Extinction Soup!

And here's another great initiative.

Stefanie writes,

I am happy to announce that we are FINALLY completing our shark documentary called “Extinction Soup”.

We are in the final stretch and I am reaching out to everyone I know to help me spread the word and to raise funds.

We have created an Indiegogo campaign.

Please check it out and forward the link to all your friends. Post it, "like" it, blog it or shout it from the roof top… whatever you are inspired to do, it will help us a great deal. (and if you feel inclined to donate we would appreciate even the smallest amount)

A little background info to the story:

The film is about the trade of shark fins, the horrendous effects it has on shark populations around the globe and the struggle of activists to put an end to shark fin soup.

The film is also a personal story.

It shows us why Jimmy Hall inspired so many people to care for sharks and how his enthusiasm for life affected everyone around him, and it follows my own personal journey into politics when I became involved in the campaign for the ban on shark fins in Hawaii – a legislative success that sparked a wave of similar action across the Pacific and the United States.

The story is told by Phil Waller, who was inspired by Jimmy and by learning about the plight of sharks. He has been the driving force behind our three-year effort to put this film together.

We have been able to get this far with very limited resources.

Our own money, our own time and random skills and LOTS of help from friends that contributed footage and agreed to be interviewed for the film.

Our goal has been to keep the integrity of the story and to tell it without succumbing to the pressure of production companies to sensationalize sharks for the sake of ratings.

The general advice I have been getting is that shark films will only sell if they bank on the fear of sharks. I think that view is outdated and that networks are not giving the audience enough credit. 

Most people are not that ignorant. At least I hope so.

My feeling is - Lets prove them wrong!

Indeed!

Although I believe that Love not Loss (and here...) is ultimately the preferred strategy for promoting conservation, I of course fully support this project as the story needs to be told, if only in order to document the tremendous pioneering achievements of the original Hawaiian Shark conservation movement.

Here's the trailer

So wishing the team the very best of success!

And having checked, it looks like it's off to a great start: 6k after only one week is great news indeed! Just one suggestion: the principal lesson learned from the AABS project is, keep up the noise or the donations will quickly fizzle out!

In diesem Sinne!

Please share and support Stefanie's project.

Thank you!

PS: website here and Facebook page here!

Does Shark Week harm Conservation Efforts?

Maybe!

But IMO it's more of an ethical than a practical issue.

This new article in Scientific American echoes the known reservations by Chris Palmer and many others about the widespread fakery in wildlife films that has just reached a new ignominious peak in the Megalodon fabrication. I've already blogged about this topic years ago and invite you to go and read it here - and here is one of several posts about the best way to go about when producing advocacy films, that is to showcase the positive and fascinating aspects instead of trying to shock the audience, especially if we wish to reach out beyond our own circles and not continue to preach to the choir. Love not Loss!

That's the theory, and the arguments are I believe impeccable.

But what about the practical implications?

Will people who love the film vote in a positive way for senators and congressmen who will vote in a more sustainable manner like Palmer asserts? Yes, maybe - but if so, that would be a tiny interested minority, the more as I don't recall one single political campaign focusing on marine conservation, let alone on the conservation of Sharks?

Like I said, it's more of an ethical debate.

And in that sense, those programs are a total abomination!

para_sight is of course absolutely correct in his observation that as long as the ratings remain so stellar, Discovery couldn't give a shit and will continue laughing all the way to the bank. But what about those fake conservationists who enable and endorse that shit - think they are equally impervious to criticism?

We shall see - and I may add, so far so bad!

And in the big scheme of things?

There, I would surmise that this conversation is totally irrelevant!

I can promise you that the thousands of fishermen in Indonesia, India, Spain, Taiwan, Argentina, Mexico, United States of America, Malaysia, Pakistan, Brazil, Japan, France, New Zealand, Thailand, Portugal, Nigeria, Islamic Republic of Iran, Sri Lanka, Republic of Korea and Yemen do not kill those Sharks because they hate them owing to having watched Jaws or for the matter, the Shark porn on Discovery! And by the same token, I can equally promise you that they will not stop killing them because of the latest inane video clip of the token bimbette swimming loops around a perplexed OWT!

I mean, seriously - that argument is so stupid, it is frankly embarrassing!

I'm not saying that good wildlife programming is not beneficial.

It is very much so, especially in the long term. It may indeed sway voters and possibly change the political discourse - tho considering that An Inconvenient Truth failed to spark any substantive policy despite of an Oscar, plus a Nobel Prize for Gore and the IPCC I'm alas rather skeptical. 

But those excellent productions will undoubtedly again arouse a new generation of advocates, conservationists and researchers, and those will hopefully make a contribution for the better. As an example, I'm convinced that we would be still condoning the killing of the big cats for trophies and fur coats, and that we would still be purchasing ivory trinkets and tortoise eyeglass frames were it not for those past stellar wildlife documentaries!

So by all means, keep at it!

But can we please stop those stupidities.

All those pathetic shark videos by those desperate self promoters with big cameras and small talents that are being pushed around the film festival circuit, to be acclaimed by the vegan organic cotton and Birkenstock mob. All those atrocious Shark conservation edits on YouTube that are an insult to one's intelligence. 

And especially all those media featuring those Shark-molesting scantily clad bimbos who are doubly pathetic once one realizes that they are merely being pimped, for profit, by those very same producers and camera-toting dudes! Seriously, conservation is literally awash in incredibly smart, committed, hard working and emancipated women who are quietly doing terrific work for Shark conservation, largely away from the public eye - and not a single one would demean and embarrass herself in that way, ever! 

Any names come to mind?

And if so, why are we tolerating all that bullshit?

And Shark Weeek?

Meh. Up to you. 

Watch it, or don't - it doesn't really matter one way or the other.

Love not Loss - great Videos from SA!

Source.

Very nice!

Lauren is of course absolutely correct - please re-read this and this!
And this - very interesting!

Enjoy!

And in keeping with that spirit.
Here's a nice video about her project!

Pew: Australian Marine Reserves!

Brilliant.
Love not Loss - remember?

Preaching to the Choir?

 

Love + Action= Public Change
Need + Action= Policy Change 

 

Interesting! But first, watch this. 

 

  

 

Are you impressed? 

Probably you are - but then again, you are reading a Shark diving and Shark conservation blog, meaning that you probably already love nature and the ocean (read it!) and need no convincing anyway! As Kevin points out in this brilliant post, this kind of negative messaging equates preaching to the choir and does not really advance the narrative beyond our circles. Now please watch the following, already mentioned here.

 

 

 

Indeed, that's how you do it - Love not Loss! 

The image at the top is from an interesting document by Futerra, the smart hip sustainability communications agency from the UK. It of course ties in beautifully with Angelo's comment about E.O. Wilson's Biophilia and is inherently absolutely true. 

 

The problem?

The track record sucks! 

Ever since Homo sapiens (and probably its ancestors) graced to walk the planet, his most pervasive legacy has been one of scorched earth and extinction, very much along the lines of Diamond's Third Chimpanzee. Are we now more evolved and smarter, to the point where we will recognize the error of our ways? 

 

Maybe - at least that's the hope! 

But the conundrum lays in trying to match conservation with the needs and aspirations of 7 billion people - and there, I'm not terribly hopeful as the so-called leaders appear fatally mired in the present and lacking any credible vision for the future. 

Like in conservation, the message needs to be Positive - and yet, all I'm really seeing are flawed strategies about how best to manage a process which is being labeled as some kind of gradual retreat. That's certainly not motivating and not the way to ensure that the populace will ever embrace sustainability - and in fact, when asked, they generally do not! 

 

Luckily for us in Shark conservation, thus far, nobody is asking. 

Most of the recent advances have not been democratic processes but instead, the result of the right people talking to the authorities at the right time, sometimes with a bit of outreach/petitions thrown in for good measure. 

So far so good - but only time will tell if those achievements will endure. 

 

Solutions? 

If we ever want to be successful in building a widespread consensus for sustainability, we indeed need to focus on positive messaging, both in conservation and in politics. But at the same time, we need to stop playing little Dutch boy whilst ignoring the root cause, population growth and the growth of individual ecological footprints.  

 

That's the Big Gorilla! 

Ultimately, if we cannot tackle that, this cause is lost - and since we really cannot possibly ask anybody to forgo his aspirations for a better life, the ONLY possible solution is to advocate a substantial (!) reduction in birth rates. 

 

And on this happy note, back to the Sharks! 

 

Shark Media: Love. Not Loss.

I actually wanted to blog about something completely different.

I wanted to write a post about the fabulous outcome of COP 10.
This is really a remarkable result, especially considering the current economical, and thus political circumstances. The decision to expand nature reserves to 17% of the world's land and 10% of the planet's waters and Japan's pledge of USD 2bn for biodiversity are great and need to be applauded - at least til tomorrow, then the professional whingers will undoubtedly start moaning about how it's not quite enough.

Sure beats the news out of the European union where the Mediterranean states (thank you Malta!) are already trying to torpedo Europe's stance at the upcoming ICCAT meeting, this against the stated intentions of their new and I believe, brilliant Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki! Thankfully, Maria isn't taking that laying down, so fingers crossed that the end result will be equally positive!
As to the meeting itself... some people may want to re-read this.

Anyway, that's what I wanted to post about.
But in researching the biodiversity topic, I literally stumbled upon this remarkable video.

Totally true!
I spare you the links, but I've been blogging quite a bit about my dislike of a specific brand of pro-Shark videos that I find overly melodramatic and gory. Looks like others with much more specific know how agree, especially with respect to the stupid and rather revolting "shock ads" and shock campaigns.

The correct way?
Look no further than the BBC whose iconic images remain the pretty much unequaled standard for excellent, moving and truthful animal documentaries. Or when it comes to written statements, check out this latest feature about Wolfgang (Shark whisperer huh... somebody aint gonna be amused...) where his love of the animals is all-pervasive.
That's how you do it!

So here's to more smart Shark media!