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| Sea Save Foundation team at ADEX - From back left to right Joanne Healy, Brian Stelmar, Jay Ireland, Carolina Dratva, Paige Henderson, Georgienne Bradley and Lynda Whitbread |
This April, the Sea Save Foundation team took a part in the 2014 Asian Dive Expo (ADEX), held in Singapore. Our group was highly successful in engaging the community and bringing global awareness to the unsustainable shark finning industry through our "Give Em' The Fin" campaign. As a volunteer for Sea Save, it was incredibly exciting to be a part of the team at ADEX, and also very rewarding to know that I was intimately involved in helping to save sharks in a part of the world that is known for shark finning.
The Sea Save exhibit showcased photographs by Paul Hilton, Jay Ireland and Georgienne Bradley that were both captivating and eyecatching, drawing many people in with questions. Participants were asked to take a picture "Giving The Fin" and to upload that image to the mosaic. People were delighted to partake in the campaign and many had their own fun variations on how they participated. We also asked people to sign two extremely important petitions; one pertaining to the enforcement of protecting the CITES Appendix II, and another urging Singapore Airlines to stop shipping shark fins.
Our campaign was wildly successful, and over 50 % of the images currently displayed in the mosaic were uploaded at this event. For our team, it was very encouraging to see Singaporean, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese and other citizens from countries all over the globe excited to make a stand against shark fin soup.
Children made pledges to never indulge in shark fin soup and many adults were following suit. This change is crucial and to see it in action in Asia, a contintent with a long standing tradition of consuming shark fin soup, was exhilarating. There is still a great amount of work to be done to help save sharks from the imminent threat of over-fishing and extinction, but thanks to the efforts of Sea Save Foundation and other preservation organizations, change is finally happening.
Keep following the efforts of Sea Save Foundation and stay tuned to see how you can help to protect our sharks. We encourage you to also upload photos of you and your friends "Giving The Fin" to our mosaic by clicking here. Your picture will be featured along with 20,000 other pictures of people from all over the planet uniting as one to support sharks.
Upon completion, the mosiac will be featured on billboards all across Asia to again remind people of the consequences of supporting the shark finning industry. You can also help by signing our petitions, such as the Enforce CITES Petition and the Petition Urging Singapore Airlines to Stop Shipping Shark Fins. Join us. It's Your Ocean. Do Something About it!
Written by Paige Henderson
