Beautify CNMI joins global Shark Stanley campaign

Shark Stanley and Beautify CNMI volunteers

Shark Stanley, a charismatic hammerhead shark traveling the globe looking for people to help protect shark and ray species at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), has made his way to the shores of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Shark Stanley has partnered with local conservation organization Beautify CNMI! in order to organize local support for the proposals to protection five species of shark and two species of manta ray at CITES 16th Convention of the Parties to be held in Bangkok, Thailand March 3-16.

“The Commonwealth is already an international leader in shark management and it is only natural that we want to see sharks protected at a global level,” said Cinta Kaipat of Beautify CNMI. “As islanders dependent on the ocean, and as part of the United States, we want to see these protections go through.”

Leah Meth and Onon Bayasgalan, graduate students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, created the Shark Stanley campaign so that the global youth would have a voice at CITES. Their goal is for at least 20 people in each of the 177 CITES member countries to participate in the Shark Stanley campaign.

“Our idea is to create a campaign that will stand out from the typical petitions you see,” said Meth. “Each photo will serve as a ‘signature,’ representing a person who supports shark protections at CITES.”

People can participate in the campaign by cutting out a paper copy of Shark Stanley and his friends Manta Reina, Pierre le Porbeagle, and Waqi Whitetip, and then taking photographs with the characters, and posting them to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, tagging their posts with #SharkStanley. Meth and Bayasgalan are compiling the photos and with release the petition during the CITES meeting in March.

“We are able to get our materials translated into other languages and cultures by partnering with dive shops and environmental organizations around the world,” said Bayasgalan. “We have reached 47 countries since we launched last month, and we’re hopeful we’ll get to 177 as the campaign grows.”

The Pacific countries voting at CITES are Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Australia, and New Zealand. The Northern Mariana Islands will be represented by the United States at the meeting. The United States is a cosponsor of the proposals to protect the oceanic whitetip shark.

More information on the Shark Stanley campaign can be found online:
http://www.sharkdefenders.com/p/shark-stanley.html

Nominate Kathy Pagapular Ruszala's Sixth Grade Class for a Peter Benchly Ocean Award

Here it goes, I'm asking for your help yet one more time. Will you nominate Kathy Pagapular's San Vicente Elementary School Sixth Grade Class for a Peter Benchley Ocean Award in Youth Activism? Kathy's class supported shark protections in the Northern Marianas this year and jumpstarted momentum for a year of shark conservation. They deserve recognition.

Click here to learn how to nominate San Vicente Elementary School for a Peter Benchley Ocean Award in Youth Activism.

The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2011. Nominations should include 2- 6 paragraphs on the nominee and why the nominator finds them deserving in their category. Feel free to include supporting materials and/or links. Please include the nominees contact information and your contact information.

Submit to benchleys@bluefront.org. Mark subject line - Benchley Nomination - Youth Activism. Nominators names will be held in confidence.

2011 was a watershed year in shark conservation. And where did it all start? Saipan. On January 27, Governor Ben Fitial signed a law criminalizing the sale, trade, and possession of shark fin. This act kicked off 12 months of improved protections for sharks, including shark sanctuaries in The Bahamas, Honduras, the Marshalls, and Tokelau, shark fin bans in Guam, California, Washington, Oregon, and half a dozen Canadian cities, protections for oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, and silky sharks on the high seas, and agreements by international and regional bodies to implement more protections in 2012.

The law in the Northern Marianas was supported by many in the community, including fishermen, divers, and the conservation-minded, but a sixth grade class at San Vicente Elementary School may have done more than anyone else to make sure sharks received protections.

I could tell their story, but filmmaker Rob Stewart does it much better with his short film Sharkwater Saipan. This short film is just a preview of Rob's second feature film Revolution, due out in theaters next year.


Watch Sharkwater Saipan on Youtube.

I am asking you to write your own nominations (but I am available to help or edit). Two paragraphs should not be that difficult. Think of this award as something that will come home to the Marianas, not just San Vicente Elementary.

I make this request as the Saipan Blogger and the Godfather of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, not as someone who works for an organization that shall go unnamed. I have had the honor of meeting many shark champions around the world this year including Tony DeBrum from the Marshall Islands, Ev Quiel and Melanie Blas on Guam, Manoa Rasagitale in Fiji, Rob Stewart in Canada, and many others, but my home and my heart lies with Saipan. So let's bring that award home!

Please Sign White House Petition to Protect Sharks

Earlier this year the Northern Mariana Islands kicked off a global rush of shark conservation by banning the sale, trade, and possession of shark fin. Since the day Governor Fitial signed Public Law 17-27 into law, leaders in Guam, Honduras, The Bahamas, Chile, Tokelau, and the Marshall Islands have passed shark conservation measures. Additionally, Governor Fitial championed the declaration of the Micronesia Regional Shark Sanctuary, the first multi-jurisdictional shark sanctuary in the world.

I started a petition on the White House’s We The People website asking the Obama Administration to “ban the sale, trade, and possession of shark and shark products, including shark fin.” The petition needs about 1600 more signatures for the Administration to issue an official response. Please take a few moments to sign.

The petition can be found online at: www.wh.gov/gWs

The Northern Marianas is a global leader in marine and shark conservation. Like the students from San Vicente elementary who helped support the passage of our shark protections, these protections should spread from island to island, from country to country. The United States should be the next country to protect sharks.

Angelo Villagomez
Washington, DC

Marshall Islands National Shark Sanctuary

The Marshall Islands declared the world's largest shark sanctuary.

Congratulations and thank you to the people and government of the Marshall Islands.

And do you want to know what they are protecting? Here is a video from the Marshall Islands Conservation Society and HD Under H2O:



Again, congrats, Marshall Islands!!!

And it is time for the United States to do something similar. Shark Defenders started a petition on the Obama White House website that calls for a "ban the sale, trade, and possession of shark and shark products, including shark fin." As of this writing it needs 1,800 more signatures to reach the level that will guarantee a response from the president.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

ACTION ALERT: Ban the sale, trade, and possession of shark in the United States

Shark Defenders created a new petition on We the People, a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov, and they are asking for your support. Will you add your name? If this petition gets 5,000 signatures by October 22, 2011, the White House will review it and respond!

Also, will you repost the petition to Facebook and Twitter?

We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

You can view and sign the petition here:

http://wh.gov/gWs

Here's some more information about this petition:

The Obama Administration should ban the sale, trade, and possession of shark and shark products, including shark fin.
One third of all shark species are threatened or near threatened with extinction.To reverse this trend, the USA must be a leader in protecting these important predators.The Administration has championed international agreements and signed the Shark Conservation Act, but this only mandates how a shark is killed, not how many. On average, the USA lands 30,000 tons of shark per year. Palau, Maldives, Honduras, Bahamas, and Tokelau have declared national shark sanctuaries, banning the commercial fishing of sharks in their waters and ending the shark trade. Domestically, laws have been passed banning the sale, trade, and possession of shark in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, and the territories of Guam and Northern Marianas. The USA should implement a national shark and shark fin ban.

Protect the Oceanic Whitetip Shark on World Ocean's Day

The IUCN Red List Threatened Species assesses the Oceanic Whitetip Shark as Critically Endangered in the Western and Central Atlantic. Globally they are assessed as Vulnerable and are threatened with extinction if strong measures are not put into place to protect their remaining populations.

To raise awareness of the plight of this charismatic species, please change your Facebook profile picture to the attached graphic until World Ocean's Day on June 8, 2011.  A high resolution of the photo can also be found on Flickr.