As a keen scuba diver and marine conservationist, two news items warmed my heart recently.

The first was the picture and story on page 5 of of the West Australian newspaper on April 6th.

The article that supported this amzing photograph, taken by HGM-Press read as follows:

Paddling to prove point on passing predators

South African shark expert Chris Fallows hopped on a surfboard and paddled alongside a great white to show that the feared predator does not pose a threat to humans. The photographer and tourism operator believes sharks do not regard people as normal food items.

The second news item came to my attention when I attended a talk held at the Hillarys Yacht Club in Perth, also on the topic of sharks. The exciting news is that the Marine Conservation organisation, Sea Shepherd, have been so successful with this years campaign to minimise whale slaughter by the Japanese whaling fleets, that the Japs packed up and sailed home.

This has now provided the opportunity for these champions of nature to focus attention on a campaign to raise public awareness of the horror of the shark finning industry, in which many species have been hunted to near extinction to satisfy peoples’ craving for shark fins.

Shark numbers have diminished terribly in the last couple of decades and they continue to decline faster than they can reproduce.

The simple fact is that sharks are in our oceans for a reason. They are a vital part of a food chain. If humans stuff that up, there will be a huge impact on marine eco-systems.

For more information, see the following link to the Sea Shepherd site.

Sharks are not the monsters that Hollywood tries to convince you that they are. Humans kill 100 million sharks a year. They kill 5 humans worldwide – usually mistaking them for seals or turtles.

You have more chance of being killed by a defective toaster than by a shark – and for those who are so scared, they won’t go in the water, you have far more chance of being in a car accident on the way to the beach than you have of being attacked.

Please read about this and tell other people – if we don’t start taking action to change human behaviour, sharks will be erased permanently from the planet and our marine eco systems will be damaged irreparably.

Education is vital – if people don’t know about this, it will soon be too late.

I urge you to support the great work being undertaken by Sea Shepherd to save whales, seals and sharks.

It is run by volunteers, so please make a small donation, buy a tee-shirt or a bumper sticker.

You may only be one person, but it starts with you – you can make a difference!