World Vision Malaysia is having a campaign "I'm finished with fins" at Midvalley Megamall (South Court) on 19 - 30 March 2014.
It is to spread the awareness to stop hunting for Shark Fins.
What's the matter?
Shark mature late until they're 10-20 years old, have long pregnancy (8months - 1 year), and breed only once every 2-3 years, give birth to a small number of life young (3-20 in average).
But!!
People kill up to 100 million sharks per year since 90's until now. We are depleting shark populations in a extremely fast rate.
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1/3 of shark species are in trouble
> 120 species are listed as "threatened"
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Why should I care if sharks go extinct?
Sharks is the "Keystone" species, to keep our oceans in a healthy & critical balanace.
Example A:
In the mid-Atlantic coast, local sharks have disappeared due to overfishing. Without the predator, Cownose Ray population exploded and they overly eaten the scallops. It is seriously ruined the scallop fishery business there.
Example B:
In Caribbean, removal of sharks lead to rise in Groupers fish. Groupers ate algae-eating parrotfish. Without parrotfish to keep reefs clear of algae, the coral reef choked and the fishes which rely on reef environment are gradually gone, an underwater desert zone aplydinpears.
Without sharks, the marine ecosystem loses her balance. It causes bad things to happen, incuding things we eat (seafood) and breathe (The ocean produce 1/3 of the our planet's O2 and absorb over 50% of the CO2 from the atmosphere).
We need the ocean...
ocean needs sharks...
Therefore, we need sharks.
Why is Malaysia involved?
Malaysia is the 8th highest catchers globally,
- caught 231,212 tonnes* of sharks from 2002 to 2011, accounting for 2.9 % of the total global reported shark catch during that period.
- Over the past 25 years, about 98% of the Sabah's Sharks had disappeared due to overfishing, according to Sabah Tourism and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun.
Malaysia imported 6,896 tonnes of shark's fin* (dried, prepared and salted) during the period 2000-2009, the 4th highest importer globally.
*Refer to Traffic's study - Intro the deep: Implementing CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) measures for commercially-valuable sharks and manta rays.
What can we do?
We curb the demand. Stop paying for shark fins. Not in restaurants. Not in your soup.
For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/sharksaversmalaysia and
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