"Thousands of sharks needlessly slaughtered whilst the Philippines Senate debate pending law" Over 100 million sharks are slaughtered each year, many of which are subjected to live finning resulting in the shark dying a slow and painful death. Asian countries account to 81% of all shark’s fin imports globally and continues to decimate the world's shark and ray population.   There is a bill (Bill 2616) that has been with the Philippine Senate since November 2010 that will ban the sale, purchase, possession, transportation of all sharks or rays and will have an direct effect on the number of sharks slaughtered for their fins. If the Philippines pass this bill it will send a strong conservation message to the rest of Asia.   http://www.senate.gov.ph/lis/bill_res.aspx?congress=15&q=SBN-2616   The bill is being led by Senator Loren Legarda and already has the support of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, WWF, CITES, MarineBio Conservation Society, PADI, Project AWARE and many local conservation groups.   http://www.zimbio.com/President+Gloria+Macapagal-Arroyo/articles/_BhE4DXWjKZ/Philippine+Shark+Fishing+Ban+senator+pushing   Whilst the Senate bill has not been made law yet, many Philippines companies have seen the need to preserve our marine ecosystem for future generations and have already removed all Shark’s fin products from their menu, two of the most recognized are the Shangri-La Hotel & Resorts (Since Jan 2012) and the Hong Kong owned Peninsula Hotel hotels (Since Nov 2011). I have written to Resorts World Manila and the New World Hotel also asking them also to act now and remove shark's fin products from their restaurant's menus. There are still dozens of other restaurants selling shark's fin products and will continue to do so until the law is passed on bill 2616.

Bill 2616 needs immediate implementation and through increasing awareness of this issue we can put pressure on the Philippines Government to act now.

For more information on how you can support this please write to me at [email protected]