Time to Lift the Rug

[Seablu003]

Here is something I have written that explains some of my passion for sharks.

Time to lift the rug


Most people's only view of the ocean is from the beach. It is like the ocean is a huge rug hiding everything below it. This makes it very easy for horrible things to happen in our oceans because people are very visual and if they can't see what is happening they can easily put it out of their minds. Now if you keep sweeping everything under the rug you know it doesn't go away it is just a huge mess with a rug on top of it. Now when things like this happen on land we stop it because we can see what we are doing. Unfortunately by the time we see what we are doing to our oceans if we keep up this attitude it could be too late.

The ocean is something that I am very passionate about and sharks are my main passion. Every year we kill more than 100 million sharks for mostly their fins. This is a horrible, grisly practice where sharks have their fins removed a lot of times while they are still alive and then thrown back into the ocean to either drown or bleed to death. Most of the time this is done by long lines. Long lines are about 60 miles of line that have around 16,000 hooks on it. This does not just catch sharks. It catches all types of other fish, turtles, seals, birds and just about anything that may be curious about it. So imagine a 60 mile line through a forest that has about 16,000 traps on it. When you get to the traps you witness dead and injured animals of all kinds, birds, deer, wolves, bear, rabbits and on and on. Now the hunters only want the deer and rabbits so all the others are thrown away, trash. This would never be able to happen in our forest because no one would allow it. Most would be horrified at such a site, yet we allow this to happen everyday in our oceans.

Most people fear sharks because they do not understand them or only know what learn from the news and media. If you stopped and learned a little about them you would realize they have far more to fear from us then we do from them. There are over 450 different species of sharks and out of that 201 of them are on the red list according to the World Conservation Union. Sharks are the most threatened species on our planet.

Sharks were here before the dinosaurs. Actually 150 million years before the dinosaur. They helped create this planet. They are what helps keep our oceans healthy and we are dependant on our oceans for so many things. We get 70% percent of our oxygen from the ocean, it regulates our climates and helps to heat most of the planet. Without sharks are oceans will never be the same and I hate to think what would happen.

So now it is time to lift that rug. We need to see what we are doing so we can stop it and in doing this help save our planet and ourselves. By public pressure people were able to get the International Moratorium of Whaling in 1986. People use to actually be just as afraid of whales as they are of sharks now, but by learning more they realized how wrong they were. Now it is time to help save the sharks. Never buy any shark products. Actually, sharks have a very high mercury level so if you are using shark products you are doing yourself more harm than good. Boycott all companies that either sell shark products or have their money in companies that sell shark products such as Yahoo who are 40% shareholders to the largest marketer of shark fins. Also write, let yourself be heard that we will no longer remain blind to what we are doing to our oceans. WE CAN ALL LIFT THIS RUG TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Michelle
myspace.com/seablueturtle

Yahoo is a 40% shareholder with the largest online marketer of shark fins in the world. Over 100 million sharks are killed a year for their fins alone. It's time to let compies like Yahoo know that it does matter where you invest your money, it's time to leave Yahoo!
Sea Shepherd - Yahoo! Invests in Shark Finning