Saturday, July 16, 2011

Fiji Times on the Guardian of the Sea!

Wallpaper Bulls by MPO - coming up soon!

Bravo Fiji Times!
As far as I know, this is Fiji's largest daily newspaper and it is highly gratifying to see that they have decided to align themselves with Pew and CORAL in publishing a series of articles highlighting the enormous importance Sharks have for the country, this both from an economical and ecological but very much also from a cultural aspect.

This is timely and necessary.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, there will be backlash as witnessed by the disappointing statements from the fishing industry. But I remain optimistic: the arguments in favor of a total ban are absolutely compelling, there already exist smart solutions that greatly reduce bycatch whilst actually benefiting (!) the fishing industry and last but not least, there are going to be provisions that will ensure that the coastal communities will not be deprived of their right to pursue sustainable livelihoods. Plus, there's an awesome team working on this and I am confident that in the end, all parties will agree that protecting our Sharks is in the long term interest of everybody - including the fishing industry!

Very much looking forward to a lively debate! :)

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