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KOTA KINABALU: Tourism, Culture and Environment
Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun has called on Sabahans to support and
protect the population of sharks that are heading towards extinction to
ensure the tourism industry would not be affected badly.
He said
the tourism industry, particularly diving activity, is depending on the
sharks as most of the divers want to see them in the natural habitat.
Therefore, there is a need to protect the sharks population, which is now only 20 per cent remaining in the Sabah waters.
He
said diving activity is contributing to the growth of tourism in Sabah.
Last year, it contributed a turnover of RM237 million to the tourism
industry.
“Just imagine if the sharks’ population is heading
towards extinction, divers will move to other countries and it will
affect the tourism industry,” he said after launching the Imperial
Gourmet Soup Challenge-2012 Sabah Protect Sharks, organized by JCI
Tanjung Aru at Suria Sabah Shopping Complex here yesterday.
Masidi
said the only industry that is totally owned by Sabahans is tourism as
almost 90 per cent of the tourism operators and staff are Sabahans.
“If
we look at the other industries such as plantation, 80 per cent of the
workers are Indonesians and 70 per cent of the construction workers also
foreigners.
“If the tourism industry is affected because of the
sharks extinction, the first persons affected are local people.
Therefore, I would like to urge the people of Sabah to protect and take
care of welfare of the workers in Sabah by protecting sharks.
“It
is wrong for us probably to protect the sharks so that the future of
Sabahans can be protected and they can make money from the industry.
“It is more on whether we love shark fins more or we love Sabahans less,” he pointed out.
Masidi
stressed that without sharks, he assured the diving industry will just
collapse because the Indonesians and Southern Filipinos are coming up
with it. It is a matter of time before they catch up with us in Sabah.
Commenting
on the enforcement of the Fisheries Act to protect sharks, he said it
had not been done yet as they had proposed to the related federal
ministry to carry out amendment to the Act.
“We would ask for
amendment to protect all types of sharks in Sabah. Even now, there is
existing protection on certain type of sharks. But we want all the
sharks to be protected in Sabah to ensure we can the save the population
of sharks.”
On the Imperial Gourmet Soup Challenge to find an
alternative to sharp fin soup, Masidi said it was carried out by JCI
Tanjung Aru to encourage people to have an option in soup other than
shark fin soup.
“Shark fin is considered a very prestigious soup
and normally served during wedding ceremony. What they are trying to
show today is that there is other alternative prestigious soup and the
reason why they have this challenge is to prove to the people that there
are other soups to impress the guests.
“The challenge is to
educate the people not to eat shark fin soup as the sharks are heading
towards extinction,” said the minister.
6 comments:
The sharks are heading towards extinction. We must avoid this situation from getting worse by boycotting shark fin soup.
State Govt protect shark is good effort. Over 100 million sharks are killed annually. Partly because of their fins for shark fish fin soup, as bycatch in up to 40 miles long driftnets of enormous fishing fleets, for medically completely ineffective cartilage powder or by the destruction of their habitats.
You will find shark products often at unexpected places as in restaurants, snack bars or supermarkets. Shark meat is offered also under various other names as Smoked Rock Salmon, Smoked Dogfish, a component of Fish & Chips or Imitation Crab Meat (Surimi). Also the worldwide protected and extremely threatened whale shark is on the Asian market (mainly Taiwan and Japan) still offered as Tofu Shark.
Yeah, the Sabah state government is currently trying to ban Shark Fin soup and shark products to protect the species. Many local resorts and hotels are also in support of this movement and I believe with the cooperation of all walks of life, we can put a stop to Shark Hunting.
Thanks for the information, over 100 million sharks are killed every year, can you imagine what a large number of sharks is sacrificed so that humans can have shark fin soup? This is a very sad thing, shark hunting not only contributed to the extinction of sharks but also cause ecosystem imbalance.
I hope more people will be made aware of sharks are getting extinct due to consuming of their meat. The State government has now banned shark hunting and urged all restaurants, hotels and resorts to stop serving shark products. Many of the local resorts and hotels are in support of this movement. I hope we can be the first state in Asia to put an end to Shark Hunting and inspire more countries to do the same. Thanks for your support for this blog.
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