Poor Sharks

Where should I begin? The sharks…are dying! Okay, there, it’s all out in the open now. Whew, that feels better. Now…the question is what are we going to do about it? “Nothing” you say? “Because they eat people,” you add? Well, I’m not here to go into detail about how us humans are encroaching upon their marine territory, trying to claim their rightful habitat as our own. Nor will I mention the fact that we jump into the water flailing and wallowing around like seals, their natural prey. How dare they get confused by these willing intruders that have appeared in their rightful home resembling their dinner. In reality the “Jaws” hype of killer sharks is completely unwarranted, considering that being killed by a shark is far less likely than being struck by lightning or being killed by a pet dog in your neighborhood, with less than one person being killed by a shark per year, and most attacks being non-fatal exploratory bites. So do they really deserve this? :

I don’t think so, and neither does WildAid. That is why they began the “Say no to Shark Fin Soup” campaign to protect the sharks from who else but us, mankind. We’ve hunted these animals to near extinction, the great white shark being especially close to termination with less than 3500 great whites left in the wild. Studies suggest that tigers are more numerous than great whites at this time, due to the public stigma against these oh so “dangerous” creatures.

Some people are already on board with this campaign, Hawaii being the first state to put a legal ban on shark fin. This makes them the global leader of shark conservation.

Global - pertaining to the whole world; worldwide; universal

That’s right…the US’s fourth smallest state is the WORLDWIDE leader of the conservation of an animal that resides all over the planet. They’re ranked higher than countries all over the globe; a fact that they know all too well. “Globally shark catches are unregulated and unsustainable. The shark fin trade is completely unregulated worldwide. This is a first step in giving sharks a future,” says Stefanie Brendl of Shark Alliance. Sharks have been around for around 400 million years, and are their future is being threatened by a race to which they outdate by over 100 thousand years. A whole species is being destroyed, all for a tasteless piece of flesh.

WildAid is putting its best foot forward to abolish the shark fin trade. They are constantly fishing for international cooperation for this cause, looking to sign treaties and international agreements for shark protection. They’re putting forward money to assist marine reserves that are protecting specific species of sharks. They have elevated the international profile and highlighted the importance of globally conserving sharks as a whole since the year 2000. They have achieved finning legislation in the European union, international protection for two shark species, and a significant decrease in shark fin consumption in Asian Countries. They are currently focusing on Central and South America, that’s right in our backyard, which are major sources of shark finning. They are also continuing their primary attack against the consumer base of this vile industry to reduce demand for said product, but will it work?

With less than 3500 great whites left in the wild, and other species facing a 99% decline, it’s now or never. WildAid is doing all that they can, but they can not do it alone. The sharks are fighting for their lives and its time that we fight too. We must fight back before we lose a vital part of our surroundings. Sharks are key players in the marine ecosystem, and the destruction of their population can, and will eventually, end in complete and utter disaster.

What is WildAid up to?

I’m back again, this time to bring you all pertinent information about the WildAid offensive. WildAid has taken the responsibility of protecting hundreds of animal species, and their influence is now being felt around the globe. I am going to present to you all their two largest campaigns that also happen require the most aid, so that you all may decide if you should support their causes. I, personally, think that we should all put some effort into protecting the world around us. If you feel the same I will also inform you all how you can make a difference for WildAid, the animals, yourself, and everyone else that inhabit this planet that doesn’t understand just how important this all is. Shark and tiger species are both critically endangered and face extinction relatively soon, if this isn’t a call for action I don’t know what is. These animals deserve a chance at life, they deserve to be protected, and we can make that happen, but will we?

The sharks of oceans nationwide are facing extinction due to the illegal wildlife trade, great whites especially. Their numbers have dwindled greatly over the last decade. Great white sharks date back 407 million years and now their numbers have possibly dwindled below 90% of their population in the past, but truly accurate numbers are very difficult to come by, but it is speculated that less than four thousand remain on the planet. The main causes of sharks becoming endangered are unregulated trade, and excessive hunting, by humans of course. Due to the public reputation of sharks though, it’s hard to get sympathy from many people, due to the fact that they believe a shark is but a killing machine that lives to feed upon human flesh. For this campaign to work it is necessary for this stigma against sharks to disappear. Until it does, people won’t feel the sharks are “worth” saving, because we get to decide that kind of thing.

Tigers on the other hand are loved by people all around the world myself included. As I told you all they’re part of the reason I chose this non profit from the beginning. Maybe they’re loved too much (voted world’s favorite animal in a poll conducted by Animal Planet) if there is such a thing. Maybe they’re too pretty or something, I’m not sure, but whatever it is it is getting many of them killed. Tiger species are in a lot of danger, threatened to go extinct within 12 years according to WWF or the World Wildlife Fund if things are allowed to continue on the path that they currently follow, with tiger populations dropping by 95% in the past few decades. Tiger populations face nearly the same issues as sharks including unregulated and illicit trade, excessive hunting, and also a loss of habitat. All this information bothers me really, due to my affinity for this amazing animal, but if some people feel that it is better used for food or furniture by all means, who am I to complain? No one, but I’m going to complain anyway and hopefully build a legion of fellow complainers to help me out.

It baffles me how one of the world’s most hated animals and the world’s most loved animal share the same fate, but the sad fact is that they do, and we’re the cause. Other humans, people just like us, are gallivanting around the world deciding if an animal deserves to breathe another day based on how they can make money using what makes the animals unique. The things that make this planet beautiful are all being destroyed, simply to put cash in someone’s pocket. These species need our help, and as much of it that we are able, and willing to give. That’s the broad scope of things, and the worst part is there are other people, who are once again, just like us that fuel this horrible industry by spending money to buy these ill gotten goods. They eat them and use their skin to furnish their homes, not worried about the repercussions of destroying a whole species of animal one fin or skin at a time. So as WildAid says, “When the buying stops, the killing can too.”

The National Geographic PT. 2

Hello all I’m back again, and as I stated last week this blog will not be about WildAid. Sad, I know seeing as we were just starting to get somewhere; the ice had been broken and it was time for some real deal exploration and expounding. Speaking of expounding, this blog might be somewhat shorter than the rest for the simple fact that I believe that I may have expounded a little too much in my last blog about The National Geographic, or I don’t completely understand the assignment of which I am trying to complete. I believe it is the latter, but no matter, let’s begin.

The National Geographic is a great magazine, and I believe you all should check one out next time you’re at a Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, any store of the like if you’re into that sort of thing. It provides its readers with a great experience, but its audience is very specific. Now, that my endorsement is over, in my last blog I mentioned about what I thought the audience of this magazine might want. I think that I was pretty spot on, but I do believe that there’s a possibility that I may have missed a point or two; okay just one. Along with wanting to be taken on a journey with their reading experience, I failed to mention that the readers want to be educated. They want to learn about the things that they can’t walk around and see. A lot of the smaller articles are about things that most people would know very little about, and they are just used so introduce some interesting facts that you might want to research on your own time a little later. I believe that the smaller articles are something like teasers so you can pick and choose where you educate yourself, while the featured article include almost everything you would ever need to know about a subject while showing you pictures.

I have noticed that the paragraph lengths do not change very much between featured articles and non-featured articles, but the length of the article varies greatly (from one to two paragraphs to 26 whole pages). This goes to show that they expound to the same degree but over a much more narrow scope, so no matter rather you read a smaller article or a full length one you are being both interested, educated, and taken to a place to expand the horizons of your thoughts.

Into the Fray! Programs

Sadly I think I may have to end my “Into the Fray!” series a wee bit earlier than expected, and focus on some of these programs that I’ve been reading about. There is a very expansive amount of information residing in the “Programs” section of the website and I believe that it deserves more of my attention than I had, at first, planned to allot it. I will still try to explain some of the other sections to the best of my ability on such short notice (I’m trying to stay on somewhat of a timeline), but then I’m going to spend a lot of time simply discussing a few of the programs that WildAid is hosting, considering that that is the meat of the imperative information on the site. Also, I can inform you all, now, that I am required to upload a post about the magazine I am reading (The National Geographic) at some point next month, so there is a good chance that that will replace me post on WildAid next week. The WildAid post will continue promptly after that post has been taken care of, now on to the topic at hand. I will go ahead and list the other sections of the site and give you all a little information about them, and you can deliberate upon rather you believe you should pay more attention to them or not (my view is probably about to get a little more focused in the near future).

Beyond the “Program” section there resides the Awareness Campaigns, News & Events, Take Action, Store, Donate, and Contact areas of the site. Store, Donate, and Contact are pretty self explanatory; Spend your money, give your money, or request their time…it’s that simple. The Take Action area is actually pretty interesting/ useful but it doesn’t take very much time to explain. It lists opportunities for jobs, internships, tells you how exactly to help, has a recruit-a-friend area, tells you how to be more aware of illegal wildlife trade, and lists how to make yourself useful to cause(on second thought I may come back to this, it’s starting to look more promising). News & Events allows you to see what’s been going on in the WildAid community. Anything that WildAid has been reported in, wildlife updates, and there’s a newsletter archive but it hasn’t been updated recently (in the last two months). Interested in the recent events? This is where you go. Finally on to the programs…

The “Programs” basically lists every area, animal, and country that WildAid is currently involved with. Those are: China, India, The Galapagos, Indonesia, Canada, Sharks and Tigers, basically any place that they own an office plus their vested interest in sharks (almost everything on the main page is about shark fin soup). This area contains the most detailed information you could find. It has, under the umbrella of each program, definitions and descriptions of said program, campaigns for the program, and separate contact information for each program. This is the area that I would imagine pulls in the most followers. It lets you know what they’re doing. I honestly need to do more research, because the amount of links that lead from this one main page tab seems almost endless. On the amount of time I gave myself to research it all I was simply overwhelmed, but I will most definitely conquer this section. By the next time I blog about WildAid I will have a specific purpose with hard facts, and every reason in the world that you should support them. Seeing as I am overwhelmed by all the activity I can’t expect you all to be completely riled up to jump into the fray when you don’t understand exactly what the fray is, and are completely unaware of the size of the war. To make it easier we’ll just fight one battle at a time.

Into the Fray! About WildAid

Blogs are hard work. There’s research and all kind of things involved, but…someone has to do it, and I guess right now that person is me. I am bringing to you today the first of a four to five blog series titled “Into the Fray” that will be detailing the results of my descent into the vast array of knowledge that is contained on WildAid.org. I will give you a brief description of everything contained within its folds(all the important stuff anyway) and at some point I will make a decision upon which one I think matters most to me and badger you all about it incessantly until around December the 7^th.

Today I’ll start with the “About Us” section of the site. This is the tab filled with all of the pertinent information about the site. It leads to eight tabs, only six of which I think are major but if you really care about who the founders and team members are then by all means check them out. I believe the two most important of these tabs are “The Illegal Wildlife Trade” and “Endangered & Trafficked Species Guide”, but I’ll talk about those last. This is the place where you’ll find your history on this organization. If you wished to write a report, or contact someone this area would do you well. You can check up on the financial comings and goings in their “Annual Reports & Financials section” and check to see if they’ve done anything noteworthy in their “Achievements” section. This is also where you’ll find their complete mission statement. Now back to The Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Endangered & Trafficked Species Guide.

Illegal Wildlife Trade outlines exactly what Illegal trade is to the amount of money it makes, and explains how illegal trade affects both animals and humans. It states:

“Estimated at $6-20 billion a year by Interpol, the illegal wildlife trade has drastically reduced numerous wildlife populations and currently has some teetering on the brink of extinction. The impact on human communities looks to be equally drastic in the long-term, as local resources required for sustenance hunting and tourism activities are depleted at an unsustainable rate, and as animal viruses including Ebola, SARS and possibly HIV may jump to human carriers during the poaching and transporting of wildlife. Despite the gravity of these threats, many countries lack the resources to defend their parks and wildlife against rampant poaching, while poachers often have few options to earn a living legally. Illegal wildlife products are still openly traded in many places, with buyers often unaware of the law or of the devastation they are financing. We can change this in our lifetimes.”

This makes us all aware of the fact that supporting their cause to save the animals could quite possibly save human health and livelihood, and I believe this is another great reason to support this organization. Like providing water WildAid assists in sustaining legal trade revenue that will improve the quality of life of areas on the brink of poverty.

The Endangered &Trafficked Species guide is by far my favorite. It houses a full lists of endangered species, including what part of their being their hunted for, and their endangered status. Although this section is somewhat depressing it is a very useful tool for those who are actually worried about the well being of these animals, and it shows how dire the situation around the world is. I believe that this section should be the most visited part of “About US.” I believe it is worth taking a look at every couple of weeks to a month just to keep up to date on what illegal trade is doing to our world. This section alone should be able to spur some into action when they see what happens to these poor animals.

Follow Me

Hey all! I’m back once again to provide you with information to make the world a better place! No, but really, yes, the verdict is in, and WildAid has been chosen. Now that my decision is final I thought I’d come here to lay a little groundwork, upon which you can use to…as the title says…follow me. I’ll be talking about a lot of things and it won’t do me any good if no one can find anything I’m talking about to at least make sure I’m telling the truth. I will also take this time to actually tell you all, more specifically, what WildAid is, things like: When, What, How, Where, and Why it is. Yes…5 W’s and an H. So let’s begin, shall we?

According to WildAid they are, and I quote, “a non-profit 501(c )3 organization headquartered in San Francisco with representation in China, India, Galapagos, London and Canada” whose mission is to “reduce consumer demand for endangered wildlife products and to encourage responsible energy consumption behavior and end illegal wildlife trade within our lifetime.” To achieve this WildAid, “uniquely focuses on raising awareness to reduce the demand for threatened and endangered species products and to increase public support for wildlife conservation by conducting global public awareness campaigns, field conservation programs and enforcement of marine protected areas.” They are also “revolutionary in their funding - their overhead is funded by donations from foundations and direct donations from individuals so that all on-line donations can go 100% into programs.” The organization was founded by Peter Knights and Steve Trent.

WildAid has a very specific purpose. It was not created to save the planet or the wildlife one animal at a time with the use of willpower and hope, but to save the wildlife by strategically cutting out one of the main reasons that have caused the populations to dwindle. If the market for animal products is choked, then hopefully fewer animals will die because they are no longer being poached. I say this to let you all know that this organization is not simply shooting in the dark. It is a sound organization with a plan to put a huge damper on a very large issue, and that is what I will make you see through this blog. You all should be thanking me, because I just saved you from looking at a whole tab on their website, which is my next topic for the evening and the purpose for this blogs title.

The WildAid website is chocked full of information. Anything you would ever need to know about the organization, its programs, founders, team members, it’s all there. The only problem is…it’s somewhat difficult to navigate, but for the sake of following my blog…I need you to know what it is so if I refer to the website all you have to do is visit www.WildAid.org and you will be instantly plugged into the world of WildAid. The website works on a kind of tab system. They have “Top Stories” on the main page of the website, but beyond that you have to go on a search for any other information. It all begins at the top of the main page, which is where you’ll find the first eight tabs which will lead you to their own individual page that feature their own nice set of tabs, this time on the left! Some of these tabs will either lead you to their own page, or just switch while the others stay the same. I’ll go through these tabs one by one, probably in my next few blogs so that I can deliver to you all what I find to be the most pertinent information that I find on the site as I decide which facet of WildAid that I will decide to focus on. Due to it being such a large sight whose cause spans almost the entire globe, it would be best for me to consider strongly supporting one cause under the umbrella that is WildAid. Till next time!

The National Geographic

Once again, I am here to write about…things, surprising right? Well this week, although it is only my second post I’m going to be changing it up quite a bit. Along with my original assignment of choosing, supporting, and following a non-profit of my choosing, I also had another chance to flex my choice muscle to decide upon reading a magazine! My choices this time around were National Geographic, Details, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. This time ill cut to the chase and fill you in…I chose National Geographic. Why? I’m not actually sure, it seemed more AJ-like and I thought it’d go along quite well with my choice to follow the WildAid non-profit, which in hind-site…was completely true, but I’ll touch on that in another post. The point of today’s post is actually to discuss the qualities of this magazine ranging from its audience, why it has the specific audience it does, what they expect and how the magazine delivers. After reading my first copy of the National Geographic, and attempting to read my second (my second copied has disappeared into the darkness and will be found or *shudder* repurchased at a later date) I think I have somewhat of an idea.

Before I dive deep into the critical parts of this conversation I’d like to point out how immensely useless I found the first 15 or so pages of this magazine… While I say useless I do, in fact, believe that this completely “unnecessary” first half of the magazine is imperative if the magazine is to deliver the desired experience to its target audience. The beginning of the magazine is filled with a myriad of advertisements, disembodied pictures and blocks of text so small I wouldn’t bother to call them “Articles.” Their more like matter of fact tidbits of information, trivial in nature, something like a “The-More-You-Know” type deal. They would be great for starting a conversation that begins with, “Hey have you heard about [insert random topic here],” but they do absolutely nothing to contribute to the larger scope of the magazine. The article right between the “we thought you might find these interesting” articles and the true meat of the magazine is actually called, simply, “The Big Idea”, letting the readers know that they’re about to be ushered from the completely mundane into a much bigger, more vibrant experience.

Moving on to how I believe this helps the magazine perform its key purpose…first, I should tell you what I believe its purpose is. It is…drum roll please…to take its readers on a journey. To take them to places they haven’t seen, and to go in depth about places that people have been. They go to places the general populace can’t reach, and write about it! I believe that in order to accomplish this, they get all the advertising out of the way at the very beginning and insert a block of text to simply remind the audience that they are still reading a National Geographic and that the real material is close at hand. Beyond “The Big Idea” there lies a wonderful world unseen. The articles beyond that point have no advertisements in between and feature a myriad of amazingly vibrant pictures and illustrations that take up a corner to two whole pages of space, showing you the majesty of everything the reporters experienced during the exploration involved in writing their 5 – 10 page long article. That’s right! Almost every article in the last half of the magazine is more than 5 pages long and goes into extraordinary detail of any topics, of a national scope, that one could think of. From diving into the depths of a humanly intolerant underwater cave, to rhinos, elephants, and tigers, The National Geographic has it all and more!

That is what the reader of this magazine expects and how their expectations are fulfilled, but who is their audience? Anyone and everyone who has an interest in the world, as in, people who see the whole picture or simply wish that they could, that’s who. This audience includes people who travel, people who want to travel, and those who just like to keep track of global issues in general. Reading notes to the editor about a special edition of the magazine showed me the variety of people who frequently purchase the magazine. Some people spoke about the places they mentioned as if they had just left, some wishing better fortune upon those mentioned but never encountered, but they were all worried about the issue at hand and I don’t believe the magazine has to do much to reel these readers in.

I think the appeal is all in the title. The title is straightforward. It isn’t clever or sassy, and almost sounds more like an encyclopedia than a magazine, but when the words “National Geographic” are combined with a beautiful picture of an awe inspiring underwater cave, or the face of a sarcophagus the intellectual travelers, and those interested are sent into a craze. They simply must get a glimpse of what’s going on thousands of miles away, and what new inventions are being created to make the world a better place…what happened to a native or deceased tribe of a tropical island filled with as much danger as it is beauty, and all this from the safety of their own home. That is the appeal of a National Geographic and I think it’s gotten me hooked too.