On September 25th, 2009, Palau will announce that it will completely ban commercial shark fishing and maintain a Shark Sanctuary in its waters. Given our 6 month fight against the Palau Senate bill that would have done just the opposite and opened up shark fishing, we are thrilled by this news.

Thanks to all of you who signed our Palau petition and sent letters. We believe that your comments and signatures made an invaluable contribution towards this great victory. Read the comments from our petition that we provided as testimony to the government of Palau, here.

We thought you might like to see the thanks all of us received by email today:

"First and foremost, I wish to thank you most sincerely for your tremendous help in bringing about this sea change. I've no doubt that your on-line petition played a strong role in bringing about this most positive result. I'm deeply grateful to you and extend my most heartfelt thanks for a job well done! Many many thanks!"

Dermot Keane, Founder, Palau Shark Sanctuary
http://sharksanctuary.blogspot.com/

Below are some news articles:

BBC: Palau pioneers 'shark sanctuary'

25 September 2009
By Richard Black

Palau is to create the world's first "shark sanctuary", banning all commercial shark fishing in its waters.

The President of the tiny Pacific republic, Johnson Toribiong, will announce the ban during Friday's session of the UN General Assembly.

With half of the world's oceanic sharks at risk of extinction, conservationists regard the move as "game-changing".

It will protect about 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles) of ocean, an area about the size of France.

President Toribiong will also call for a global ban on shark-finning, the practice of removing the fins at sea.

Read more

AP: Palau creates world's first shark sanctuary