ScubaGlobe Asia Pacific - MORE MERCURY FOUND IN THAI SHARK FIN MARKETS

August 25 2008 HawaiiArchaeologists have located British whaler sunk by bad weather in 1837 off Kure Atoll Artefacts from the remains of a wreck believed to be of the British whaling vessel Gledstanes lost for 171 years have been found off Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The artefacts include four large anchors, cannons and cannonballs. The Gledstanes is the fourth whaling vessel found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, evidence of the area's significance as a 19th-century whaling area. The divers who found the shipwreck were taking part in the 2008 Maritime Heritage Expedition, sponsored by NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries. Full story...

November 26 2008 AustraliaDivers support breast cancer dayWhen one of the members of Pro Dive Nelson Bay’s Narki Gnome Dive Club was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, the group wanted to support her and raise awareness for the Breast Cancer Network of Australia (BCNA). Diving was what brought them together, so they held an event with their own underwater twist. For the past eight years Mini-Fields of Women have been held in communities across Australia during October as part of Australia's breast cancer month, an initiative from The Breast Cancer Network of Australia (BCNA). The Mini-Fields of Women campaign places hundreds of hot pink lady silhouettes in prominent positions throughout Australia to represent women affected by breast cancer. Full story...

August 10 2008 UK Bogus bends nets Divers £250,000 A pair of divers swindled £250,000 (US$500,000) from the National Health Service for treating bogus cases of the bends. David Welsh, 49, and diving instructor Michael Brass, 43, are facing prison sentences after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the NHS and perverting the course of justice. Welsh ran the Fort Bovisand diving centre, which had its own recompression chamber. They paid strangers they met in pubs up to £200 to pose as divers who needed recompression treatment, they only needed only the real names, addresses, dates of birth and national insurance numbers of the supposed victims to work the fraud. Most had never been underwater and some could barely swim. Welsh billed National Health Trusts from all over the UK £6,500 a time for treating the 37 fake victims. The fraud was discovered when police investigated two cases of divers from Liverpool who were supposedly treated for the bends at the recompression chamber. Full story...

MORE MERCURY FOUND IN THAI SHARK FIN MARKETS

WILDAID TO PRESENT NEW EVIDENCE IN COURT

" We did not lie to the public when we said that sharks are in trouble, and that the people eating them may be too," stated WildAid President Kraisak Choonhavan.

" We are not singling out shark fin merchants in Thailand," added WildAid Director Steven Galster.

" Thailand is part of a global trade. Many of the fins on the Thai market come from Hong Kong, the main distribution point for shark fin sales internationally. Fins sold out of Hong Kong come from sharks fished all over the world. So the consumer of shark fin soup -whether they are in Bangkok or San Francisco-is part of a global threat to sharks. And that same consumer may be risking his or her own health by ingesting an unpublished ingredient, Galster said."

A leading Thai laboratory, in conjunction with the conservation group WildAid, recently released a report confirming that many shark fins on the Thai market may be contaminated with high levels of the heavy metal mercury.

Chula Unisearch, a testing laboratory of Chulalongkorn University, randomly tested 45 shark fins in Bangkok and subjected them to rigorous chemical analysis and concluded that 1/3 of them contained levels of mercury higher than allowed for human consumption by the FDA.

These results follow another test commissioned by WildAid last year, which concluded that 7 out of 10 fins sampled had very high levels of mercury. Those first results were released by WildAid in July 2001 as part of a public awareness campaign to conserve sharks. WildAid had also released a report and film showing that many shark populations in Thailand and around the world were in rapid decline due to increased sales of shark fin soup, and that fishermen were often resorting to finning the animals alive to supply the burgeoning international shark fin trade.
WildAid's campaign led to a drop in shark fin soup sales in Thailand, prompting several shark merchants here to sue the organization for damages of $2.5 million. The merchants also told the Thai press and courts that they would withdraw their lawsuit if WildAid apologized to the public for lying and stopped its campaign.

Today WildAid also released an update report in Thai and English about the shark fin trade internationally. The group is concerned that in Thailand shark populations will never recover if the Thai government does not develop a shark management plan, as it has been requested to do by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Furthermore, WildAid is concerned that whale sharks that migrate through Thai waters, and play a signicant role in the diving and tourist industry, may be declining due to a trade in its meat and fins. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean.

WildAid President Kraisak Choonhavan will also announce the new formation of WildAid Foundation-Thailand, as well as its plans for the future. Senator Kraisak is being joined on the WildAid Board by Prince Chatrichalerm (see next issue of Thai Diver).