Oceans 4Ever

One who is just getting to know the perils that exist for ocean life might think that sharks have very few, if any, predators.

After all, their the Terminators of the deep, right?

Wrong. (And in more ways than one; we’ll address threats now, and bad wraps soon.)

Sharks are hunted in a horrific way by their top predator – man - for their fins. Why?

Shark-fin Soup. 

Shark fins have no actual taste contribution to the above. It’s the gel-like consistency that makes shark fins prized as a soup base.

It’s a delicacy in many Asian restaurants, and can cost up to $100 a bowl.

No, this is not a joke. And it’s putting sharks in grave danger. Here’s a list of U.S. restaurants that are known to sell shark-fin soup.

Check out the PSA video by Wild Aid, starring basketball star Yao Ming (warning, a brief display of a finless shark might not agree with the very young):

What can you do to help stop it? Aside from not eating it, you can first forward this post to everyone you know.

You can also:

• Support organizations that are working to stop shark finning, like the Humane Society International, Sea Shepherd, and Wild Aid.
• Educate yourself and people around you about sharks – both the danger to them in the finning industry, and the false reputation they get in the media for being ravenous, man-seeking killing machines. This is simply wrong, and needs to be changed.
• And the obvious: never, ever eat shark-fin soup or support any eating establishment who does.

We’re brief on this post because next month, O4E is taking a week-long look at sharks in our Summer Sharktakular, hosted by a very special and respected guest-expert on sharks.

Spread the word, shark finning is wrong and must be stopped NOW!

[ed note: apologies if you get this post twice - the publish button just wouldn't move out of the way!]

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Normally for How it all Started,  we interview our subject.

In this case, we decided there was nothing we could ask Mike deGruy, marine scientist and wildlife filmaker, about his life as a cephalopod-obsessed chronicler of ocean life, that isn’t clearly expressed below.

We had to post  this video of a talk Mike gave on how one scientist became enraptured by Octopi at a very young age and grew up to live an ocean life- entertaining, educational, amazing – a true “How it all Started!”

Get comfy for a few minutes and immerse yourself in Mike’s passion for Octos – you can’t help but get caught up in his enthusiasm, and you will feel 10 times smarter about ocean life in general when you’re done. We promise.

You might also start “looking in your own back yard” for ways you can help oceans survive – and thrive – in the future.

Here’s the talk he gave in April, as part of Ted’s Mission Blue excursion, on how he became “Hooked by an Octopus:”

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Proctor & Gamble’s Dawn®  Dishsoap has been helping wildlife for 30 years. And by now, you’ve no-doubt heard about how it’s being used on the gulf spill-affected wildlife. Turns out, they’ve been running this oil spill recovery donation program since July, 2009, so this is not new.

But it’s timely:

Everyone uses dishsoap. It’s an easy way to help wildlife affected by the gulf oil spill. Buy Dawn Dishsoap and you can contribute $1 of your purchase to help save oiled wildlife. Dawn is contributing up to $500,000 by September 30th, 2010.

Once you buy a bottle, save your receipt and activate your contribution online here. You can even keep track of how much money has been donated and by state here.

And did you think we’d leave this post without some pure and clean CUTENESS?

If you haven’t seen the DAWN bottles,  or this video, they’ll both melt your heart.

Try and resist this:

Have a great day, everyone.

~Alexa and Cindy

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