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Endangered Turtles and Sharks Lose Out
Sad news today, my friends. Remember those 800 letters that we sent? Or those 35 marine conservation organizations that supported us in asking the Marine Stewardship Council to stay true to their cause of protecting the oceans and endangered and sensitive species? Well, it looks like the MSC didn’t listen.
Marine Stewardship Council update
Can you believe this is still going on? For almost TWO YEARS we have been telling the Marine Stewardship Council that people won’t trust a green ‘eco-label’ that greenwashes fisheries who kill sharks and sea turtles. It has been a long fight and we don’t have the same deep pockets as the fishery consultants seem to – but we’ve hung in there and the end is in sight!
Destination: Marine Stewardship Council
Clocking in at an amazing 1313k – extra amazing for a shark on a bicycle- I made it to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) headquarters in the heart of London’s financial district. Wow – cycling in rush hour London traffic felt only slightly less dangerous than swimming around surface longline fishing gear.
Just One Week to Go!
I can’t believe I’ll be arriving in London in just one week! I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to share my ‘shark tales’ from the road, so I hope you’ve been checking the waypoints on my blog map for photos and snippets of my experiences riding a bicycle through Spain and France.
Hills are a state of mind, said a wise land friend
After a week of cycling in Spain, it is time to bid a fond adios!
On the Road
I’ve had a pretty adventurous life for a blue shark- everything from participating in International fisheries meetings in Paris last year to narrowly escaping a hook from a swordfish longline. But getting on a bicycle in Gijon, Spain, and hitting the long road to London, England has to be the wildest experience yet!
Hector’s a Fish Out of Water
Hola Amigos! After a long and stormy trip across the Atlantic, I have finally arrived in beautiful Spain.
Handsome Hector, for now…
Hola Friends! I’m currently making my way across the wide Atlantic Ocean at a clip of almost 40 kilometers an hour.
Canadian Sharks and Shark Week
The frenzy over Discovery Channel ‘Shark Week’ sweeps North American television stations beamed to television sets around the world offers an excellent opportunity to consider the plight of sharks in Canadian waters. Here in Canada we are lucky enough to host some of the most rare and unique sharks. Every year the basking shark comes into our waters. This slow moving filter feeding shark is more akin to a whale growing up to 12 meters, the second largest shark in the world. Canada is also home to one of the world’s smallest shark – the spiny dogfish and an arctic shark, the Greenland shark. Most people are surprised to find out that 28 species of shark spend at least part of their lives in our cold waters. This surprise is often followed by fear.
A Success for Oceans Day
Happy World Oceans Day Everyone!
Over the past months, we have sent hundreds of letters in support of shark and sea turtle protection, and it seems like we are making an impact!
MSC product line expanding to include more dead turtles?
Just as I feared, the certification of the Canadian swordfish longline fleet has set a precedent and opened the door for MSC to give their eco-check mark to yet another harmful surface longline fleet. Now an American swordfish fleet off Florida has been assessed as sustainable – the public comment period has opened. This is deplorable. Another fishery killing sea turtles is going to be sold with the MSC label and they have used the assessment on the Canadian swordfish fleet as a reference to speed up the process.
MSC, tired of letters, tries to get off the hook
Sorry MSC, we’re not stopping yet! MSC has responded to our letters already with an email from CEO Rupert Howes (see full letter below). They’ve even set up a special email address for all our letters - how nice. Shamefully, they are trying to avoid responsibility for their very own standard saying they “do not decide whether or not to certify a fishery as sustainable”. Well, that’s surprising because they certainly spend a lot of time ensuring that products with their brand name logo get on our shelves.
Expert groups join my opposition to the Marine Stewardship Council certification!
It’s no surprise that so many conservation groups and marine experts are opposed to the Marine Stewardship Council certifying an unsustainable fishery. I’m happy to say that NINE conservation groups have already signed on to my open letter at http://www.friendsofhector.org/open-letter, asking that Canadian longline swordfish not be certified.
The Marine Stewardship Council is NOT being a friend!
Thank you for visiting my website! It’s great to see that so many people really care about shark and sea turtle conservation in the Atlantic, and it’s pretty exciting to be working on my first-ever blog post.
My campaign for regulations to protect my shark and sea turtle friends from the indiscriminate hooks of Canada’s longline swordfish fishery has really taken off over the past months. I’ve been making a lot of new friends and connecting with a lot of organizations that support my marine conservation goals, and I really appreciate all of the hard work that everyone’s been doing.