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Petition to the Maldives for banning shark fishing
The Maldives has just become the first nation to declare a ban on shark fishing. This positive news needs to be celebrated and supported. Please sign this letter to acknowledge the wisdom of this move, and also to encourage a faster and stronger implementation of the ban.

To:

President Mohamed Nasheed
Dr. Ibrahim Didi, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture
Dr. Hussain Rasheed Hassan, State Minister for the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture
The Republic of the Maldives

We enthusiastically congratulate and thank the government and people of the Republic of the Maldives for your historic decision to ban shark fishing in your country. The Maldives is the first country to declare such a ban, recognizing that sharks are a vital national asset of greater value when protected and allowed to thrive.

The over-harvesting of sharks has been shown to result in a decline in the health of reef ecosystems and the collapse of marine populations further down the food chain. Protecting sharks will result in not just a boon to the ocean environment, but also to the two industries that depend on them, tourism and fishing. Sharks and healthy reefs will secure the Maldives position as one of the greatest attractions in the world for divers and lovers of the ocean, and will help fishermen to sustainably manage catches of other species for generations to come.

We recognize that declaring a ban is just a first step. The ban begins now with reef sharks within a 12 mile limit and, after one year, extends to all territorial waters and oceanic sharks. We urge you to extend the declaration to be a complete ban, immediately. We also encourage you to enforce this ban with vigor.

Many of the signers of this letter are divers and advocates for sharks and the oceans. It means a great deal to us that you have made this commitment. There are few places left in the world where one can reliably encounter sharks in a pristine setting. You can count on many of us to journey to the Maldives in the future as a result of your great decision to protect sharks.

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Comments (16)
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Mayra Marimon said:

ONE COUNTRY DOWN, THANK YOU TO MALDIVES AND PROPEROUS BLESSINGS
sharks are beautiful predators of the sea and after I watched sharkweek with michael doing tonic with sharks and riding on a great white shark "tonic with sharks, mike" you tube my heart broke at the shark finning going on in all these countries. Thank you for your support Maldives, blessings are upon you and overjoyed to the oceans of Maldive Islands as well as the Maldivian people --Blessings and may the stars shine brightelly in your oceans.
 
August 26, 2010
Votes: +0

chris cornell said:

...
sharks rock
 
March 03, 2010
Votes: +0

chris cornell said:

SHARKS
Sharks are kool
 
March 03, 2010
Votes: +0

Paul Carlin said:

Enforcement
Please ensure that this exclusion zone is properly patrolled. I would happily pay an increased marine park fee when joining a liveaboard to finance this.

Well done on your efforts so far in banning this brutal practice.
 
January 16, 2010
Votes: +1

Andrew said:

www.sharkwater.com
If you havent seen the movie yet, you NEED to:

http://www.sharkwater.com/

Andrew
 
August 13, 2009
Votes: +6

Nikos Stathakis said:

You know.. It's dangerous for us as well as the entire under sea eco system if sharks get extinct.
From what I have come to realise is that the sea plancton produces arround what? 60% of our oxygen?!! And the trouble being some Fish eat this plancton.!, But thankfully the Sharks feed on these Plancton-eating fish, resulting in the number of plancton being eaten by them decreased sevierly. So if these people keep up the rate of killing 30-100 million a sharks per year my god.. They are definetly going to be extinct allowing these Fish to feed on plancton freely, resulting in 60% of our stable oxygen to be removed, and now with global warming all and more forests are burning, all and more people are cutting down trees for their own land / to produce furniture making buisnesses. What is going to happen to us if There is a forest catastrophy and no plancton..? I just dont want to think of it, .. Thanks for reading.
 
August 01, 2009
Votes: +6

Ethan Bond said:

THANK YOU!
Thank you for having the courage and wisdom to pass a law that is absolutely essential for the long term preservation of your environment and the species that live within it.

The Maldives has long been one of my favorite dive spots and this only reinforces the positive image of your great country
 
July 27, 2009
Votes: +6

Cynthia St. Clair said:

I dip my hat to you!
A huge THANK YOU for preserving your waters and banning shark fishing. When a government acts in an intelligent and responsible manner it is, truly, appreciated. I'll be booking my next dive trip to the Maldives! You deserve to be supported in your wonderful choices and the way we can all do that is to come to your beautiful islands and spend our tourist dollars! Thank you so very, very much!!
 
July 03, 2009
Votes: +11

M. Ibnur Rashad said:

Maldives, You are the Difference We Need :)
Enough of Shark's fin!

Peace be upon you.

Thank you, Maldives, for being that difference we need and hopefully you will be an inspiration to other nations. Maldives must be different and have a stance against supporting an activity that is fundamentally against the Islamic philosophy of environmental stewardship.

To those who consume shark's fin:
Cultural elements are not static, they usually change to ensure peace, harmony and sustenance for future generations of humans and Nature. Like a river, it meanders following the contours of the ground and the passage of time. Similar statements have been iterated by Chinese philosophers long time ago, but we choose to ignore their words of wisdom and be conned by the words of less-than-wise businessmen. We are now standing on shaky grounds with mass consumerism (when every customer is King or Emperor) and there is not much time left to save sharks, our ocean ecosystems and wildlife may be underwater deserts during our kids' time.

If we can make a concerted effort to change this culture, our future generations will respect us even more. We seek not to destroy culture, but re-invent it in light of the initial intentions of the Chinese philosophers. This way, we are actually respecting the views of our ancestors even more.

I may not be Chinese, but I have immersed myself enough into its culture to greatly appreciate it in essence. Since young, I have immense respect and interest for key ancient Chinese scholars and leaders like Mencius. I hope you too will show as much or even more respect to such great wise men and women who dedicated their lives to reinstate harmony back to their lives and their environment.

I dedicate this message to the tens or hundreds of sharks being killed offshore as I typed. I urge you to spread this message and do not treat this message like a finless shark to be captured once and thrown away.

May peace and blessings of the Almighty be upon you and your nation.

Regards to those who care, especially the people of Maldives,
Ibnur
 
May 04, 2009
Votes: +10

Anita Davies said:

Miss
I congratulate you, the government of the Maldives for making the momentus decision to ban shark fishing and to take a stand to protect these magnificent and endangered creatures.
I urge you to contact the government of Palau to ask them to not relax their current laws, which would spell disaster for the sharks inhabited there.
 
April 27, 2009
Votes: +8

Trish Gargano said:

1 country down! Now only 194 to go!
To The Republic of the Maldives a deeply heartfelt thank you for making this monumentous step forward.
If only compassion and empathy for the other species co-inhabiting this planet with us were as contagious as disreguard and greed seem to be.
 
April 18, 2009
Votes: +7

Tim (Shark141973) said:

Maldives-A country that needs a congratulatory shark cookie.
I am glad that some countries in the world such as the Maldives actually care about the well being of other animals, even if there is minor consequences. I hope that other countries follow Maldive's good example and hastily ban this horrible, deceitful, and cruel act. Unlike some other countries... *mherm* the united states *cough* ... the Maldives fairly hastily ended this act that could have compromised the survivability of certain selachimorpha.
 
April 14, 2009
Votes: +4

Shark Savers said:

Response to Natalia on Maldives previous laws
The previous laws in the Maldives were focused on stopping shark fishing only around some of the atolls near the resorts. Those laws were not adequately enforced. Protected areas can fail if they are too small, if adjacent areas allow aggressive fishing with nets and longlines, or if there is poor enforcement. I don't know for sure, but it could be that all three of these conditions were present. The new law will also need broad enforcement to work, obviously.
 
April 14, 2009
Votes: +3

Natalia martin de pablos said:

...
It was my believe that the Maldives already had in place shark protection laws. I worked there, on the Northern Atolls, where tourism is more dispersed, and saw few of these amazing creatures, very few of them. When I asked the locals working on the resorts I was at the time, they all told me it was illegal to fish them and yet, I felt something was very wrong: how was it possible that the reefs had not sharks? Ultimately everybody knew what was going on but few people would talk. Hopefully this will change, but the conditions in which many of these people live in the most remote atolls, the lack of law reinforcements along with the lack of a proper transport infrastructure among the different islands, makes it a difficult but not impossible task. Lets hope our concerns and support help
 
April 14, 2009
Votes: +4

Jim Phillips said:

...
I am glad to hear that the Maldives are doing their best to help protect sharks as they are important to the ecology of the oceans. Thank you.
 
April 13, 2009
Votes: +3

Hilary Minor said:

...
Could the Government of the Maldives please contact the Government of Palau very urgently and explain to them why they must not relax their current stringent laws on shark fishing? As a diver in Maldivian waters, I am overjoyed to hear of this ban on shark fishing. I have thrilled to the sight of these magnificent creatures cruising the fish-rich oceans around the islands and am deeply relieved to know that their future and the future health of the oceans around the Maldive islands, as well as the good of the Maldivian people who have shown us such kindness, will be preserved.
 
April 13, 2009
Votes: +5

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