Petitions are useful to demonstrate support for shark conservation in your area. Whether you are seeking a shark fin ban or a resolution within your local community, a petition can be a useful tool to demonstrate that you have the support of local citizens.

Sign our Ban the Fin petitions

As part of the Ban the Fin campaign, we have created the first of a series of petitions. The petitions will create a signature bank that can be used in support of each and every one of these efforts to Ban the Fin. We may already have signatures in your area to support a call for a shark fin ban. Build up the signatures on our petitions and we will work with you to use your local signatures to support your local campaign. For other countries, more petitions are on the way. Feel free to use these petitions in the interim.

Please sign the following petitions, and share the links broadly.

California residents, click here to sign Help Save Sharks in California: Support Bill AB 376.
US residents click here to sign Ban the Shark Fin Trade in the U.S.
Canadian residents, click here to sign Ban the Shark Fin Trade in Canada.

Create your own local petition

There may be situations where it is more appropriate to create a unique, local petition for your Ban the Fin campaign. Shark Savers has years of experience fielding successful petitions throughout the world and can work with you to create an effective petition. Email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Whether you utilize our existing petitions, or work with us to create a new, local one, petitions need care and feeding to grow the list of supporters.

• Promote the petition through Facebook and other social media to generate signatures from your community. Learn more.

• Contact local venues and groups to support the petition: dive shops, schools, universities and community organizations.

• Exhibit at events, utilizing a table and Shark Savers brochures, to ask people to sign the petition. You will need to create a paper version of the petition to sign. Please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it before you produce any local Ban the Fin petitions. Learn more about events.

• Deciding when you're ready to submit your petition: It is a good idea to establish a target number of signatures that is both realistic, but a stretch. You may have a combination of signatures that you have obtained on paper and on our online petition. When you reach your petition's target number, you may want to keep it open. If signatures are still coming in at a good velocity, it may be that your target was too low. If you are not pressed for time, keep it open.

• Submitting your petition. You will need to aggregate all signatures created online or collected on paper. The petition text and all signatures should be formatted and prepared for presentation. We recommend attempting to obtain a meeting to present the petition in person. If that is not possible, send it together with a cover letter. Please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and work with us prior to submitting your petition, so that you can benefit from signatures in your area that we may have collected.

• Follow up to with local leaders and attempt to find an advocate within the council who can help to drive a bill, another type of regulation, or a declaration. If you succeed in obtaining support from within the council or with other officials, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and let's discuss possible next steps together.

• If you don't meet with immediate positive response, don't give up. Persistence is necessary. Consider attending public meetings and encourage as many supporters as possible to attend with you and speak up in support of Ban the Fin. Provide supporters with talking points, you can This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Make sure everyone understands the guidelines. For example, many public meetings have a two-minute limit per speaker.