CNN-Wild Aid-Conservation Home Run

After months of bad news about sharks, along comes this mornings in-depth and quite frankly astonishing coverage of Taiwans sharks fin trade by CNN's-Lisa Ling and Peter Knights of WildAid

The "Planet in Peril" crew traveled with Knights to Taiwan's southern port city of Kaohsiung, which is considered one of the world's main hubs for shark fins. We watched as the fishermen unloaded their catch. Thousands of fins were thrown from one of the ships that had spent months fishing the international waters of the Pacific.

Real and lasting conservation media starts with credible sources and ends with in depth reporting like this. Kudo's to the entire team who put this together, from the video crew to the line producers, this is first rate NGO work and first rate television/media.

Shark Finning-Wild Aid December

WildAids sharks campaign has been one of unrelenting messaging and direct action. To say they have been "on this issue" is an understatement.

We got the following email this morning about an upcoming finning expose by CNN in conjunction with WildAid. You can set your calendar now this should be informative and eye opening:

Hello All,

We have just finished filming with CNN’s Planet in Peril. Here are the promotional pieces from that. The main story will air in December.

Lisa Ling’s story on Shark Finning is posted on the Planet in Peril site:

Planet in Peril-Sharks

Jason McArthur
WildAid

Hat Tip: Image from Shark Alliance another first rate NGO who's direct action and messaging is changing peoples perception of sharks one person at a time.

Shark Finning-A big idea to "Chew On"

A while back we had a conversation with the CEO of Wild Aid Peter Knights. Wild Aid is the "master of the message" getting major players in the entertainment and sports world to come forward and do pro wildlife PSA's (Public service announcements).

We spoke about an idea we had about viral PSA's for a cash prize. Here's how it works. In the USA alone there are hundreds of small, upcoming, digital media production houses all looking for work. These folks are, in a word, brilliant-but they lack the main stream exposure they need to get the entire world to see their talent.

What if someone offered a $50,000 cash prize for the best anti shark finning viral video based on several criteria, one of which would be the number of downloads.

It's called a force multiplier. Now hundreds of PSA's that catch the eye and showcase raw digital talent would be all over the place, spreading the message in multiple languages, and multiple formats-being seen by the world.

$50,000 may seem like a lot-but when you consider a single Wild Aid PSA has a donated value of many hundreds of thousands, you get the idea. Here's an example of a commercial shark video that has become viral. Imagine if you changed the message slightly how many people would be affected. By recent counts 87,000 and growing: