Happy Hearts Love Sharks Wedding Contest

Shark fin soup – most popularly served at wedding banquets – is causing the demise of shark populations around the world. A single wedding banquet serving shark fin soup to 300 guests kills up to 30 sharks. It is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine and is served at banquets as a symbol of status and respect. It is commonly served at wedding banquets to show ‘face’ or respect to one’s guests. With China’s rising middle-class and a thriving diaspora of Cantonese communities around the world, the demand for shark fin soup continues to soar.

To engage consumers in a discussion about shark fin soup, Shark Truth focuses on working with Chinese consumers– and not against them. With the support of the Save Our Seas Foundation, Shark Truth recently launched the Happy Hearts Love Sharks Wedding Contest.

Happy Hearts Love Sharks
Wedding Contest 2010

Did you know that a wedding banquet serving shark fin soup to 300 guests can kill up to 30 sharks? Through the ‘Happy Hearts Love Sharks’ wedding contest, couples who submit a video or photo entry of their pledge to Stop the Soup at their wedding banquet will have a chance to win one of three amazing prizes:

Grand Prize: A trip to Mexico to dive with whale sharks*
Runner Up Prize: A couples photography package*
International Prize: A waterproof digital camera and an adopt-a-shark package**

* For contestants in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, Canada only
** For any contestants around the world outside of Greater Vancouver Regional District, Canada

The first 5 international couples to enter the contest will get the beautiful coffee table book “Sharks Up Close”, which captures the majestic, beautiful shark in photography.

Contest closes World Ocean’s Day, June 8th, 2010

Registration and contest details at http://sharktruth.com/wedding

Shark Truth is a not-for-profit consumer awareness group that seeks to engage consumers in a collaborative discussion to find alternatives to shark fin soup. We are dedicated to promoting awareness around the irreversibly detrimental effects of the shark finning industry, specifically working with (and not against) consumers. Find out more at http://sharktruth.com

The troubled Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in Denmark concluded on December 18th, yielding what has been reported internationally as a disappointing outcome. Although a deal was eventually reached (essentially aiming to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2C and pledging financial aid to developing nations) it lacked actual targets for cuts in carbon emissions and there was no agreement on an international, legally binding treaty. The details of the agreement can be found here, whilst more information on how climate change is affecting our oceans can be found here.

More positive news is that the European Commission has elected to close all fisheries for the endangered porbeagle shark, following scientific advice given at the recent European Fisheries Council meeting. Porbeagle sharks, a close relative of the great white, have been heavily targeted both for their fins and meat, but North Atlantic populations have been observed to collapse in recent years. Hopefully effective enforcement will follow this legislation and permit the recovery of porbeagle populations.

Whilst on the topic of sharks, Yao Ming – NBA and China’s most successful celebrity – has continued his support for WildAid’s ongoing campaign against the consumption of shark fin soup in a new video. The hope is that using a celebrity with which people identify will better help draw attention to the issue of shark finning and its impacts – a recent survey in China revealed that two thirds of participants were simply unaware that the favoured soup dish was from sharks. You can learn more about WildAid’s anti-shark finning campaign over on their SOSF project page.

Separate to the aforementioned climate conference, there is potential that the UK Government may be considering the establishment of the world’s largest marine protected area: the Chagos Archipelago. The Archipelago is the world’s largest coral atoll and contains half of the remaining healthy coral reefs in the Indian Ocean, making it a highly desirable conservation target. There would be issues with maintenance of such a large protected area (spanning over 200 miles), especially given the loss of income the prohibition of the area’s tuna fishery would incur, however these are thought to be severely outweighed by the benefits of conserving such a large area of the marine environment. Let’s hope that such a move is not lost amongst the forthcoming election.

In other news the mystery of the Amazonian manatee’s migration patterns has been solved. Work by researchers from Brazil has revealed that during the low-water season the manatee’s travel to deeper water, which affords them greater protection from predators but comes with the forfeit of poor foraging opportunities.

Be sure to read the next blog post of SOSF Chief Photographer Tom Peschak, in which he will recount his efforts to track down the West Indian manatee.