Sea Shepherd Partners with The Underwater Channel To Stop Shark Finning

[flvegan]

Sea Shepherd remains on the front-lines of the battle for shark conservation, an issue that is one of the greatest marine conservation concerns globally. Our efforts to win this battle have resulted in:

* several successful shark finning and longlining campaigns
* a permanent presence in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, one of the world's most important shark habitats
* having our campaign and conservation efforts be profiled in the highly successful independent film Sharkwater
* committing to the Shark Angels alliance with Shark Savers and Save Our Seas
* working with LUSH Cosmetics globally on in-store campaigns to raise awareness and funds to stop shark finning
* working with DIRTT Environmental Solutions to raise awareness and funds to stop shark finning
* the creation of a new Sea Shepherd position (Director of Shark Conservation) by Captain Paul Watson to focus exclusively on this issue

Sea Shepherd is honored to take the next step in its long-term and firm commitment to shark conservation by partnering with The Underwater Channel in its campaign to put an end to shark-finning.

The Underwater Channel is the creation of Emmy award-winning Producer/ Director Nicholas Claxton. The idea for a free broadband channel dedicated to the underwater world came about when Claxton was producing a television documentary about Red Sea coral reefs in 2006. He explains that "after spending many years making television documentaries for some of the world's major broadcasters, including several hard-hitting films in South Africa, Palestine, and the USA, the opportunity to look at a very different world - underwater - became irresistible." The Underwater Channel cares passionately about the health of the world's oceans and wants to secure futures for all marine animals. The Underwater Channel's programs are streamed on the Babelgum platform. The Babelgum player combines the full-screen video quality of traditional television with the interactivity and customized features made possible by the Internet. In doing so it creates new opportunities for program makers as well as a new viewing experience for users.

Sea Shepherd and The Underwater Channel share a belief that it is completely unacceptable that sharks, which are one of earth's oldest inhabitants, are now being pushed towards extinction by man, one of earth's more recent residents. On average in recent years sharks have accounted for less than ten human deaths annually in all the world's seas. Meanwhile, to fuel the growing demand for shark fins, man has been killing up to 100 million sharks each year. Sea Shepherd and The Underwater Channel want action and we want it now.

Sea Shepherd encourages its supporters to review and sign The Underwater Channel's petition at the following link:

http://www.theunderwaterchannel.tv/not-on-our-menu

The goal is reach 10,000 signatures before World Ocean Day on June 8th, 2009. These petitions will be forwarded to the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, with a request that member states be made aware of the threats to sharks and be encouraged to put in place effective legislation to stop shark finning or more effectively police existing laws.

Sea Shepherd further encourages its supporters to view The Underwater Channel's video Viral - Shark Fin Soup:

http://www.theunderwaterchannel.tv/clipinfo/3014711

As with Sea Shepherd, The Underwater Channel is a maverick for change and both organizations have great expectations that this viral video will be widely seen, particularly in South East Asia and East Asia. In addition to the English version, The Underwater Channel, has prepared Japanese, Chinese and Malay versions. It is in this part of the world, where Shark Fin Soup is so widely consumed, that the greatest amount of outreach on this issue needs to be focused. In order to survive, sharks now need all the help they can get. If there's no demand for Shark Fin Soup then there's no need to kill any more sharks. Captain Watson endorses The Underwater Channel's foresight and strong stance on this issue and in support he says, "Those who fear sharks should consider that the sharks have far more reason to fear us. They occasionally attack us by mistake when we venture into their world but we seek them out and destroy them with ruthless malice for a bowl of soup."

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-090402-2.html