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Marine Life & Conservation

Hilton Worldwide to Ban All Shark Fin Products by April 2014

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Hilton Worldwide announced last week that it will cease serving shark fin and stop accepting new orders for shark fin dishes by 1st April 2014. The ban covers all restaurants and F&B facilities operated by its 96 owned and managed properties across Asia Pacific.

In December 2012, the company first removed shark fin from menus across all restaurants and food and beverage (F&B) facilities operated by its managed properties in China and Southeast Asia, and only serving it on request. This action helped pave the way for a ban, which first took effect in Southeast Asia on 1st September 2013 and then in Greater China on the 1st February 2014.

Unfortunately however, banquet bookings made in each region prior to the respective ban dates will still be honoured.

The final step of the ban takes effect in Japan on 1st April 2014, when shark fin dishes will no longer be served in restaurants and F&B facilities operated by Hilton Worldwide’s owned and managed properties. In Japan, no banquet orders for shark fin dishes have been accepted since 1st December 2013 (though again, unfortunately banquet orders made prior to 1st December 2013 will still be honoured).

This puts the global hospitality company on track to ban shark fin in all restaurants and F&B facilities operated by its portfolio of 645 owned and managed hotels globally.

“We made a decisive commitment to influence consumer demand and ensure operational compliance across our portfolio of hotels by taking a measured country-by-country approach. In placing a global ban on shark fin, we take action in support of environmental conservation efforts worldwide, and progress our efforts in responsible business operations,” said Martin Rinck, president, Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide.

As a leading global hospitality company, Hilton Worldwide encourages its hotels to increase the use of sustainable products and services where feasible, and proactively examine opportunities to improve the company’s sustainability performance across its supply chains. This commitment supports the ‘Living Sustainably’ pillar of the company’s global corporate responsibility strategy, Travel with PurposeTM.

“The demand for shark fin in Asia Pacific has been identified as a major cause of decline in global shark populations. Hilton Worldwide’s ban on shark fin will go a long way in this region towards protecting valuable shark species, which are in turn crucial for maintaining the health of our marine ecosystems. Hilton Worldwide’s measured and step-wise approach towards responsible sourcing is a fine example of how businesses with strong leadership can, and should, take responsibility for their impact on the environment,” said Elaine Tan, CEO, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) -Singapore.

The ban on shark fin previews the company’s on-going efforts to develop a Sustainable Sourcing Policy, including sustainable seafood, details of which will be released at a later date.

So, good news that Hilton Worldwide will no longer be taking orders for shark fin dishes, but disappointing to hear that they’re honouring existing orders. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

Source: news.hiltonworldwide.com

Marine Life & Conservation

Book Review: Into the Great Wide Ocean

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diving book

Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth by Sonke Johnsen

What an unexpected surprise! A book that combines a clear passion for the ocean with humour and the deft touch of a true storyteller. Johnsen gives a wonderful insight into the life of a deep sea marine biologist , the weird and wonderful animals encountered in this mysterious world, the trials and tribulations, in a way that makes you feel you have been sat at a table chatting about his work over a pint or cup of tea.

Even for divers, the deep blue open ocean can feel inaccessible. It is one of the least studied places in the universe. In this book that deep blue ocean and its inhabitants is brought to you with warmth and wit. And even the most well-read will come away with new facts and information. Johnsen’s goal is one that resonates throughout: Before we as scientists can ask people to preserve this important and fragile habitat, we need to show them that it’s there and the beauty of what lives in it. He does just that.

This is a book that combines the scientific with a deeply personal story. You feel what it is like to work out in the open ocean and get to know the animals that reside there. With descriptions that allow you to really imagine what it feels like being out there in the blue.

What the publisher says:

The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the seafloor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to anglerfish with bioluminescent lures that draw prey into their toothy mouths. Into the Great Wide Ocean takes readers inside the peculiar world of the seagoing scientists who are providing tantalizing new insights into how the animals of the open ocean solve the problems of their existence.

Sönke Johnsen vividly describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, such as gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, catching food while not becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities. He interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.

Into the Great Wide Ocean presents the sea and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before and reminds us that the rules of survival in the open ocean, though they may seem strange to us, are the primary rules of life on Earth.

About the Author:

Sönke Johnsen is professor of biology at Duke University. He is the author of The Optics of Life: A Biologist’s Guide to Light in Nature and the coauthor of Visual Ecology (both Princeton). Marlin Peterson, who created original illustrations for this book, is an illustrator and muralist who teaches and illustrates in many styles and media. He also specializes in giant optical illusions such as his harvestmen mural below the Space Needle in Seattle, and his full portfolio can be found at marlinpeterson.com.

Book Details

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Hardcover

Price: £20.00

ISBN: 9780691181745

Published: 7th January, 2025

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Marine Life & Conservation

Double Bubble for the Shark Trust

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This week only – your donation to the Shark Trust will be doubled – at no extra cost to you!

The Shark Trust are raising vital funds for their Community Engagement Programme: empowering people to learn about sharks and rays, assisting the scientific community take action for elasmobranchs, and bring communities together to become ambassadors for change.

Every £1 you give = £2 for shark conservation. A donation of £10 becomes £20, £50 becomes £100! Help us reach our target of £10,000, if successful, this will be doubled to £20,000 by the Big Give.

Every donation makes DOUBLE the impact!

Monty Halls is backing this week of fundraising “Cousteau called sharks the “splendid savage of the sea”, and even through the more benign lens of modern shark interactions it remains a good description. The reefs I dived thirty years ago teemed with sharks, the perfect result of 450 million years of evolution. Today those same reefs are silent, the blue water empty of those elegant shadows. But hope remains that if one generation has created such devastation, so the next can reverse the damage that has been done. The Shark Trust are at the forefront of that fight.

Donate Here

To find out more about the work of the Shark Trust visit their website here.

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