Sunshine State Anglers Support Shark-Free Marinas

From the Sunshine State Angler website this week:

As we have reported time and time again, shark populations around the globe have been severely lessened. In an attempt to bring the shark’s plight to all ours attention Guy Harvey put together this PSA last year to kick off his campaign with Human Society of the United States called the Shark Free Marina Initiative. We here at SSA agree that shark populations have declined dramatically and that the oceans will be soon set off balance. We believe that all us can do our part to be part of the solution but to really help shark populations rebound initiatives need to focus more on commercial shark fishing especially illegal shark fishing. Banning the sale or possession of shark fins would go very far to help these ocean stewards.

Watch the video and log in and let us know how you feel on this topic. Here is a link to the Shark Free Marina Initiative website: http://www.sharkfreemarinas.com/index.php

Shark-Free Marinas New Website, New Marinas, Florida Focus

What started several years ago as a "conservation concept" born from the shark diving community has, in the capable hands of Luke Tipple, become so much more.

Welcome to the newly invigorated Shark-Free Marinas Initiative now with more participating marinas and PSA's featuring Slash, Guy Harvey, Alex Baldwin, Elizebeth Berkley, Nigel Barker, Jim Toomey, Bill Maher with the full support and backing of the Humane Society of the USA.

The Shark-Free Marinas Initiative now features a new division called Shark-Friendly Marinas a natural expansion of the original concept:

We'd like to register every marina as Shark-Free, however some state laws or private companies have policies which do not allow for a complete ban on killing sharks. In these cases we offer the Shark-Friendly classification which discourages the intentional killing of sharks.

The SFMI's early start was a rocky one. Thanks to several members of our own community who adopted this concept and brought into being by acting as self motivated boots on the ground, actively transforming marinas in their region to become Shark-Free.

To those few early adopters, Kudos, your leadership, your dedication to sharks allowed the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative to grow into what it is today.

The hard work is still to come and this month the SFMI has announced it's 201 Florida Focus with the help of Guy Harvey and the Guy Harvey Oceans Foundation to invite Florida marinas to become Shark-Free and Shark-Friendly.

Another shark campaign?

Yes, the Shark-Free Marinas Initiative is smart, targeted, and has the benefits of saving sharks now.

Join the shark conservation army and ask your local marina to become Shark-Free this month.

Dr Guy Harvey Shark-Free Marinas PSA

Dr Guy Harvey of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation speaks out of behalf of the Shark-Free Marina Initiative.

Visit http://www.sharkfreemarinas.com

When the "Architects" leave the shark conservation movement

The last two years have been banner years for shark conservation.

What used to be a few small and impassioned voices out in the wilderness has turned into a veritable tsunami of groups, Facebook petitions, and thousands of individuals calling for shark protections worldwide.

That's the good news.

On the heels of this movement have come the "sharkitarians" those whose personal agendas and misguided passion have created a subculture of angry infighting, ugly assertions, and a new sideways conservation paradigm of "anything for the sharks".

This has included, but not limited to, stealing shark conservation ideas, concepts, websites, names, slander, tribal groupings, and personal attack efforts unrelated to sharks or conservation in anyway.

We have been at the center of this unhappy storm of discontent, and seen it happening over the past two years to many others. It has become so pervasive, so absolutely non-productive and toxic, that many of shark conservations "true architects" have been leaving for the exits as fast as they can.

These are the real innovators, the website designers, the conservation concept developers, and the outside-the-box thinkers.

Left behind is a growing eco-chamber of circular thought. Where ideas and media quotes like, "if we kill all the earths sharks we'll run out of oxygen to breathe" go unchallenged. To be repeated without any critical thought or real conversation about the impact of this particularly moronic statement on policy makers.

Folks, this is a crises, you may not see it now, but it is happening and the exits are reeling with the onslaught of departing bodies.

It has happened again this week and the loss was acute and a blow to the shark conservation movement, let's all take a moment to mourn the loss of Mark Thorpe.

Are we going to continue with this loss of the best and brightest?

Hopefully not, because there's 73 million important reasons we can think of to change the way we're doing business with each other right now.

From Da Shark in Fiji on Mark Thorpe.