Soneva supports shark fin campaign
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Luxury resort operator Soneva has pledged its support to ‘FINished with Fins’ – the largest global campaign solely dedicated to shark conservation.
As well as banning all shark fin dishes at its resorts, Soneva has offered its Maldivian property, Soneva Fushi, as the regional headquarters of the shark conservation campaign, to lobby against illegal shark fishing in the area and help recruit other corporations to the cause.
“Back in 2000, our waters were teeming with sharks, however as the years have gone by the shark population has depleted significantly. This led to the Maldivian government commendably introducing a ban on shark fishing in all its waters in 2010,” said Soneva’s founder, Sonu Shivdasani.
“The ban was a great step forward for shark conservation however it only prevented fishermen from hunting sharks in up to 12 nautical miles (22km) off the atoll coasts. This has led to poachers shark fishing and trading outside of the perimeter. We would like to see the perimeter extended further to make it a lot more difficult for shark fishing and trading to take place and try and put a stop to it once and for all.”
Together with Sonu and Eva Shivdasani, Soneva Fushi’s in-house marine biologist, Frederica Siena, and diving expert, Ken Kiriyama, will help to end shark poaching in Maldivian waters.
Jonn Lu from FINished with Fins said he was “delighted to sign up Sonu and Eva Shivdasani” as ambassadors for the campaign.
“We not only look to work with celebrities but opinion leaders that can help us reverse the shark fin consumption trend in Asia and the rest of the world. By securing ambassadors, such as Sonu and Eva we can garner support from the luxury travel and tourism industry to help us turn people’s view on wanting to consume shark fin soup and help protect an animal that is so intrinsic to our way of life,” said Lu.
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