COARE: news | archives | newsletter: May 2011

Celebrate and Protect Our Ocean . . .
Friday, 03 June 2011

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Contents:
  - World Oceans Day
  - Shark fin bans
  - Blue Vision Summit
  - Internships
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Hello, fellow ocean lovers!

World Oceans Day is nearly upon us again.  You might
recall that two years ago was the first World Oceans 
Day officially recognized by the United Nations, but 
people have been celebrating World Ocean Day around the
world informally for almost two decades.  . . . And as
many of you already know, we started celebrating it 
here in the San Francisco Bay Area four years ago.

Our fifth year of events has us celebrating in San
Francisco as well as in Monterey.

Join us at a shark and ocean celebration hosted by our
friend David McGuire and Sea Stewards on Saturday, 
11 June 2010, from 3:00-8:00pm at the Sports Basement 
in the Presidio (across from Crissy Field) in San
Francisco.  

If you're closer to Central California, come join us at
the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we'll be celebrating
all weekend.  COARE will have a display at the Aquarium,
so be sure to stop by and say hello.  The celebration
will take place on Saturday and Sunday, 04-05 June 2011,
and runs from 9:30am to 6:00pm both days.  For more 
information about the Aquarium or this event, visit
    http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/vi/vi_events/vi_events_worldoceans.aspx

If you live elsewhere, you may be able to find WOD
events almost anywhere in the world by visiting
    http://worldoceansday.org/?page_id=122

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  - Shark fin bans
 ---

Last month we spoke of rain and blooming policies, and
we are, indeed, seeing some wonderful results.

On 06 May, we participated in a press event in San
Francisco with Assemblymember Paul Fong (author of
California's proposed shark fin ban), the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, WildAid, APAOHA (Asian Pacific American Ocean
Harmony Alliance), Actress Sharon Kwok, Phil Ting, 
David Chiu, and other prominent Chinese-Americans, to
highlight Asian-American support for AB376, and to
unveil new survey results that show strong support,
especially among Chinese-Americans for a statewide ban
of shark fins. 

On 09 May, we took another trip to Sacramento and
collaborated with a number of other organizations to
meet with every Assemblymember's office to discuss
California's proposed ban of shark fins.  We were
personally involved in 15 of those meetings, and it 
was a wonderfully successful and rewarding day.

On 19 May, Assemblymember Fong took on an amendment to
AB376, thus allowing restaurants and suppliers an
additional year to deplete their existing stocks of
shark fins.  This amendment is similar in wording to
the phase-out period allowed by the ban in Hawai'i.  The
hope was that this additional allowance would alleviate
any concerns about costs to small businesses.

Mr. Fong took up the bill for a vote on the Assembly
floor on 23 May, and we're thrilled to report that it
passed the Assembly with a final vote of 65-8.  The bill
now moves to the California Senate for consideration.
This may be a tougher battle, since the opposition is
based in the Senate, so please keep an eye out for our
calls to action.  You also encourage you to visit (and 
share!) the following URL:
    http://www.coare.org/act/ab376/

May was a great month for shark conservation, and on 
12 May, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed Senate
Bill (SB) 5688 into law, making Washington the first 
State in the continental U.S. to ban shark fins.

Oregon's House Bill (HB) 2838 continued its triumphant 
journey, and received another unanimous vote, this time 
in the State Senate (30-0).  The bill was amended
slightly in the Senate, which required the House of
Representatives to concur, but we're pleased to report
that they overwhelmingly supported the amendments (58-1), 
and the bill now moves to the Governor's desk for
action.  We expect that he'll sign that into law in the
next two or three weeks.

It's not just the West Coast of the United States, or
even just the U.S. that is excited about shark fin bans...
The City of Brantford in Ontario, Canada, became the
first municipality in Canada to ban the sale, trade, and
consumption of shark fin.  We spoke with the author of
the initiative, Councilmember David Neumann, before he
introduced this to the working committee, and offered
our support.  He subsequently gained acceptance from the 
committee on 16 May, and the City Council unanimously
agreed to consider such an ordinance.  The legislative
staff had already prepared the ByLaw text, so that was
adopted as well.  Effective immediately, ByLaw 65-2011
now prohibits the sale, trade, distribution, and
consumption of shark fins in the City of Brantford.  We
commend Mr. Neumann and the City of Brantford on their
leadership.

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  - Blue Vision Summit
 ---

This was an exciting month for us in the U.S. Capitol
city of Washington DC as well.  We attended the third
Blue Vision Summit, where we met and collaborated with 
more than 400 ocean leaders and activists including 
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Admiral
Thad Allen, and our friends Sylvia Earle, Carl Safina, 
Celine Cousteau, Barton Seaver, Louie Psihoyos, and 
Jim Toomey.  

In addition to the myriad of workshops and networking
opportunities, we also celebrated the 4th annual Peter 
Benchley Ocean Awards, among whose esteemed recipients 
this year was Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla.

The four day event culminated with a trip to the
Capitol, where more than half of the Summit's
participants participated in the largest Ocean related
lobby day ever.  COARE participated in a number of
informational and strategic meetings on the Hill, where
we stressed the importance of the implementation of the
National Ocean Policy and the support of the National
Endowment for the Oceans and the Ocean Trust Fund.

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  - Internships
 ---

We love what we do, and we think you should too.  If
you, or anyone you know, would like to be more directly
involved in our work, we'd like to let you know about a
few new volunteer opportunities starting this summer.
Specifically, we're hiring for a Communications Intern
and a few Program Interns.  

For more details, and for application instructions,
please visit:
    http://www.coare.org/jobs


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Wishing you healthy oceans, 
 - Your friends at COARE

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