Today, the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries backed the European ban on shark finning and confirmed that the Committee wants to see stricter controls but the vote on a report by Maria do Ceu Patrao Neves (EPP, Portugal) has led to confusion on the issue of whether or not special fishing permits that allow fishermen to remove shark fins on-board vessels will be upheld.

Time to celebrate! As the IUCN World Conservation Congress ended last week, the global conservation community voted in favor of critical shark conservation measures for threatened shark species including species-specific steps needed to protect mako and hammerhead sharks.

Shark populations and high-quality reefs in the Marshall Islands received high praise last week from two visiting conservationists from the United States.
“I’ve filmed reefs all over the world,” said filmer Shawn Heinrichs. “I’m really impressed here. This is a gold mine for tourism.”

The European Parliament is set to vote next week on a complete ban on shark finning. After six years of debate, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will finally be voting on amendments aimed at closing loopholes in the current shark finning regulation (final vote in plenary is due to take place in October).

They did it again, but bigger and better! As part of September's Debris Month of Action, Bubbles Dive Centre, the one and only 100% AWARE dive centre in Gozo, Malta, joined by their customers and fellow divers coordinated their biggest Dive Against Debris event to date.

WWF and TRAFFIC today released a new report that shows the need for a more concerted effort in managing shark fisheries in the Coral Triangle, to help conserve dwindling populations of these threatened species.

Research scientist, Bonnie Monteleone, from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, USA knows all about plastic. She's been studying the negative affects of plastics in the marine environment for several years.
More recently, she's visited three of five ocean gyres and collected plastics hundreds to thousands of miles from land. Using the well recognized, "Great Wave" by Hokusai circa 1830s, Monteleone illustrates a very different ocean from what Hokusai saw 180 years ago.

Today Project AWARE Foundation and the PADI family mourn the loss of one of the ocean's greatest shark conservationists and underwater filmographers, Mr Ron Taylor.
For more than 40 years, Australian "Shark Man' Ron Taylor and his wife Valerie dedicated their lifes to conserving and filming sharks. Their marine conservation work and groundbreaking marine documentaries forced many to view sharks with a different perspective; one of appreciation, value and respect. 
Sadly Ron passed away yesterday after a two year battle with myeloid leukemia.

As the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress opens in Jeju, Korea, Project AWARE, an IUCN member organization, and more than 35 government agencies and NGO partners issued the call to take immediate steps to save sharks and manta rays from the ever growing pressure of overexploitation. Specifically, we’re advocating the listing of sharks and rays under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Cathay Pacific, responding to pressure from an array of environmental groups in Asia, has announced that it will no longer carry shark fin on its cargo flights.
The Hong Kong-based carrier, one of the world’s largest cargo airlines, said in a statement that it would “stop shipping unsustainably sourced sharks and shark-related products.”