World Ocean Day Celebration San Francisco

Sea Stewards is proud to join hundreds of other educational institutions, conservation organizations, and thousands of individuals in dozens of countries around the world to celebrate our shared ocean. World Oceans Day – officially held on June 8th of each year – is an opportunity to celebrate our world ocean and our personal connection to the sea.

The Ocean Project, an international network of over 1,000 aquariums, zoos, museums, and conservation organizations including SEA Stewards, the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary association and the Surfrider Foundation, is working closely with the World Ocean Network to coordinate activities worldwide under the theme “Oceans of Life – Protecting Sharks, Reducing Plastics” with a special focus on getting the public to connect with sharks to conserve the world’s oceans.


To celebrate a healthy San Francisco Bay and Ocean Sea Stewards will host a beach clean up and shark sandcastle building, and a shark party with films, music and fun to follow.

WHEN: June 5th, 2010, Beach Clean up 3 PM, Shark Party 5 PM

WHERE: Beach Event at Crissy Field across from the Sports Basement and Party at the Sports Basement at the Presidio

Great Live Music with My Peoples formerly Kapakahi, drink with Sierra Nevada and Barefoot Wines, pupus, Ocean Films on Plastics and Sharks, Special Sharky Guest. All items 10% off and a percentage goes to the shark program.

WHY:We can help make others more aware of the importance of the world’s ocean in their daily lives by showing them ways to improve their impact on the ocean by, for example, reducing plastics use, and limiting CO2 emissions. In joining with thousands of people all over the world in celebrating World Oceans Day, we can make a real difference for our oceans of life!
--
David McGuire, Director
SeaStewards.org
Support our Shark Conservation Campaign
"Media for a Healthy Ocean"
415.350.3790

David McGuire, Filmmaker, Activist, Thinker

This morning David McGuire posted an excellent and very well thought out look into the pitfalls of direct action animal campaigns when the greatest divide is cultural.

To distill this thought down, imagine 22 Chinese Americans waving protest signs outside a McDonalds directed at the predominately white customers inside. "Meat is murder" "Cows are killed inhumanely for this meat". You begin to see why this divide becomes almost impossible to bridge while the salient fact of whites telling Asians what they should and should not eat remains on the table for discussion.

That's not to say it cannot be done. Following the masters of the game WildAid and their campaign strategy of mass communication with members of the Asian community is effective. The subtext here is campaign effectiveness:

Having briefly observed and filmed the Chinese Flower Parade kicking of the New Year in San Francisco, I was amazed at the colors, smells and richness of the Chinese community. San Francisco has the largest Chinese Community in the USA, and a walk down Stockton Avenue is a walk into Asia.

A demonstration by the Shark Safe Project and aided by COARE approached shark fin soup restaurants and came out on the streets passing out information, but the shark activists were overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of Chinese Americans flooding the narrow streets of Chinatown. Most passersby appeared indifferent, a few were angry, most just passed on without making eye contact. Even so, a hard core group of activists, many from out of the area gathered to pass out information for sharks.

Complete Post

David McGuire-Shark Talk, New Film

Local filmmaker David McGuire of the recent Shark Stewards film has completed new short format shark film with the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco.

The subject is our own Sevengill sharks. As it turns out San Francisco Bay is teeming with these huge and reclusive critters.

David is one of a few filmmakers who think "sharks first" when it comes to making films about these magnificent animals. He has distinguished himself in the industry as s serious documentary filmmaker and serious shark advocate. Join him this month for the opening of his new film City of the Shark:

Dear Ocean friends,

I would like to invite you to my new film City of the Shark-
prescreening at a fundraising party for shark research - this coming
Thursday, the 29th at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco.

This will be a first time screening of this 15 minute documentary on local sharks, including tagging and tracking the sevengill sharks of the San Francisco Bay with researchers from UC Davis and the Aquarium of the Bay. The event will include live sharks, live music by rocker Mike Gibbons who did the soundtrack for the film, food, drink and sharky conversation. Please come support our local sharks and the Aquarium of the Bay Foundation.

We will also world premiere at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival
Feb 21 at 1 PM.

Ill be hosting a series of shark films at the festival, and afterwards I will be moderating a panel discussion sponsored by Greenplanet Films titled Sharks: Myths and Misconceptions. Please come if you can and pass this on to anyone interested in sharks and the ocean.

www.aquariumofthebay.com
www.aquariumofthebayfoundation.org
www.oceanfilmfest.org

For a healthy ocean,

David

"City of the Shark" Preview Screening
Thursday, January 29, 2009
6:00pm - 8:30pm

David McGuire-Shark Talk

David McGuire, conservation filmmaker, a field associate of the California Academy of Sciences and a shark advocate recently took part in a round table discussion with Global Commons radio about sharks and shark conservation.

His film "Sharks Stewards of the Reef" remains one of the best looks at the fate of modern sharks with a strong conservation message. To quote David "It's a bad time to be a shark".

Listen here.