ICCAT Campaign: Demand urgent action now!!!

CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION.

ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) was set up to protect Atlantic tuna species and guarantee sustainable ocean stock levels but it has failed miserably. One species - the Atlantic bluefin tuna is on the verge of extinction. The bureaucrats and pen-pushers at ICCAT have consistently ignored scientific advice and have allowed unsustainable numbers of bluefin tuna to be caught. Sharks are often caught up as "by-catch" in commercial tuna-fishing operations- by banning the catching of tuna, ICCAT would also reduce the number of sharks caught. ICCAT is another one of those "official bodies" that seems to do nothing but waste money - they certainly don't do what they were set up to do - protect tuna. So who are these people? Well, the entire staff are listed below, complete with email addresses. I have listed their emails here, so you can copy and paste them into an email and let them know what you think and what you want them to do. I recommend a short simple message such as:

"Zero quota on bluefin tuna! More protection for sharks!! NOW!!!"

Now is a very important time to take action on this issue because the scientific arm of ICCAT has admitted that CITES protection for bluefin is necessary - but the managers need to take their advice (which they have chosen not to do in the past).

ICCAT email list:
driss.meski@iccat.int victor.restrepo@iccat.int papa.kebe@iccat.int laurie.kell@iccat.int juan.carlos@iccat.int luis.gallego@iccat.int jesus.fiz@iccat.int penelope.cabello@iccat.int

..Stop Shark Finning Mailing List Message..

Please sign this petition in support of Sea Shepherd in Holland - teh Dutch government is considering denying permission for 2 of Sea Shepherd's ships to sail under the Dutch flag, due to pressure from Japan. Sea Shepherd are doing great work protecting whales, sharks, seals and many other marine animals. Let's make sure they keep sailing!!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/appeal-to-the-dutch-government-who-wants-emergency-act-against-environmental-pirates-sea-shepherd

SIGN THE PETITION

Please repost!!

Supervalu/Albertson's are selling shark meat at their stores. Oceanic Defense has been campaigning for the last few weeks on the Supervalu/Albertson's issue, and have been doing their best to get through to management, but so far without success.
Oceanic Defense has obtained the email addresses of the board of directors, and they are now launching another email campaign to contact these people and to demand that shark products no longer be sold at their stores.

Please take a couple of minutes to email these people:
Craig Herkert - Craig.Herkert@supervalu.com SUPERVALU CEO
Jeff Noddle - Jeff.Noddle@supervalu.com Executive Chairman
Mike Jackson - Mike.Jackson@supervalu.com President and Chief Operating Officer
David Boehnen - David.Boehnen@supervalu.com Executive Vice President
Janel Haugarth - Janel.Haugarth@supervalu.com Executive Vice President; President and Chief Operating Officer, Supply Chain Services
Duncan Mac Naughton - Duncan.MacNaughton@supervalu.com Executive Vice President, Merchandising and Marketing
Dave Pylipow - Dave.Pylipow@supervalu.com Executive Vice President, Human Resources
Kevin Tripp - Kevin.Tripp@supervalu.com Executive Vice President; President, Retail Midwest
Pete Van Helden - Pete.VanHelden@supervalu.com Executive Vice President; President, Retail West

You may also want to copy Stephanie Martin Stephanie.Martin@supervalu.com, who was the contact for the initial phase of the campaign. I and several other people received the same form letter from Stephanie which did not address our concerns and showed no understanding of the issue at stake.

More information is posted here, on the Oceanic Defense blog.
http://oceanicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/07/supervalualbertsons-complete.html

Oceanic Defense has launched a campaign against Alberton's/Supervalu because of their continued refusal to remove shark meat from their stores. Many sharks, including the thresher shark (being sold at Albertson's) are now considered by experts to be at risk of extinction; many sharks are on the IUCN red list of endangered species. Unregulated overfishing means that shark species have fallen by 90% compared to their levels just 20 or 30 years ago. Shark meat is also highly toxic and can contain levels of mercury 60 times the official acceptable level. The EDF (Environmental Defense Fund) has classified it as an "Eco-Worst Choice" food.

Oceanic Defense has provided Alberton's/Supervalu with the above information (and much more) but the company continues to market and sell shark meat. Alberton's/Supervalu, like many companies, likes to ride the "environmental" bandwagon and make money branding themselves as environmentally friendly, but when push comes to shove they come off as phony.

For that reason I am asking you to:
1. Contact the following executives and ask them to stop selling shark meat:
Stephanie Martin
Director of Communications
Stephanie.Martin@supervalu.com

Supervalu Corporate contact:
http://www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/contact/contact.jsp

Albertson's contact:
https://shop.albertsons.com/eCommerceWeb/Comments.do?action=viewComments

2. Tell them you will boycott their stores until they make a commitment to stop selling any type of shark product.

Please spread the word to friends and family and on social networks, blogs and websites. Let's make Albertson's aware of the strength of feeling of the public about ocean conservation!

More information and links:


The Oceanic Defense blog:
http://oceanicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/07/major-us-grocery-chain-urged-to-stop.html
Shark meat on the Albertson's website:
http://albertsonsmarket.com/healthmatter.php?org=albertsonsllc&ContentID=1930009
An overview of thresher shark on the EDF website:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=15755
Oceanic Defense:
http://oceanicdefense.com/

Oceanic Defense has launched a campaign against Alberton's/Supervalu because of their continued refusal to remove shark meat from their stores. Many sharks, including the thresher shark (being sold at Albertson's) are now considered by experts to be at risk of extinction; many sharks are on the IUCN red list of endangered species. Unregulated overfishing means that shark species have fallen by 90% compared to their levels just 20 or 30 years ago. Shark meat is also highly toxic and can contain levels of mercury 60 times the official acceptable level. The EDF (Environmental Defense Fund) has classified it as an "Eco-Worst Choice" food.

Oceanic Defense has provided Alberton's/Supervalu with the above information (and much more) but the company continues to market and sell shark meat. Alberton's/Supervalu, like many companies, likes to ride the "environmental" bandwagon and make money branding themselves as environmentally friendly, but when push comes to shove they come off as phony.

For that reason I am asking you to:
1. Contact the following executives and ask them to stop selling shark meat:
Stephanie Martin
Director of Communications
Stephanie.Martin@supervalu.com

Supervalu Corporate contact:
http://www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/contact/contact.jsp

Albertson's contact:
https://shop.albertsons.com/eCommerceWeb/Comments.do?action=viewComments

2. Tell them you will boycott their stores until they make a commitment to stop selling any type of shark product.

Please spread the word to friends and family and on social networks, blogs and websites. Let's make Albertson's aware of the strength of feeling of the public about ocean conservation!

More information and links:


The Oceanic Defense blog:
http://oceanicdefense.blogspot.com/2009/07/major-us-grocery-chain-urged-to-stop.html
Shark meat on the Albertson's website:
http://albertsonsmarket.com/healthmatter.php?org=albertsonsllc&ContentID=1930009
An overview of thresher shark on the EDF website:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=15755
Oceanic Defense:
http://oceanicdefense.com/

Many species of open ocean shark are under serious threat, according to an assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Red list gives the status of 64 types of shark and ray, over 30% of which are threatened with extinction.

The authors, IUCN's Shark Specialist Group, say a main cause is overfishing.

Listed as endangered are two species of hammerhead shark, often subject to "finning" - a practice of removing the fins and throwing away the body.

This is the first time that IUCN Red List criteria, considered the world's most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of plants and animals, have been used to classify open ocean, or pelagic, sharks and rays.

The list is part of an ongoing international scientific project to monitor the animals.

The authors classified a further 24% of the examined species as Near Threatened.

Sharks are "profoundly vulnerable" to overfishing, they say. This is principally because many species take several years to mature and have relatively few young.
Shark in fishing net
Open ocean sharks are caught in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries

"[But] despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas," said Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and one of the editors of the report.

"[We have] documented serious overfishing of these species, in national and international waters. This demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale."

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognised the potential threat to sharks over a decade ago, when it launched its "International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks" in 1999.

But the "requested improvements fisheries data from member states... have been painfully slow and simply inadequate", according to this report by the IUCN.

"There have been improvements here and there but overall progress hasn't been as swift as we might like to see," said Jorge Csirke, director of the FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Management Division.

"Very often the reason is not a lack of will - although that can be a problem - but a lack of know-how and, most critically, a lack of budgetary resources for improving fisheries data collection.

Many pelagic sharks are caught in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries.

Although some are accidentally caught in nets meant for these other fish, they are increasingly targeted for their meat, teeth and liver oil, and because of high demand, particularly in Asia, for their fins.

Discarded bodies

"The hammerheads are special because they have very high quality fins but quite low quality meat," explained Ms Fordham. "They often fall victim to finning."

She told BBC News that, although finning is widely banned, this ban is not always well enforced.
   
Oceanic whitetip shark
We've already had recommendations from scientists that there should be no fishing of these sharks
Sonja Fordham
IUCN Shark Specialist Group

"The EU finning ban is one of the weakest in the world," she said.

"The best, most sure-fire way to enforce a ban is to prohibit the removal of fins at sea.

"But in the EU, you can remove them, providing the fins you bring ashore weigh less than 5% of the weight of the bodies."

This rule was designed to prevent finning, but it provided "wiggle room", said Ms Fordham.

"The IUCN has estimated that, under these rules, you could fin and discard two to three sharks for every shark you keep, " she explained.

The European Commission agreed that EU policy on finning "contained a number of loopholes".

"That's why in February we proposed to strengthen the finning ban and close these loopholes," the commission said in a statement.

'No fishing'

Species listed as Vulnerable included the smooth hammerhead shark, the porbeagle shark and the common, bigeye and pelagic thresher sharks.

Fisheries have fought to keep their right to fish porbeagle sharks because their meat is so valuable, according to Ms Fordham.

"Yet we've already had recommendations from scientists that there should be no fishing of these sharks."

For certain species - that are considered particularly vulnerable - the authors have recommended their complete protection.

"The big-eyed thresher shark, for example, is very slow growing," explained Ms Fordham.

"Fishermen can very easily identify it, because it has a very big eye. So if they catch it accidentally, they can throw it back.

"These sharks tend to survive well when they're thrown back."

By the end of this year, the Shark Specialist Group will publish a complete report, outlining the status of all 400 species of shark, and closely-related skates and rays.


From the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8117378.stm

This issue is still very much alive - please sign this petition to ask the government of Palau to maintain their shark finning ban. To reverse it would be a disaster for sharks and would actually hurt their tourism industry as it is a very popular area with divers.

"Remove the nets" is a campaign supported by various shark and ocean conservation groups with the aim of removing shark nets from the coastline at KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. From removethenets.com:

"It is hard to believe in this day in age with all we know about sharks, including their dwindling numbers, their critical role in our ecosystem, and the small risk they pose to us, that the archaic process of shark culling through the installation of shark fishing nets still exists.

But in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, hundreds of harmless sharks, as well as turtles, dolphins and rays, still meet an untimely death every year by the 28 km of nets. It could be said there was a time and place for nets.

When they were installed in the 50’s and 60’s, the public knew little about sharks and the fear of attack was high, with shark populations far healthier than they are today.

Since then, while shark fishing has skyrocketed eliminating much of the world’s shark populations, the public has been educated on the environment and biodiversity conservation, the risk of incident, as well as the sharks’ true behaviors towards humans.

It is time for a change. It is time for the nets to be removed. Join our campaign."

Visit removethenets.com for more information on how you can help and sign their petition:
http://www.removethenets.com/