Marine reserves now

[Ladywriter 7,783]

If we want fish tomorrow, we need marine reserves today. If we want whales tomorrow, we need marine reserves today. If we want to stop bottom trawling, we need marine reserves today. For healthy oceans -- we need marine reserves today.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates that the establishment of large-scale networks of marine reserves, urgently needed to protect marine species and their habitats, could be key to reversing global fisheries decline and restoring our oceans. Greenpeace's plan to set aside 40 percent of the world's oceans as no-take zones could mean survival for sharks, tuna, whales, and a wide range of threatened and endangered species..

You can help us convince governments and the United Nations that we need to protect our oceans by creating a global network of marine reserves. Sign our petition: here

Update, 21 April 2008 Greenpeace activists boarded a Taiwanese longliner, the Nian Sheng 3, to inspect the contents of the hold. As well as tuna, the activists discovered a dozen sacks with hundreds of frozen shark fins and tails. Shark finning is one of the practices that would be banned in a marine reserve. It's shockingly wasteful: only the fin is removed for the Asian shark-fin soup market, with the entire shark returned to the ocean, sometimes as a carcass, sometimes alive. We escorted the vessel out of international waters, but this practice will not stop in the Pacific Commons until these waters become Marine Reserves -- you can help by signing our petition.

Shark fins found aboard the Nian Sheng 3