Island Hoppa
Guest
this was originally posted by scubaboard user BILLB in the north america section. thanks so much for letting me know. i am copying this to this forum so more people hear about it. remember this next time you all go to Disney World.
Shark Fin Soup...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This may be posted elsewhere, but here it is (again)...
The Mouse Who Kills Sharks...
Ed. Note: From time to time, we send out a special edition of PHD DivEmail because of compelling news or events that affect divers around the world.
This is a special email from Peter Hughes dedicated to marine conservation.
We are specifically addressing the decision by the Disney Corporation to encourage the wanton slaughter of sharks worldwide. This story was widely reported in the Hong Kong area, but received little attention in the U.S. This note contains no promotion for Peter Hughes Diving, Inc .
Caution: This email does contain a graphic image of a mutilated shark .
______________________________
The Mouse Who Kills Sharks...
This story is almost unbelievable! Disney Enterprises is opening a new park in Hong Kong this December. Among other amenities, the park is slated to be a very popular spot to host weddings, banquets, and other festive occasions.
Disney Hong Kong is actively promoting a banquet menu, hosted at the park, that includes Shark Fin Soup.
For the uninitiated, there is a world wide practice of "finning" sharks. Fishing vessels use long lines and other destructive fishing techniques to hook sharks. The sharks are hauled onboard, their fins are cut off and sold to make the soup, and the rest of the carcasses are summarily tossed overboard. Dead or alive.
It matters little whether the sharks are endangered or not. The fishing hooks know little of endangered species. Shark "finning" is banned in many countries, but the practice still persists.
The demand for authentic Shark Fin Soup (once a delicacy served only for China's elite) has turned it into a mass market product, and spawned global "ghost" fleets of boats which decimate the world's shark populations to fill that demand. We are talking about millions of sharks killed each year.
According to most marine scientists, Shark "Finning" is the single largest reason for the rapidly declining population of sharks worldwide.
So now, the lovable Mickey Mouse has turned into a Shark Killer.
Actually, a mass murderer, as millions of sharks are slaughtered each year.
This from the company that co-produced FINDING NEMO (along with animation specialists Pixar)? What would have been the reaction by millions of young children around the world if Nemo was "finned" at the end of the movie???
And please ask yourself if your reaction to every shark "finned" should be any different... There's an entire group of apex predators being destroyed, and any responsible corporation should not condone and endorse it.
And Disney not only condones the practice of "finning" sharks, but markets it! Menus containing Shark Fin Soup are the most expensive of the banquest packages offered by Disney Hong Kong. What's a few million sharks when there's money to be made....
You'd like to believe that this was just a case of cultural/corporate oversight, where one division of Disney was doing something that corporate Disney had not reviewed, etc.
That's not the case.
Disney has summarily rejected the objections to serving Shark Fin Soup, and even announced that it will continue to offer and fulfill the menus, as planned. (reported by the BBC and multiple other news groups on May 24, 2005).
It's feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese "culture"...
This, from the company that publicly states on its corporate website: "The Walt Disney Company is committed to balancing environmental stewardship with its corporate goals and operations worldwide."
Well, it's pretty hard to get after a bunch of ghost fishing fleets (often flying maritime flags of convenience), and only slightly harder to get the attention of the Walt Disney Company.
They don't invite critique via email, and don't publish email addresses for their top executives and Board Members. In fact, it's pretty difficult to find any Disney web site that invites any type of electronic feedback from their customers. Hmmm...
If you strongly feel that a company in the global entertainment business which espouses a healthy, environmentally friendly, family style approach to its practices should not be condoning the reckless slaughter of sharks, we'd like to help you deliver your personal message of outrage at this practice.
PLEASE WRITE US AN EMAIL (instructions below), and we'll print them, collate them, and distribute them to as many Disney executives as we can, starting with the new CEO, Robert Iger.
Many of us have grown to adulthood with the Walt Disney Company, and hold them in the highest respect. We recommend their entertainment to our children, and feel secure that Disney will "do the right thing"...
But in this matter of Shark Finning, they are as dead wrong as the sharks the fishermen consign to the deep.
Please give this your utmost consideration.
Dive Ocean Minded,
Peter
Peter Hughes, Peter Hughes Diving, Inc.
_______________________________
Email Us Back With Your Response and We'll Send it to Disney!
Just Hit the REPLY button (phddivemail@waterpath.com), and address the Subject Line of your email to:
Attention: Mr. Robert Iger, CEO, Walt Disney Company
Please remember to "sign" the email with your name, City, and State.
PHD will print and collate all of the letters and send them to both Disney Executives AND the Walt Disney Board of Directors via registered mail.
________________________________
CONTACTS
PETER HUGHES DIVING, Inc.
5723 NW 158 Street, Miami Lakes, FL 33014
Ph: 1-800-9-DANCER (800-932-6237), (305) 669-9391, Fax (305) 669-9475
email: dancer@peterhughes.com
web site: http://www.peterhughes.com
About PHD DiveEMAIL: This is a complimentary news service by Peter Hughes Diving, Inc., sent only "by permission" through the services of WaterPath Electronic Publishing. If you would like to ADD a friend, DELETE, or CHANGE your email address, please hit the REPLY button and include the appropriate word.
Or respond to: phddivemail@waterpath.com
All email addresses are strictly confidential.
___________________________________________
" WORK HARD, DIVE EASY "
Copyright, June, 2005 by Peter Hughes Diving, Inc. and WaterPath Electronic Publishing
__________________
Safe Diving
BillB
Shark Fin Soup...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This may be posted elsewhere, but here it is (again)...
The Mouse Who Kills Sharks...
Ed. Note: From time to time, we send out a special edition of PHD DivEmail because of compelling news or events that affect divers around the world.
This is a special email from Peter Hughes dedicated to marine conservation.
We are specifically addressing the decision by the Disney Corporation to encourage the wanton slaughter of sharks worldwide. This story was widely reported in the Hong Kong area, but received little attention in the U.S. This note contains no promotion for Peter Hughes Diving, Inc .
Caution: This email does contain a graphic image of a mutilated shark .
______________________________
The Mouse Who Kills Sharks...
This story is almost unbelievable! Disney Enterprises is opening a new park in Hong Kong this December. Among other amenities, the park is slated to be a very popular spot to host weddings, banquets, and other festive occasions.
Disney Hong Kong is actively promoting a banquet menu, hosted at the park, that includes Shark Fin Soup.
For the uninitiated, there is a world wide practice of "finning" sharks. Fishing vessels use long lines and other destructive fishing techniques to hook sharks. The sharks are hauled onboard, their fins are cut off and sold to make the soup, and the rest of the carcasses are summarily tossed overboard. Dead or alive.
It matters little whether the sharks are endangered or not. The fishing hooks know little of endangered species. Shark "finning" is banned in many countries, but the practice still persists.
The demand for authentic Shark Fin Soup (once a delicacy served only for China's elite) has turned it into a mass market product, and spawned global "ghost" fleets of boats which decimate the world's shark populations to fill that demand. We are talking about millions of sharks killed each year.
According to most marine scientists, Shark "Finning" is the single largest reason for the rapidly declining population of sharks worldwide.
So now, the lovable Mickey Mouse has turned into a Shark Killer.
Actually, a mass murderer, as millions of sharks are slaughtered each year.
This from the company that co-produced FINDING NEMO (along with animation specialists Pixar)? What would have been the reaction by millions of young children around the world if Nemo was "finned" at the end of the movie???
And please ask yourself if your reaction to every shark "finned" should be any different... There's an entire group of apex predators being destroyed, and any responsible corporation should not condone and endorse it.
And Disney not only condones the practice of "finning" sharks, but markets it! Menus containing Shark Fin Soup are the most expensive of the banquest packages offered by Disney Hong Kong. What's a few million sharks when there's money to be made....
You'd like to believe that this was just a case of cultural/corporate oversight, where one division of Disney was doing something that corporate Disney had not reviewed, etc.
That's not the case.
Disney has summarily rejected the objections to serving Shark Fin Soup, and even announced that it will continue to offer and fulfill the menus, as planned. (reported by the BBC and multiple other news groups on May 24, 2005).
It's feeble defence is they are doing it in deference to Chinese "culture"...
This, from the company that publicly states on its corporate website: "The Walt Disney Company is committed to balancing environmental stewardship with its corporate goals and operations worldwide."
Well, it's pretty hard to get after a bunch of ghost fishing fleets (often flying maritime flags of convenience), and only slightly harder to get the attention of the Walt Disney Company.
They don't invite critique via email, and don't publish email addresses for their top executives and Board Members. In fact, it's pretty difficult to find any Disney web site that invites any type of electronic feedback from their customers. Hmmm...
If you strongly feel that a company in the global entertainment business which espouses a healthy, environmentally friendly, family style approach to its practices should not be condoning the reckless slaughter of sharks, we'd like to help you deliver your personal message of outrage at this practice.
PLEASE WRITE US AN EMAIL (instructions below), and we'll print them, collate them, and distribute them to as many Disney executives as we can, starting with the new CEO, Robert Iger.
Many of us have grown to adulthood with the Walt Disney Company, and hold them in the highest respect. We recommend their entertainment to our children, and feel secure that Disney will "do the right thing"...
But in this matter of Shark Finning, they are as dead wrong as the sharks the fishermen consign to the deep.
Please give this your utmost consideration.
Dive Ocean Minded,
Peter
Peter Hughes, Peter Hughes Diving, Inc.
_______________________________
Email Us Back With Your Response and We'll Send it to Disney!
Just Hit the REPLY button (phddivemail@waterpath.com), and address the Subject Line of your email to:
Attention: Mr. Robert Iger, CEO, Walt Disney Company
Please remember to "sign" the email with your name, City, and State.
PHD will print and collate all of the letters and send them to both Disney Executives AND the Walt Disney Board of Directors via registered mail.
________________________________
CONTACTS
PETER HUGHES DIVING, Inc.
5723 NW 158 Street, Miami Lakes, FL 33014
Ph: 1-800-9-DANCER (800-932-6237), (305) 669-9391, Fax (305) 669-9475
email: dancer@peterhughes.com
web site: http://www.peterhughes.com
About PHD DiveEMAIL: This is a complimentary news service by Peter Hughes Diving, Inc., sent only "by permission" through the services of WaterPath Electronic Publishing. If you would like to ADD a friend, DELETE, or CHANGE your email address, please hit the REPLY button and include the appropriate word.
Or respond to: phddivemail@waterpath.com
All email addresses are strictly confidential.
___________________________________________
" WORK HARD, DIVE EASY "
Copyright, June, 2005 by Peter Hughes Diving, Inc. and WaterPath Electronic Publishing
__________________
Safe Diving
BillB
