Ocean Sentry
They are known as the ocean”s gentle giants, but an alarming rise in manta and mobula ray hunting could threaten the very existence of the species. From India to Ecuador, manta and mobula fishing has become big business for fisheries who are selling their gills to be used in soups …
March, 2011
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3 March
The massacre of 70 bull sharks authorized after a shark attack on a Canadian tourist in Cancun
At the beaches in Cancun on Monday the 31st of January this year, Canadian tourist Nicole Moore didn´t realize that a lifeguard was desperately blowing his whistle so that swimmers would get out of the sea due to the presence of a school of sharks. The first reports spread in …
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1 March
Endangered Great hammerhead sharks tracked into the north Atlantic
Endangered great hammerhead sharks have been tracked by satellite into the North Atlantic for the first time by scientists at the University of Miami. The animals are under threat from shark finning operations who prize them for their large fins. “It is vital to track sharks to identify hotspots – …
February, 2011
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28 February
Guam Now One of the Shark-Friendliest Places on Earth
If you”re a shark, the Pacific Islands are not a bad place to be these days. Yesterday, the Senate of Guam followed Hawaii”s lead and became the third region to move to ban the sale, possession and distribution of shark products in the U.S. territory. Hawaii was the first U.S. …
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26 February
Customs seize hammerhead shark fins
Customs inspectors have found nearly a half ton of shark fins cut illegally from protected hammerhead sharks. Customs director Gloria Moreno de Lopez said that the fins were found at Panama”s international airport in a shipment labelled as dried fish…
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15 February
California Proposes Ban on Sale of Shark Fins
California legislators just introduced a bill that would ban the sale and distribution of shark fins. Shark fins are most popularly used in Chinese soup that”s considered a delicacy. But, as you”re likely aware, shark fins are most often procured as the result of a particularly abhorrent fishing method — …
January, 2011
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27 January
UN shark conservation plan has failed, says report
A headline-making UN scheme to preserve the world”s sharks has been a resounding failure, according to a report on Thursday that pins the blame on Indonesia, India, Spain and Taiwan and 16 other major catchers of the fish. “The fate of the world”s sharks is in the hands of the …
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7 January
Shark Conservation Act Becomes Law
The Shark Conservation Act has finally become law, giving much-needed protection to some of the ocean’s most magnificent creatures. Signed by President Obama on January 4, the law closes a major loophole in an existing U.S. ban on shark finning. That gruesome practice involves fishermen cutting off sharks’ fins, which …
December, 2010
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21 December
Senate passes shark protection bill
The Senate passed a landmark shark conservation bill Monday that would close loopholes that had allowed the lucrative shark fin trade to continue operations off the West Coast. The measure would require all vessels to land sharks with fins attached and would prevent nonfishing vessels from transporting fins without their …
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9 December
EU loophole ‘allows illegal shark finning to continue’
Loopholes in EU regulations mean that illegal shark finning is continuing undetected, a report warns. Finning involves cutting off a shark”s fins and throwing the rest of the carcass back into the sea – a practice that the EU has regulated since 2003. Marine experts are calling on the EU …
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2 December
Narco-Sharks Replacing Drug Mules
Sharks are facing a new threat: they are being fished off the Pacific coast of Central America and Mexico and used to smuggle cocaine to the United States, through Mexico. This stretch of ocean and its coasts have become a transit route for drugs produced in Colombia and shipped to …
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1 December
New Costa Rican rule cracks down on illegal shark finning
Costa Rica’s Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) and the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute have agreed to close private docks in Puntarenas, a central Pacific port town, to foreign fishing vessels, starting Dec. 1. The move, designed to curb the illegal practice of unloading shark fins at private docks, will force foreign …