Tag: Best places to snorkel

If you are not in the loop on sharks and their global well-being, they are not in a great way. Here are some quick facts to get you up to speed. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed each year Since the 1970s, 70% of the oceanic shark and ray population has been wiped out Sharks are killed as a result of overfishing, and bycatch, but mostly it's due to the demand for shark fin soup, a delicacy in China The top five shark fishing countries are: Indonesia Spain India Mexico USA So, as you can see, there is just an overwhelming amount of threats against them, especially when you also consider the fact that their food supply is decreasing and breeding grounds—mangroves and lagoons—are being destroyed. While it's not necessarily too far gone, there is some urgency needed when it comes to shark conservation. There are a lot of conservation groups out there, like Thrive Conservation, Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation, and the Misool Foundation—all of which we make annual donations to via our Every Trip Program, who are actively advocating for sharks on a daily basis and have achieved some landmark victories with projects like as the StaR project. So, aside from contributing funds to shark conservation groups like the ones above, what can you do as a regular citizen passionate about shark conservation? Here are a couple of things you can do. Stop Watching Shark Week (asking politely) Shark Week has become an annual event on the Discovery Channel that apparently originated as a way of helping correct the misconceptions about sharks with shark-based episodes. While that may have been the case, the episode lineup for 2023 involved titles like “Cocaine Shark”, “Mega Sharks of Dangerous Reef”, “Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks”, and “Monsters of the Bermuda Triangle”.