We’ve got all the tools to stop shark finning, according to Fin Free founder Rob Stewart, now all we have to do is get it done.

We know the task and we have a network of millions of people who believe in a worldwide ban, now it’s time to hit the ground running. And with a decimated shark population as a result of grotesquely wasteful shark fin soup, we’d better get to work.

“100 Million sharks are killed each year, mostly to fuel the demand for shark fin soup, decimating shark populations by 90%”, says Rob Stewart – Fin Free founder and director of the multiple award-winning 2006  feature documentary “Sharkwater.”

Fin Free is an open source conservation movement that educates and empowers the public on the horrifically destructive practice of shark finning. More than 70 Fin Free chapters have already emerged worldwide and many businesses are also united for a ban.

Sharks were the first vertebrae on earth with jaws, 150 million years before the dinosaurs and in only a few years their population has plummeted  to dangerous levels.

Not only is shark finning inhumane and destructive, the world needs sharks to survive. They control the populations of all the marine species below them on the food chain and without them, fish populations would explode so much so that they could no longer support themselves in their environment. This would throw the entire framework of the world’s most important ecosystem out of balance–an ecosystem that we depend on for our very survival. Phytoplankton in the ocean accounts for the majority of the oxygen we breathe. It’s no small deal.

Start a Fin Free chapter in your area and let’s get a worldwide ban in place before it’s too late.

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The environmental organization OCEARCH is bringing attention to ocean conservation and saving sharks globally. In fact, there’s an app for that.

OCEARCH has developed a global shark tracker–an app and website that uses GPS to show shark movements worldwide. Researchers from OCEARCH have pulled great whites, tiger sharks, and other large species out of the water and attached GPS tags.

Every time the sharks surface they ping to satellites, which updates their location. Currently, about 100 species are known by name–like Oprah, a young great white found off the shore of South Africa and Katherine, a 14-foot long great white that weighs over a ton and has been patrolling the Straights of Florida. She was first tagged in Cape Cod last August. The app is shining a light on ocean conservation and saving sharks.

OCEARCH partners with world class fishermen and researchers to catch sharks, test them, tag them with GPS, and then release them back into the wild unharmed.

Great whites are “the lions of the ocean,” said founding chairman and expedition leader Chris Fischer, who founded the research institute in 2007, reported in the Tampa Bay Times. “They keep the balance in the oceans. Without them, there would be no fish.”

The ocean conservation organization has completed 19 expeditions, tagging 150 sharks, 50 of which are still pinging. They hope the interactive nature of the app will get people interested in what’s going in our world’s oceans, especially the plight of sharks.

“We need another global ocean movement,” he said. “It’s getting hammered.”

If you go to the website, you can get a global picture of where sharks are and even follow them on Twitter. Katherine currently has 7,500 followers.

“It’s all about the power of inclusion,” said Fischer, who grew up in Kentucky and loved fishing and the outdoors, reported in the Tampa Bay Times. “We’re transitioning a research program into a global ocean movement.”

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In an attempt to prevent shark attacks, the Australian government has proposed a plan that can only be described as horrific.

Shark attacks are scary. Despite what “Jaws” taught us, however, they’re also extremely rare. Global statistics show that wasps, toasters, chairs, domestic dogs and even falling coconuts kill far more people every year than sharks. But that didn’t stop Western Australia’s government from buying into the hysteria by proposing a plan that is both barbaric and ecologically devastating.

There have been six fatal shark attacks in Australian waters over the past two years. In response, officials in Western Australia have proposed a highly controversial “shark management” plan that calls for the slaughter of any shark longer than 3 meters (9.8 feet) found swimming anywhere near popular beaches. According to the Guardian, sharks unlucky enough to get hooked on baited drum lines will be ‘humanely destroyed’ with a firearm. Them the shark corpses will be then tagged and taken further out to sea and dumped.

For just a moment, let’s set aside the glaring fact that sharks have called the ocean home for over 400 million years, and that Australians are encroaching on their habitat, and not the other way around. Instead, let’s focus on huge impact this plan will have on the ocean ecosystem, and the very slim chance it will actually reduce attacks.

“As predators, [sharks] shift their prey’s spatial habitat, which alters the feeding strategy and diets of other species,” explains Oceana. “Through the spatial controls and abundance, sharks indirectly maintain the seagrass  and corals reef habitats. The loss of sharks has led to the decline in coral reefs, seagrass beds and the loss of commercial fisheries.”

Around the global, growing awareness about the sharp decline of shark populations has led to a surge in conservation efforts. Shark finning, spurred by the demand for shark fin soup, has been banned in several significant regions, and there’s been a successful push to establish shark sanctuaries.

“While the rest of the world is turning to shark conservation, our government is sticking his head in the sand, ignoring all the experts and employing an archaic strategy,” Ross Weir, founder of Western Australians for Shark Conservation, told TIME magazine. “What they are doing is illegal and violates 15 different United Nations conventions and treaties.”

There’s also nothing to suggest that killing sharks will actually stop shark attacks. “…what will the killing of this one shark achieve? There is absolutely no evidence to support the “rogue shark” theory, sharks are no more or less likely to bite a human if they have bitten before. It will not act as a deterrent for other sharks,” blogged Dr. Rachel Robbins, chief scientist of the Fox Shark Research Foundation.

“The way to reduce attacks is not to kill anything that poses a threat to us. It is to educate people on how to minimize their risk, the times of day and conditions under which attacks are most likely to occur, put warnings at beaches that these areas are known to be frequented by white sharks.”

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