Friday, May 14, 2010

Shark Fin Opponent Awarded - Speaks With Obama

Pretoma’s president and founder Randall Arauz of Costa Rica is the newest recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Awarded to grassroots environmental efforts in six geographical areas around the world, "The Goldman" is one of the environmental movements top honors. Winners of this prize are often introduced to a wide variety of political and financial "movers and shakers."

In this case Randall Arauz met with and spoke about shark finning with President Obama.

Randall Arauz

“When I started Pretoma over 14 years ago, I had no idea WE were going to go so far! And I say “we”, because over the years a team of dedicated conservationists has performed the most diverse of tasks to fulfill our mission, which is to protect, and restore, endangered marine wildlife.

Sadly, shark finning is far from over. Global shark population declines are estimated at 90%, mostly due to shark finning. Governments are drafting “Shark Action Plans” in an effort to reverse the negative trend on shark populations. But NOTHING has been done YET, to actually curtail shark mortality.



More than 100 foreign longline shark finning vessels still operate illegally in private docks of Costa Rica. Recently, investigative journalists have exposed drug trafficking and indentured servitude alongside shark finning at these private docks, whose operators take advantage of lax customs enforcement."



1 comment:

Jackie Ng Ciurzynski said...

That's awesome news of Randall Arauz winning such a top honor and that he got to speak with The President on stopping shark finning!

I'm also very passionate about stopping shark finning and I'm writing to share with you and your readers that we, at Sensory Escape Images, now have a great Shark Finning Resource Center set up on our website where we share more about shark finning including providing resources to readers that detail several options for making an impact on shark finning right where they live. We'd love to hear feedback as well! Here's the link: http://www.sensoryescapeimages.com/what-is-shark-finning/