SHARK SAVERS "THANK YOU" TO PRESIDENT TORIBIONG

Field Report from Palau Capitol Building, Ngerulmud, Melekeok, Palau, Micronesia, April 16, 2010.

You may recall that Shark Savers fielded two petitions regarding Palau. The first one opposed a bad proposed shark fishing law and the second one thanked Palau for subsequently protecting sharks by creating the national Palau Shark Sanctuary. Shark Savers subsequently created a book consisting of all the signatures and comments collected for presentation to President Toribiong. The book was presented to President Johnson Toribiong of Palau on behalf of SHARK SAVERS by Palau Shark Sanctuary. Here's the report I filed with Mr. Michael Skoletsky, Executive Director of Shark Savers:

Dear Michael:

I met with the President re: Shark Savers' Thank You. Others present were Mr. Ngirai Tmetuchel, Special Advisor to the President and Ms. Bernadette Carreon, Reporter, Palau Horizon (she’ll do a story in local paper which will be syndicated on line) and a few of the Presidents staff.

I gave a brief history / reminder of how Shark Savers answered the call by my organization Palau Shark Sanctuary to rally international support to prevent the undoing of Palau’s landmark shark protection legislation as proposed in Senate Bill 8-44. Shark Savers created an on line petition calling on Palau to block SB 8-44 which resulted in conservation minded people around the world rising to the call. Those messages and petition were already provided to Palau’s President and copied to the Senate, Belau Tourism Association, Chamber of Commerce and others.
Image Above Left:  Copyright Shark Savers; Design Jamie Pollack.

Following the President’s historic announcement at the U.N., Shark Savers again rose to the call and gathered over 1500 signatures on a Thank You note to the President for his ground breaking shark sanctuary announcement and wise leadership in conservation.

I informed the President that I was present on behalf of Shark Savers and Executive Director Michael Skoletsky to hand over the printed and bound “thank you” signatures to him and to extend the deepest gratitude of Shark Savers and the thousands of people around the world who signed the petition and the thank you, for the Presidents Shark Sanctuary announcement at the United Nations General Assembly Meeting in New York, late last year.

I read your letter to the President after which I presented him the award on yours and Shark Savers behalf.

The President was deeply moved. He smiled when I mentioned the on line petition as there is no doubt he “heard the noise” at the time.

He extended his thanks to Sharks Savers and those who signed the petition and thank you note for their positive and constructive contribution to the protection of sharks. He sends his best wishes to you and all Shark Savers and vowed to continue his efforts to fulfill his vision for Palau Shark Sanctuary.

Cheers!
Dermot

IMAGES ABOVE LEFT and BELOW RIGHT:  Copyright Palau Horizon;   Courtesy Palau Shark Sanctuary

Below is the text of the letter from Shark Savers that accompanyied the book:

Dear President Toribiong,

It is with great pleasure that we present to you this book containing the signatures and messages from the many people throughout the world who are grateful for your actions to protect the sharks of Palau.

As you read through the comments in the book, you will notice how greatly moved we all are that you have taken this important and bold action. Palau has become much more than a place in our diving logs, but a place in our hearts, as well.

Sharks are important to us, to Palau, and to the world. After Palau took its pioneering step, the Maldives has joined you in declaring its waters a shark sanctuary. Honduras has placed a moratorium on shark fishing as it considers doing the same. We hope that you have started a trend among the nations that harbor the remaining sharks.

We also thank Palau for taking the lead at CITES to protect shark species from international trade. While we are all disappointed at the lack of progress at CITES this year, we thank you for leading the fight.

Dermot

A Hero’s Welcome for Palau President Johnson Toribiong.

For Immediate Release:

KOROR, PALAU, 9/28/2009, 7:45 p.m.

A Hero’s Welcome for Palau President Johnson Toribiong.

Palau President H.E. Johnson Toribiong arrived home moments ago to a hero’s welcome at Koror International Airport, Palau, organized by Palau Shark Sanctuary. Dermot Keane, founder of Palau Shark Sanctuary and Managing Director of Palau dive shop Sam’s Tours, was on hand to greet the President and thanked him for declaring Palau a Shark Sanctuary.

 

(L) Dermot Keane, Palau Shark Sanctuary; (R) President Johnson Toribiong

The large welcome committee included grateful members of the Palauan community who greeted President Toribiong with flower leis and loud applause upon his arrival. Palauans are understandably proud of their President who declared Palau as a Shark Sanctuary during his recent address to the United Nations, General Assembly, on Friday, September 25, 2009.

(C): President Toribiong; (R): Sam Scott, Sam's Tours (blue shirt)

Despite his long journey from Washington D.C. to Palau, the President was clearly moved by the warm reception and graciously thanked everyone for showing up to welcome him. Palau Shark Sanctuary once again thanks and admires President Toribiong for his landmark declaration of Palau as a Shark Sanctuary.

Palau Shark Sanctuary was founded in 2001 with a goal of securing a declaration by Palau that the waters of their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) are a Shark Sanctuary.

For more information visit: www.sharksanctuary.com or http://www.sharksanctuary.blogspot.com/

All images courtesy Nick Martorano - Ocean Wonders.

Images are approved for use provided credit is noted to:  http://www.oceanwonders.org/

President Toribiongs Landmark Speech to U.N. General Assembly

"The strength and beauty of sharks are a natural barometer for the health of our oceans.  Therefore, I declare today that Palau  will become the world’s first national shark sanctuary, ending all commercial shark fishing in our waters and giving a sanctuary for sharks to live and reproduce unmolested in our 237,000 square miles of ocean. We call upon all nations to join us." Johnson Toribiong, President of Palau, 9/25/09.

 Image Courtesy: Gunther Deichmann - http://www.deichmann-photo.com/blog.html

Below is President Toribiong's entire speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, September 25, 2009, in which he declared Palau as the world's first national shark sanctuary. 

I urge you to read this excellent speech and to then send a Thank You Note to President Toribiong commending him for his unprecedented actions to protect sharks and other marine creatures.

Send notes for President Toribiong to:  sharksanctuary@gmail.com

I will deliver them promptly to the President's Office.

Thank You!

Dermot

SPEECH:    United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 25, 2009
 

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am speaking here for the first time as a Head of State.  However, in 1977, I appeared with my country’s delegation before the Trusteeship Council seeking independence.  In 1994, the Trusteeship ended and we took our place as a member of the United Nations. Our independence is testament to the success of the International Trusteeship System, for which we are grateful. The legacy of our experience is a Constitution which incorporates the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- freedom, democracy, equal protection, rule of law.

Mr. President,  

Palauans have lived throughout history in symbiosis with the sea.  We are seeing now though that the sea, which has long been the source of our sustenance, is both rising in rage to destroy us and becoming barren.  This fury was caused by the abuses of humankind and we therefore need to take every action necessary to allow the oceans to heal themselves.

In days gone by, the traditional chiefs of Palau would declare a “bul” – a moratorium to protect a resource which had become scarce. This traditional concept, now popularly known as conservation, shows the way for us to move forward.  As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed. “ This is why the world must declare a bul on destructive fishing practices like deep sea bottom trawling, unsustainable harvesting of shark for their fins and overexploitation of tuna stocks. 

Mr. President,

The odious fishing practice of bottom trawling, where a weighted net is dragged along the sea floor crushing nearly everything in its path, is contributing to the rapid loss of a critical ecosystem, our coral reefs. We have outlawed deep sea bottom trawling in Palau, but no matter what we do in our own waters, there must be an international solution.

For several years, we have advocated, along with our Pacific neighbors, a moratorium on this practice.  The Sustainable Fisheries resolution adopted by the UN in 2007, urged nations and regional fisheries management organizations to stop trawling in sensitive areas by 2009. We have waited for compliance, which has not come, and now renew our call for a worldwide moratorium on this practice.

Mr. President,

An equally destructive fishing practice is shark-finning.  We have banned it in Palau and call upon the world to address this issue in order to save the sharks from extinction. 

The strength and beauty of sharks are a natural barometer for the health of our oceans.  Therefore, I declare today that Palau  will become the world’s first national shark sanctuary, ending all commercial shark fishing in our waters and giving a sanctuary for sharks to live and reproduce unmolested in our 237,000 square miles of ocean. We call upon all nations to join us.

Mr. President,

It is anomalous that Palau is experiencing economic difficulty while it sits in the middle of the richest waters in the world.  We can no longer stand by while foreign vessels illicitly come to our waters to take our greatest resource, our tuna stocks, without regard to their conservation and without regard for adequate compensation to the island states which rely on this resource.

Palau believes that the best model for a regional effort to conserve our tuna resources and maximize the benefits to us is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). I therefore will work for the establishment of OTEC, the Organization of Tuna Exporting Countries, and I now call upon our friends in OPEC to come forward and help us to understand and obtain fair value from our threatened resource and to make tuna fishing sustainable. 

Mr. President,

I come now to the economic crisis which my country is facing.  As a developing nation, we are grateful for the grants provided by our allies and partners to advance our development.  They have been helpful.  But, we must acknowledge that outright grants do not always create meaningful employment.  Jobs created are illusory and temporary. 

Without a strong local economy, our children, our most valuable resource, are leaving our shores for opportunities elsewhere.  As they leave it creates a continuing downward cycle which we must stop. 

Our allies and partners can help us stop this cycle by promoting the development of private enterprise in our country. We need capital, and entrepreneurial expertise. I implore our allies and partners to consider providing incentives to their nationals to encourage them to come to our islands and launch partnerships with our talented people to create a viable economy. Let us once and for all put aside the fiction that we need handouts. What we need are partners to help advance our economy and put an end to the out-migration of our people. 

Mr. President,

We note with satisfaction the decision by the People’s Republic of China to invite Taiwan to attend the World Health Assembly.  The health and safety of the world’s people is at the heart of the ideals of the UN. In order to further promote these, we recommend that Taiwan be invited to participate meaningfully in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other international organizations. 

Mr. President,  

We have heard the voices of world leaders from countries small and large, powerful and vulnerable.  We have heard the voice of science.  Let us heed these voices, fulfill our obligations to our people, and work for a strong economy and a healthy planet. 

Thank you.

#   #   #

Update: Proposed Shark Fishing Legislation, Palau, Micronesia.

The two controversial Senate Bills (SB8-44 and SB8-50) which propose to undo Palau’s landmark shark protection laws adopted under the previous Remengesau Administration in 2003, are both pending at the Senate Committee on Resources, Commerce, Trade and Development.

SB No. 8-44 which proposes to allow commercial fishing for sharks was introduced on March 5, 2009 and passed 1st reading on that same day.

SB No. 8-50 which proposes to exempt commercial fishing companies from export taxes on fish caught by purse-seining methods for a period of 5 years was introduced on March 26, 2009 and passed first reading on the same day too.

For background on these controversial Bills read earlier posts on this Blog. Visit Palau Shark Sanctuary for more information on shark conservation efforts in Palau at:
http://www.sharksanctuary.com/

According to Senate sources if the committee reports on these proposed Bills in the next session of the Senate which opens tomorrow, the Bills will go to their 2nd Reading.

The shark conservation organization SHARK SAVERS has created an on-line petition where you may register your opposition to Senate Bill 8-44 and commercial shark fishing. Please visit the link below and sign this petition today. Time is of the essence. Please act now!


PETITION: http://www.sharksavers.org/en/get-involved/sign-these-petitions/542-petition%20-to-palau-stop-senate-bill-8-44-on-shark-fishing.html

BLOG: http://www.sharksavers.org/en/blogs/shark-savers-blog.html

Also, please continue to pass the word to others and continue to submit comments to Palau Chamber of Commerce and Belau Tourism Association respectively at: pcoc@palaunet.com and bta@palaunet.com

Many thanks to all who have already acted including professional photographers and environmentalists EDWARD DORSON, TODD ESSICK and GUNTHER DEICHMANN who are among the many concerned individuals who have taken time to submit their comments in opposition to these Bills. These professional photographers have all visited and dived in Palau and know just how important sharks are to Palau’s tourism industry and to the entire marine eco-system. We appreciate their support.

Visit their websites and blogs for more information and fantastic images at:

Edward Dorson: http://dorsonstudios.com/

Todd Essick: http://www.blogger.com/www.essickphoto.com

Gunther Deichmann: http://gdphotonews.blogspot.com/

http://www.deichmann-photo.com/

http://www.deichmann-photo.com/blog.html

WWW.SHARKSANCTUARY.COM finally launched!

Koror, Palau

January 10, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

I'm happy to announce that my new (and first) website for the Palau Shark Sanctuary is finally launched. While there are still some edits and revisions required, the basic site is up and running. The URL is: http://www.sharksanctuary.com/

Additionally, my BLOG located at: http://www.sharksanctuary.blogspot.com/ will soon be linked to the new site.

I'm deeply indebted to my good friend, fellow environmentalist and amazing photographer Gunther Deichmann who sponsored and created the site in support of the International Year of the Shark 2009. Gunther was instrumental in helping me get the Shark Sanctuary off the ground back in 2001 and has been and ardent supporter ever since. Many thanks Gunther and Webmaster Arnold Munoz. I sincerely appreciate your support.

Check out Gunther's Blog at: http://www.deichmann-photo.com/blog.html

I also owe considerable thanks to Mr. Dennis Camblin of Logo Pacific, Hawaii who has supported me from day one and launched the Palau Shark Sanctuary line of logo clothing which has helped fund my efforts since 2001. Thanks Dennis!

Thanks also to Sam's Tours and Ben Franklin Department Store who are corporate sponsors of Palau Shark Sanctuary and sell Shark Sanctuary logo clothing in support of the efforts to end shark-finning in Palau and elsewhere.

Sam's Tours: http://www.samstours.com

Please pay a visit to http://www.sharksanctuary.com/ and link to: http://www.sharksanctuary.blogspot.com/ for the latest news on sharks and shark conservation efforts in Palau.

SAVE OUR SHARKS!

http://www.sharksanctuary.com/

FOR SHAME!

WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?

First posted 11/22/08 on http://www.samstours.com/blog/

My good friend and internationally acclaimed photographer / environmentalist Gunther Deichmann has once again used the power of his lens to bring world attention to yet another of mans destructive practices in an unfortunately ever-growing list that shows a callous disregard for the world we will pass on to our children and their children.

Gunther was recently in Bali, Indonesia on a commercial photo shoot when he came across some boats being unloaded in the harbor. Much to his dismay the catch being unloaded was thousands and thousands of shark fins from species that included hammerheads, white tips, black tips and more. True to form, Gunther's first reaction was to start shooting pictures. So powerful were some of the images he shot that Germany's STERN MAGAZINE chose one as "Photo of the Week" (Issue #46, November 06, 2008). Britains DAILY MAIL also featured Gunther's images and story on shark-finning. Follow the link below to see the article:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1086501/A-sad-sharks-tale-Shocking-images-scale-fin-trade.html

I think it is safe to say that most divers are well aware that shark-finning represents massively destructive and absolutely unsustainable decimation of sharks and I'm likewise sure that most divers do not support the practice. But being aware of and or not supporting shark finning is simply not enough anymore. It is time for each and every one of us to do more right now!

The rate of destruction of sharks is already so monumental that there is a growing belief that many species of sharks are headed for extinction in our lifetime. It is hard to believe that sharks, a species that has existed for millions of years, face extinction at the hands of man on our watch. While there's no guarantee of success for any actions we may each take to try to end this wasteful practice, there is every assurance that if we FAIL TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION NOW to stop the rape of our oceans, sharks and many fish stocks too will be eliminated. Greed, corruption and massive profiteering is destroying the very world that we as its present stewards are supposed to hold in trust for our children. We must each take it upon ourselves to act against these forces for if we do not, we too are part of the problem.

I call on every diver to take an immediate and strong stance against shark-finning and to fully engage themselves every single day in rallying more and more non-divers to the cause. We need to relentlessly fight back against those who are destroying our oceans without regard for the future. We cannot allow them to win. To most of the world shark-finning is out of sight and therefore out of mind. By the time the world wakes up to the danger it will be too late! We have to work together now to keep this issue in the forefront and to bring about an immediate halt to this insance practice before the total collapse of shark populations signals their total extinction.

Won't you follow Gunther's lead and DO SOMETHING POSITIVE TODAY and every day hereafter to help protect sharks forever? Tomorrow is already too late!

If you need more information about shark finning simply Google “shark finning” follow the links and start reading!

For more on Gunther's incredible photography, some great tips on Apple Aperture & Photo Shelter, or interesting articles on the environment, follow the link below to: http://www.deichmann-photo.com/blog.html

Republic of Palau Burns Illegal Shark Fin Catch

On May 6, 2003 Republic of Palau President, Tommy E. Remengesau Jr. and Minister of Justice, Michael Rosenthal set fire to a large catch of shark fins taken from a Taiwanese fishing vessel caught fishing illegally in Palau's waters.

A patrol boat from Palau's Marine Law Enforcement Division captured the Taiwanese vessel “Sheng Chi Hui #7” while it was engaged in illegally fishing for sharks in waters close to the Palau island of Angaur. Upon boarding and inspection of the licensed vessel, large numbers of steel leaders that are used to specifically target the capture of sharks, were discovered on board. The vessels holds were full of shark carcasses many of which had already had their fins removed. Authorities confiscated more than 1,600 pounds of shark fins and over 400 shark carcasses weighing in excess of 10 tons.

Outraged at the continued targeting and destruction of Palau's shark population by Taiwanese fishing fleets and the minimal fines allowed under current Palau laws, President Remengesau ordered the burning of the captured shark fins, over the objections of those who wanted them sold to generate revenue, to highlight the need for Palau Congress to improve laws protecting sharks. “Sheng Chi Hui #7” was fined less than $13,000 for a variety of offenses. Shark fins reportedly sell in Hong Kong for U.S. $180 per pound or more. A staunch environmentalist, Remengesau told those who gathered to witness the bonfire: “Our message is very clear today: We will not tolerate shark fishing in the waters of Palau.”

Dermot Keane, Founder of Palau Shark Sanctuary, and manager of a local dive business also addressed the crowd and urged them to support the passage of a declaration by the Republic of Palau to establish the waters within Palau's Exclusive Economic Zone, as a sanctuary for all sharks within. Palau Shark Sanctuary was founded in Koror, Palau on November 2001, in response to the ongoing destructive practice of “shark-finning” by foreign fishing fleets in Palau's waters. Shark Sanctuary supports itself through sales of its private logo merchandise, donating proceeds to programs and agencies joining them in their fight to save Palau's sharks. “Loss of Palau's sharks threatens not only Palau's underwater environment but also its entire dive industry, a mainstay of Palau's economy” Keane said. “As Palau is internationally recognized among top dive destinations in the world, it is therefore fitting that Palau takes a leadership role in the worldwide battle to end the destructive practice of shark-finning” he went on to say.


Palau Shark Sanctuary goal is to achieve a declaration by the Republic of Palau, perpetually establishing all waters within Palau's Exclusive Economic Zone, as a World Shark Sanctuary offering protection to all sharks within. Keane says he realizes that establishing a World Shark Sanctuary in Palau is a big challenge but believes it is a worthwhile goal nonetheless, and one that will benefit Palau and its economy in the years to come.

http://www.sharksanctuary.com/

Images: Courtesy Ethan Daniels