Immerse School of Diving supports Project AWARE through organised fundraising activities throughout the year. Project AWARE is a growing movement of scuba divers protection the ocean planet.
We are really proud to announce that Immerse School of Diving will be supporting Project AWARE during the months of October, November and December 2013 with the Immerse School of Diving Finathon.
Immerse School of Diving PADI scuba diving Instructor, Joanne Flack, will be swimming (with fins, of course!), running or cycling 3 miles every single day come rain or shine for these 3 months, to try to raise £333 per month to end shark finning and save sharks.
The unfortunate truth is that we are emptying the ocean of sharks. Nearly one out of five shark species is classified by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as Threatened with extinction. That doesn’t even include hundreds of species (almost half of all sharks) whose population status cannot be assessed because of lack of information. Scientists warn that, in actuality, a third of sharks might already be threatened.
Why do we worry about shark populations? A healthy and abundant ocean depends on predators like sharks keeping ecosystems balanced. And living sharks fuel local economies in places like Palau
where sharks bring in an estimated $18 million per year through dive tourism.
Overfishing - is driving sharks to the brink - with many populations down by 80 percent. Tens of millions are killed each year for their meat, fins, liver, and other products.
Bycatch - or catching sharks incidentally while fishing for other commercial species – poses a significant threat to sharks. At the same time, new markets for shark products are blurring the line between targeted and accidental catches.
Finning - Shark fins usually fetch a much higher price than shark meat, providing an economic incentive for the wasteful and indefensible practice of “finning” (removing shark fins and discarding the often still alive shark at sea). Finning is often associated with shark overfishing, especially as keeping only the fins allows fishermen to kill many more sharks in a trip than if they were required to bring back the entire animal.
Shark fishing continues largely unregulated in most of the world’s ocean. Thanks in advance for your support, and helping to save sharks for us all!