SharkLife: Save the whale shark campaign

This is an interesting article by SharkLife on Whale Sharks and conserving these beautiful creatures. This follows soon after they published an article about the killing of a whale shark in Zanzibar recently.

SharkLife: I was distressed to read the article on the slaughtered whale shark in Zanzibar but I want to share our success story in Gujarat with you and if you are kind enough to place on your website, with many more conservationists.

Scenes such as decribed by Greg Puchert were very frequently seen on the coast of the western Indian state of Gujarat till two years ago. After the whale shark was protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in India, our organisation Wildlife Trust of India began a campaign to save the whale shark and place it as the Pride of Gujarat.

We got a life-sized inflatable made, (40 ft) and scripted a stret play that made the rounds of towns, fishing villages and cities. More here: http://www.wildlifetrustofindia.org/html/news/2004/040430_inflatable.htm

We got a popular religious leader to carry the conservation message on saving this fish in his religious discourses. Ffive cities adopted the whale shark as the city mascot. A popular school campaign is currently under way, read about it here: http://www.wildlifetrustofindia.org/html/news/2005/050729_vhali_gujarat.htm

And finally, after watching the street play and campaign, fishermen actually released a whale shark by cutting their nets! http://www.wildlifetrustofindia.org/html/news/2004/041006_whale_shark.htm

The campaign has now reached the international whale shark conference in Australia, where we showed a short film on the campaign and it has caught the attention of whale shark conservationists worldwide. If you need any more news on our efforts, I will be happy to share, with photographs.

The Coast Guard has not reported any killing of whale sharks in Gujarat in the last two years, since we launched the awareness campaign, Thanks and regards,

Rupa Gandhi Chaudhary, Coordinator Communications and Campaigns Wildlife Trust of India

A-220 New Friends Colony New Delhi-110065

Tel: +91 11 26326025, 26 Fax: 26326027

Source: www.sharklife.co.za