hybrid of the Flat Stanley Project, Ecology Action Center’s Hector the Blue Shark, and those Star Wars mosaic posters popular in the 1990s. The campaign was to be a collaboration between Yale graduate students, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and anyone else who wanted to help. Because students Leah Meth and Onon Bayasgalan were going to head the campaign and be its public face, we decided our target audience would be no less than the youth of the world.

This is the best photo I could find of Onon, Angelo, and Leah. Sorry, Onon.

There is no shortage of shark petitions on the Internet. We didn’t want to replicate anything that was already out there, so we immediately threw away any notion of doing a signature petition. Pew had conducted a successful campaign a few years back on penguins where they asked people to submit photos of themselves, which were turned into a collage of a penguin (i.e. like the Yoda mosaics). However, we couldn’t just do a single collage because CITES has 178 members and each country gets a vote. We needed to reach out to each of the country delegates individually. The idea of a children’s educational package was also raised. We wanted to do more than just gather signatures; we wanted to actively engage young people and create a dedicated army of activists. Out of this discussion arose the idea of Shark Stanley. We would have a character that was attached to a children’s activity book that people would take photos with that we promised to deliver in a creative manner directly to CITES delegates at the 16th Convention of the Parties (CoP) being held in Bangkok, Thailand on March 3-14, 2013.

We immediately set to work finding an artist to create Shark Stanley and commissioned Dan Yagmin Jr. to create our characters and illustrate our children’s book. We also developed our outreach materials: single page handouts with cutouts of the characters and instructions on what to do. We loaded everything onto the Shark Defenders website and purchased the url www.sharkstanley.com.

French Polynesia announced their shark sanctuary at WCPFC in December 2012.

The campaign launched a month later on December 17. It was a busy time for those of us working on shark conservation because of the Cook Islands and French Polynesia shark sanctuary declarations and work on sharks at the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. Regardless, we launched on Shark Defenders and our partner websites by asking young people (and the young at heart) to photograph themselves holding cutouts of a paper shark named Shark Stanley. Shark Stanley represented the proposal to list scalloped, great, and smooth hammerheads on CITES Appendix II. A photo with Shark Stanley represented a signature to support the proposal. We promised characters representing the other proposals and a children’s book over the coming weeks.

Leah and Onon also started a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo. As part of their study at Yale they were tasked with hosting a symposium. This required money. There were also printing and design costs associated with the children’s book and the photo petition and these needed to be covered.

Manta Reina was released on New Year’s Eve, followed by Pierre le Porbeagle on January 4, and Waqi Whitetip on January 9. The response to Shark Stanley and his friends was immediate. In the first three days we received photos from the United States, Canada, Mongolia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Taiwan POC, South Korea, Germany, and Singapore. We reached 50 countries by the middle of January. Photos poured in from all corners of the globe and we added a new partner organization nearly every day, including Shark Savers, Coral Reef Alliance, Hong Kong Shark Foundation, Taiwan SPCA, Earth Race Conservation, and many other NGOs and dive shops.

The Adventures of Shark Stanley and Friends was released on January 30. It was (and still is) available as a free download on Shark Defenders and Yale’s Sage Magazine. Leah and her classmate Ben Goldfarb wrote the text. Dan Yagmin Jr. illustrated and Monte Kawahara designed the 32-page book. The story contained in the pages explains the threats sharks and manta rays face from a global trade in their parts. And it rhymes.

The Shark Stanley team at Yale (from left to right): Stephanie Stefanski, Jeff Chow, Ben Goldfarb, Onon Bayasgalan, Leah Meth, Angelo Villagomez, Dan Yagmin Jr., Monte Kawahara, Omar Malik, and Laura Johnson.

Leah and Onon hosted their symposium “From Ocean to Plate – An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the International Trade and Conservation of Sharks and Marine Species” on February 15. Dr. Barbara Block, Dr. Paul Anderson, Dr. Demian Chapman, and Dr. Susan Lieberman spoke on the biology and conservation of sharks during the morning session. In the afternoon, David Doubilet, James Prosek, Krishna Thompson, and Barton Seaver spoke of the human connection to sharks and the ocean. Angelo was the moderator. Afterwards we all went out for vegetarian sushi. Leah and Onon’s classmate Omar Malik filmed the talks and has uploaded four of them to Shark Defenders Youtube Channel.

Shark Stanly on Mount Kilimanjaro

Throughout the campaign updates were posted to Shark Defenders blog, Facebook, and Twitter. We also started a Facebook page specifically for Shark Stanley. Using Shark Defenders model of purchasing Facebook ads, Leah was able to increase the number of likes to over 5,000 in two months with only $20.

Shark Stanley in Antarctica

By the end of February Shark Stanley had been to over 120 countries, met thousands of supporters, and had campaign materials translated into 17 languages. During this time Shark Stanley visited the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the deserts of Morocco, the islands along the Mariana Trench, the glaciers of Antarctica, and went diving in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans. During this phase of the campaign Leah and Onon spent about four hours per day downloading and sorting the hundreds of photos received each day. As many photos as possible were uploaded to Facebook.

The next phase of the campaign involved preparation for the CITES CoP. Leah and Onon created a 150+ page collage of all the photos we had received prior to February 25 (apologies to everyone who sent in photos after the deadline). We brought 9 copies of the petition to CITES. Seven were in binders to show to delegates, one was used to decorate the booth, and one was used to hand out individual pages to their respective delegates. We printed 1000 Shark Stanley stickers, designed and bought 200 lapel pins, and ordered 2 life size standups.

Turning over petitions to Indonesia

Once we arrived in Bangkok our singular goal was to talk to every single country delegate and turn over the photos from their respective country, something that turned out to be easy since so many people were attracted to our booth by the floor to ceiling photo petition. The Shark Stanley booth was right next to the Pew Charitable Trusts booth, so after we finished telling delegates that the youth of the world and the youth of their respective countries supported the shark and manta ray proposals, Pew would show them how to easily identify shark species by their dorsal fins, and vice versa. A majority of the delegates were supportive and enjoyed looking for their flags on our wall.

Livetweeting the meeting

We continued to give live updates on Facebook and the blog and whenever sharks were discussed in Committee I or Plenary, we live-tweeted the discussion. We worked as a team to tweet. Leah posted verbatim what the delegates were saying on the floor, while Angelo posted commentary and tried to put the discussions in context.

Please share this on Facebook.

After the sharks passed in Committee I, we worked with Shawn Heinrichs, Mary O’Malley, and Paul Hilton to create #StandByYourVote to pressure delegates to keep the vote from being reopened in Plenary. We made it easy for people from around the world to email their respective delegates in Bangkok and demand that they not reopen the vote. Japan and China were expected to try to reopen and overturn the vote, something they successfully did to porbeagles in 2010. There was some grumbling from the other NGOs, but governments were put on notice that the world was watching them.

A clean sweep: 4 for 4

The first Shark Stanley campaign ended on March 14, 2013 with the successful listings of manta rays, hammerheads, porbeagles, and oceanic whitetips on CITES Appendix II. There are no concrete plans for a second campaign, but we are exploring our options.

Thank you, United Kingdom

2013-03-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

The people of the United Kingdom were some of the most prolific Shark Stanley campaigners. Annie Anderson, the newest Shark Defenders blogger, helped us out the gates and gathered photos from Gemma Atkinson and Jessica-Jane Clement and basically anyone she talked to for weeks. We also had lots of help from our official partners Shark Aid UK and Earth Race Conservation. Many, but not all, of the photos are posted on Shark Stanley's Facebook page.

We officially presented a full copy of the Shark Stanley petition to Minister of State for Agriculture and Food David Heath. The minister thanked us and we congratulated and thanked him for the leadership of the UK and EU in proposing and passing the shark proposals at CITES CoP16.

Overfishing Undermining Japan's Own National Interests

2013-03-19T12:54:00.000-04:00

We're catching up on emails and non-CITES related news from the last two weeks and missed this important Associated Press story from Japan, Japan's Bluefin Tuna Is Disappearing, But Few Chefs Fear Shortage.

TOKYO (AP) — It is the king of sushi, one of the most expensive fish in the world — and dwindling so rapidly that some fear it could vanish from restaurant menus within a generation.

Yet there is little alarm in Japan, the country that consumes about 80 percent of the world's bluefin tuna. Japanese fisheries experts blame cozy ties between regulators and fishermen and a complacent media for failing to raise public awareness.

"Nobody really knows the bad state bluefin tuna is in," veteran sushi chef Kazuo Nagayama said from his snug, top-end sushi bar in Tokyo's Shimbashi district, a popular area for after-work socializing. "I don't think it'll disappear, but we might not be able to catch any. It's obvious we need to set quotas."

Tuna fishing is linked to shark fishing and this story is worth a read. It also gives some insight into Japan's opposition to conservation measures for economically valuable marine species.

CITES and Sharks on Al Jazeera

2013-03-19T12:28:00.001-04:00

Al Jazeera hosted a 25 minute panel discussion on sharks and CITES with Susan Lieberman of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Tom Quinn of International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Colman O'Criodain of World Wildlife Fund. This is probably the most in-depth discussion on CITES CoP16 that you'll find on TV/video. The first three minutes are a news story. The panel starts at 3:30.

Dispatches from SharkLab

2013-03-17T17:04:00.004-04:00

Guest Blog
by Annie Anderson

Like most of you reading this blog, my passion for sharks has been with me since I was a child. My earliest memory was pouring the contents of my fish tank into the bath so I could swim with my colourful finned friends. My second earliest memory was a real telling off from my Mum for said previous earliest memory!

My name is Annie Anderson and I am the founder of Sharks Need Love. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of blogs about life at the world famous Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation (BBFSF) aka SharkLab. I’m picking up the SharkLab Shark Defender Guest blog duties from former assistant lab manager Tyler Clavelle.

In October 2012 I was accepted as a volunteer to help and support SharkLab. The lab is renowned for its work with lemon sharks and I literally couldn’t wait to get there and see my first lemony coloured friend! The lab is located on South Bimini in The Bahamas about 50 miles east of Miami, which is a long 10 hour flight on Virgin Atlantic from my home in Devon, England.

I arrived in Miami to dark clouds and rain from superstorm Hurricane Sandy. All flights to The Bahamas were canceled, so I holed up in a hotel for a couple of days. When the storm finally passed, I boarded a tiny 8-seater packed with other customers’ groceries and was on my way.

Is that a lemon shark near the mangroves?

The view from the plane was epic to say the least. I scanned the horizon for sharks out my window, but almost as soon as we took off I could see a low island approaching. South Bimini, my home for the next six weeks!

The Bahamas: It Just Keeps Getting Better

The Bimini International Airport is a single story building. At first I thought they were ecofriendly because all the doors and windows were open. I soon learned it was because there was no power on the island. It was a complete power cut! The whole island was without electricity, running water, phones, and Internet, which meant that I had no access to my blog, email, Facebook, or Twitter! After the initial shock I got over it because I had finally arrived!

SharkLab: My home and office for six weeks.

I was picked up by Dr. Guttridge and Dr. Gruber in an old pickup truck and we drove down a bumpy, unpaved road to the south end of South Bimini to SharkLab. I’m not sure what I imagined a world famous shark laboratory would look like, maybe something out of a James Bond film, but what I found was a single story building that contained everything I'd know for the next six weeks: dorm beds, a kitchen, a laboratory, and a gaggle of other sun-drenched volunteers. Stay tuned for my next blog where I describe the research and my volunteer activities!

Dr. Guttridge and Dr. Gruber greeted me at the airport.

Annie Anderson is the founder of Sharks Need Love. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger.

Shark Sanctuary Enforcement is Taking Place

2013-03-14T22:47:00.001-04:00

While the world celebrates CITES historic vote to list oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, porbeagles, and manta on Appendix II, the men and women in uniform charged with enforcing marine protections continue their mostly unheralded work to enforce the laws that protect our oceans. This week shark busts took place in Hawaii, home of the landmark shark fin trade ban that ignited shark conservation in 2010, and the Marshall Islands, home to a shark sanctuary four times the size of California.

Enforcement of the shark protection measures put in place in recent years is so important because many of the detractors, and to be truthful, many of our would be supporters, claim that enforcement is impossible. If islands states with limited budgets and capacity can implement these measures it proves this argument incorrect.

The Marshall Islands have vigorously defended their shark sanctuary since its creation in 2011. Last year they issued fines totally US$235,000.

From the Marianas Variety:

A Majuro-based long line fishing boat has had its fishing license suspended after it was caught with shark fins on board last week by a police boarding party.

The vessel, whose name was not immediately available, is flagged in the Federated States of Micronesia and fishes locally through the Marshall Islands Fishing Venture, which is operated by Hong Kong-based Luen Thai Fishing Venture. In addition to Majuro, Luen Thai manages long line fishing operations in Pohnpei and Palau that supply tuna for sashimi markets in Asia and the United States.

Ten bags of shark fins and some sharkskin were confiscated during a sub-regional maritime surveillance operation in which the Marshall Islands Sea Patrol and Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority participated, said MIMRA Director Glen Joseph on Wednesday.

Fisheries officials estimate that the confiscated fins involved killing between 40 and 50 sharks. A fisheries law bans shark finning in Marshall Islands waters and the presence of shark fins on board a vessel, even if they were caught in another country’s ocean jurisdiction.

The vessel’s license has been suspended pending the negotiation of a fine. Everything is expected to be wrapped today. I hope that the Marshall Islands confiscate the fins and burn them for the world to see.

In Hawaii, a crew member on a longline fishing vessel tried to sell a bag of unprocessed fins to a Chinese restaurant. He faces a misdemeanor and a fine of up to $1000 and jail time. I hope this story sheds light on the sharks being killed for their meat in Hawaii, despite the shark fin ban.

#Winning

2013-03-14T00:36:00.001-04:00

Angelo and Sue from Pew Charitable Trusts

All four shark and manta ray proposals were approved in plenary today. Had we been more organized, we'd have some sort of statement, but we don't. We'll work on it. I'm guessing we don't yet comprehend the enormity of this shark victory.

Thank you to the thousands of people who participated in the Shark Stanley campaign and to the hundreds of you who sent last minute emails directly to delegates. It was an honor and a privilege to bring your voice and vote to CITES this year.

Oceanic whitetip, hammerhead, and porbeagle sharks and both species of manta rays stand a chance now because CITES works. And you did this. Thank you.

The Arguments For and Against

2013-03-13T21:29:00.001-04:00

Guest Blog
By Leah Meth

Today, on the last day of CITES CoP16 here in Bangkok, the shark and manta proposals will be first up this morning in the final plenary meeting. We’ll be livetweeting the whole time so that you can follow the discussion play by play. In the meantime, we thought it would be useful to put together a quick summary of the main arguments and questions that have been raised that will likely come up again today and the responses we’ve heard that debunk or address these claims:

1) CITES is the wrong forum for regulating international trade. Iceland, Japan and China argued in their interventions that management of sharks should be the responsibility of RFMOs.

2) Tied to this argument is the claim that there isn’t enough data to adopt these proposals.

Brazil, New Zealand and the US countered this point in their interventions, arguing that CITES would complement RFMOs. First, Appendix II listing would create a better record of trade and key data on stocks, which is required to ensure the sustainability of the fisheries in question. As NZ said, “Basically all oceanic sharks are data deficient…and RFMOs need to better monitor and regulate catches…CITES listing will aid in this, not detract.”

All three parties went on to say that far from being superfluous, CITES would fill a key gap, since RFMOs fail to cover the entire range of these shark and ray species. “This is a global problem that requires a worldwide solution.” CITES is a key part of that solution.

Several arguments then centered on questions of implementation:

3) “[Fin] Identification will be too difficult”

This argument came up repeatedly by Japan and China in Committee I, despite the fact that this has been thoroughly disproven with much thanks to Dr. Demian Chapman and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

4) We need more capacity to implement the proposals.

Several developing countries, including supporters, voiced the importance of focusing on implementation of these listings. As a delegate from Senegal said in an NGO meeting Tuesday, “While we are very happy with the outcome thus far, and happy with the organization of and process leading up to the CoP, we should note that we’ve won the battle, but the hardest, most difficult work is still ahead of us.” One of the members of the Jordan delegation concurred: “We are obligated to implement these decisions. Listing is one thing. Implementation is another… We need NGOs and concerned parties to think about ways to bring concerned parties and agencies together to do the capacity building and awareness programs.” Though implementation will be a major challenge, encouraging steps have been made.

Aid in capacity building has been offered on several levels:

Financial promises have come from developed nations. The EU has pledged 1.2 million euros to the CITES secretariat to be used to implement marine listings in developing countries. New Zealand also stepped up, saying that “Implementation issues can be overcome…financial and technical capacity will be provided for countries that need it.”

Developing nations have also offered support, with Colombia and Brazil offering to support capacity building in Latin America as well as other regions. For example, Brazil has set dates for regional workshops.

NGOs such as the Pew Charitable Trusts also spoke in their intervention on recently launched projects focusing on training systems, fin, and gill raker identification guides for customs officials and capacity building programs.

Developing countries responded optimistically:

Nigeria: “18 months is enough to sort out implementation measures in party countries and we are pleased with assistance offered.”

Congo: “Passing these proposals will give the donor community necessary impetus to support implementation.”

Furthermore, as Luke Warwick of the Pew Charitable Trusts said in an interview on Wednesday, regional assessments and the sort of data needed to issue NDFs is already in place in many places and the enforcement side is in a good place. Additional support from co-sponsors and developed countries will help to create country-specific solutions.

5) Wealthy Western nations are bullying developing nations.

Warwick explained to the Shark Stanley team that in the Japanese media this week, the proposals are being framed as coercive efforts on the part of countries like the EU member states and the US that push developing nations into a difficult position.

This is simply not the case. As I wrote about in my last blog, these proposals and the results of Committee I are historic based on the record number of sponsoring countries, with strong support from developing nations, especially in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. As Warwick says, “the symbolic aspect of this is huge.” To have these calls for shark and manta protection emanating from these countries and regions themselves is extremely important. This is no longer the situation of earlier CITES CoPs where there was pressure from developed countries. Now, it is a matter of developing countries taking the lead with countries like the EU and US offering partnership, technical, and financial aid and capacity.

6) Local livelihoods will be affected.

Appendix II listing is not a trade ban and as Brazil said, “This proposal is not a prohibition,” arguing, along with the USA, Senegal, and Benin that small scale fisheries and local livelihoods will not be affected by this listing:

Benin: “Listing will not negatively affect our local communities, rather it will lead to a sustainable future for the fishery.”

Senegal: “Our generation has the obligation of rationally managing our resources sustainably for future generations. Listing Appendix II is now important for the management of shark species which have experienced disastrous decline.”

Furthermore, ecotourism and the conservation of these species offers lucrative alternative livelihoods to local people:

Maldives: “We are convinced that better alternatives can be found for shark fishermen on small islands…we banned shark and manta ray catches because they are worth more alive than dead.”

Guy Stevens of Manta Trust: Manta dive tourism brings in ~$140 million annually.

Australia: “People from all over the world come to dive with our sharks and mantas.”

The Pew Charitable Trusts has reports from Fiji and Palau with more information and robust evidence of the value of shark and manta ray ecotourism.

7) We’ll see “stockpiling” within the 18-month implementation period.

This is an argument of pro-trade groups, which says that the demand for species will increase along with fishing effort in the 18 month period before these listings come into effect. However, arguably, sharks are already being taken out as rapidly as possible. For example, it would be a challenge to find oceanic whitetip sharks in large quantities.

In closing: of course, all of these arguments – especially those surrounding the inevitable challenges of implementation – are incredibly complex, however I hope this has provided a brief breakdown of what we expect to hear today if any of the shark proposals reopen in plenary. These proposals and the results from Committee I are incredibly strong on all fronts. Now, we just need to hope that science prevails over politics and that CITES delegates stand by their vote.

The Deep Breath Before the Plunge

2013-03-13T12:29:00.000-04:00

This is it. Tomorrow's the big day.

Guest Blog
by Leah Meth

The last few days here in Bangkok at CITES have been incredibly intense. The shark proposals came up first thing Monday morning, and after we [and our omnipresent giant Shark Stanleys] finished greeting delegates and headed into Committee I, we settled into what would be one of the most exceptional days of my life. It began with nerves, and an equal mix of surreptitious optimism and fear, but after the oceanic whitetip passed by a 68% majority after two hours of tense debate, we exhaled, with the rest of the day slowly escalating in momentum until the end, when, overwhelmed with elation, we saw all 4 proposals pass after the manta’s landslide victory.

This is an enormous win for sharks and rays. As Sue Lieberman, Director of International Policy at the Pew Environment Group, said, “This is a watershed moment…a great victory for conservation.” The result is historic and incredibly significant for several reasons. Importantly, it’s the first time that CITES delegates have voted to protect commercially valuable species of shark. And perhaps even more profound is the strength of the coalition that has rallied behind these proposals, with developing nations speaking strongly in the face of serious pressures from opposing countries. Latin America took the lead, with Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica co-sponsoring a record number of proposals for sharks and rays. Countries from the West African sub-region also demonstrated exceptional leadership and unity, delivering powerful interventions on the floor. Support also came from the Middle East from countries such as Egypt, Comoros, Jordan and Yemen. As Amie Brautigam of WCS said, “Whole regions are supporting sharks…This is a major milestone and this is what we should be celebrating as much as the results.”

However, it’s important to underscore that these are tentative decisions and we must remain vigilant. Nothing will be final until the final plenary meeting, which began Wednesday and will carry on this today. Sharks will be on the table early this morning. Again, I’m filled with optimistic, though nervous, anticipation. Though it’s seemed quiet around the booth and convention center, there is much going on just below the surface. Over the past few days, there has been talk of immense pressure from opposing countries such as Japan and China. As Mika Diop of the Senegal delegation and FAO expert panel said in a press conference on Tuesday, “The pressures have been very, very strong and in certain instances, there has been financial assistance, which has been presented as a quid pro quo. Offers have been refused by many parties. There are different types of pressure and some are more concrete than others.” Carl Safina, in yesterday’s HuffPo editorial spoke more bluntly, stating, “Japan always does this, bribing countries with aid packages or even individual delegates with cash.”

Yet despite this, many delegates and NGOs are confident that with the strength of the results from Committee I, the overwhelming scientific evidence behind the proposals and the immense dedication of supporting parties, the shark and manta proposals will pass. As Mamadou Diallo of WWF’s Senegal office said, “We have the opportunity to prove that CITES is a convention based on science that can achieve success despite political pressure.” Lieberman, echoed this sentiment in Committee, urging parties to adopt these proposals for both the sake of science-based decision-making and the very credibility of CITES itself.

Today, in just a few short hours, this will all play out in plenary, which we’ll be livetweeting play by play. Until then, we urge you to join us in telling your CITES delegate: #StandByYourVote to adopt the shark and manta ray proposals!