Roxilla

Brilliant!

I have had a love for sharks since I was a kid, and used to dream about them for many years. Good dreams, where I would be standing on a pier or harbour and watching them swim below me. This love compelled me to get a job at the aquarium, and become a behind-the-scenes volunteer, and I got to stand on top of the roof and watch the raggies in the predator exhibit swim below, and trawl the holding tanks (which were occupied by young raggies at times) for sharks teeth, and even clean the poop out of the baby raggies exhibit in the main hall of the aquarium.

So shark conservation and shark finning is quite a big deal for me. I’ve posted before on how laws are slowly starting to attempt to prevent or control finning, but while ignorant consumers are still happily devouring shark fin soap and taking shark cartilage tablets for bone strengthening, and I’m talking western and eastern here, the problem will continue.

It’s not even just about the cruelty and waste that sees millions of sharks hauled from the sea, de-finned and then thrown back in the water to bleed to death, it’s also about the fact that shark populations are slowly being decimated, and sharks play a vital role in marine ecology. While you may think that having no sharks is a good thing, it’s actually a very bad thing.

Sea Shepard bringing the point across

The number of sharks killed each year goes into the billions (11,416 are killer per HOUR!), and it’s getting to the point where things have got to change, including the incorrect perception that sharks are man-eating monsters.

So, enter clever initiatives like Shark Fin Soap, and kick ass demonstrations in stores to remind consumers that buying shark products is not the way to go. And the Perfect Man aka Nigel Barker has done a lot of work with the Humane Society against shark fishing too, good for him!

Seriously though, I have to get hold of some of that soap, I want!