Petition to President of China Reaches 1,000 Signatures

Warwickshire UK (PRWEB) November 13, 2007 -- This petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/SharkS/petition.html), created by Bruce Everiss, owner of SCUBA diving website Scubabrucie (http://www.scubabrucie.com/), has now reached 1,000 signatures.

Everiss is a very experienced diver, a PADI instructor with over 1,000 dives, and it is seeing the depletion of shark populations for himself in seas all around the world that has led him to start this petition. This is a huge ecological disaster that most people are unaware of and which will have serious consequences for all of us. It is probably the most damaging ecological issue of our age.

Because what is happening is hidden beneath the waves it does not have the same impact as ecological damage on land. Also many people's perception of sharks comes from the film Jaws which totally misrepresents these perfectly evolved creatures and their behavior.

Everiss believes that the methods of fishing for sharks are especially barbaric. They are caught on long lines often several miles long baited with many hooks. These can clear a large area of sea of it's entire shark population very quickly. Because the economic value is in the fins, these are frequently cut off with the shark still alive. The finless shark is then thrown back in the water where it sinks to the bottom and dies slowly, often over many weeks.

As an apex predator the shark breeds very slowly. They reach sexual maturity late and have few offsprings. Populations can be very easily damaged and take a long time to recover. Even if fishing were banned today Everiss thinks that the shark population would probably not recover even in our children's lifetimes.

The petition:

To: Hu Jintao president of the People's Republic of China.

Currently the Chinese people are eating a soup which is causing the biggest ecological disaster of our time. Supplying the demand for Shark's Fin soup involves the death of what best estimates say are between 50 and 150 million sharks a year. This is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to all sharks becoming extinct, many species are already over 90% eradicated.

The shark is the apex predator that keeps the whole ecology of the sea in balance and healthy. Nobody knows what the effects of their removal will be but is can be guaranteed to involve a lot of unwanted harmful outcomes.

This petition seeks the Chinese government to ban the catching, import and sale of sharks and all shark related products.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Everiss is delighted with the support: "Every little bit counts in trying to prevent this huge ecological disaster. I urge everyone to sign this petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/SharkS/petition.html). You can make a difference"

Once there are sufficient signatures the petition will be printed out and presented to the Chinese Embassy in London.

note: Editorial background and support for the facts in this release can be found in this Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark).

###