Shark Finning

This is a copy of an email sent to one of the diving community news groups I am a member of. Shark finning is the process of catching large quantities of sharks, and while they are still alive, cutting off their dorsal and pectoral fins then dumping the remaining, still alive, shark over board to drown. The entire shark is simply disguarded to save room for the prized fins.

Sharks are at the top of the food chain in the worlds oceans with no natural predators. They are responsible for consuming aging and sick fish and are a vital part of the ocean ecosystem. Over fishing of any kind is an irresponsible act, but shark finning is an immoral one.

Hi All,

As you know we have been working on Yahoo! and it's sister company Alibaba.com to stop selling /thousands of tons/ of dried shark fins through their web sites. With the success of our ABC News piece last month at guadalupefund.org we worked with Bruce from Business Week to produce this latest article. This is a global slaughter on an unprecedented scale, and those of you who dive for a living know this first hand.

Hopefully Yahoo! will see the light and change tactics here.

If you can blog this, or pass it one to someone who can carry the torch there's 75 million sharks that will thank you next year...and several marine protected areas that might still have sharks next year as well.

Let's go shark diving!

Cheers,
Patric Douglas CEO
www.sharkdiver.com
www.sharkdivers.com
www.guadalupefund.org
415.2359410 

Swim Lessons

Cameron started swim lessons this week. Here are some pictures from Day 2.

Normal, Il

Mackenzie's Softball Team (American Athletics - Ordos 14U) qualified for ASA Nationals, so she and I are heading to Normal, Il for a week of softball with about 120 other teams from around the US. Recently her team placed 8th at the State Championship for the Southern Region, 2nd at the State Championship for the Sacramento Region, and 4th at the second chance tournament in Tulare where the temperatures reached 106 degrees. The team qualified, however, out of Virgina when a tournament we were signed up for was canceled and we were awarded the birth by default.

If you would like to sponsor Mackenzie's team please use the link above and contact Alan Ordos (alan@americanathleticssoftball.com).

Cameron Jumping

My sister took these pictures of Cameron jumping in his jumper back in June. I am finally getting them posted.