THE SHARK HERO JOURNEY CONTINUES
Kuala Lumpur, 27 Jul. 2018 – WWF-Malaysia and partner Shark Savers Malaysia (SSMY) announced the continuation of their shark work by public engagement through various activities between July 2017 and July 2018.
The Be A Shark Hero (BASH) project is a sequel of the My Fin My Life (MFML) campaign in 2016, where WWF-Malaysia entrusted this new project to SSMY to take the lead in carrying out all activities.
This project will continue its advocacy in shark conservation through an education and empowerment action plan. In 2016, the MFML campaign garnered nationwide attention on the issue of shark finning and shark fin soup consumption. Hence, it is important for this advocacy to continue in order to phase out the consumption of shark fin products in Malaysia.
The project objectives are to:
- Engage Malaysians by taking action on shark finning and consumption through social media and public events.
- Promote volunteerism and empower people in protecting wildlife and nature conservation.
- Persuade businesses to remove shark fins from their corporate dining menus, particularly shark fin caterers.
Targeting grassroots, policy and businesses
Sustainable Seafood Manager of WWF-Malaysia, Chitra Devi said, “SSMY will champion the fight for sharks through grassroots programmes whereas WWF-Malaysia will continue through policy advocacy and business engagement.
“Both these approaches will help accelerate the objectives in reducing the consumption and establish better management plans for our sharks.”
She added that WWF-Malaysia recognises SSMY for their collaborative effort on the My Fin My Life campaign last year.
“WWF-Malaysia believes that shark conservation is a long-term initiative and we need to continue our efforts and work with partners for a period of time before we could reverse the situation and see significant results. Hence, WWF-Malaysia is happy to join forces with SSMY to reverse the present scenario of high shark fin consumption in Malaysia,” she added.
Said CEO of SSMY, Abner Yap, “To spread awareness about saving sharks effectively, we have to inspire others to make changes and make the awareness go viral. We need to engage conspicuously with conservation, be vocal and proud to be a shark hero and make others want to follow suit.
“SSMY has and continues to work in hand with corporates from various industries to empower them to achieve a larger shift in mindsets towards this environmental goal.”
Collaborations
The BASH campaign begins with a series of initiatives.
Launching in July, a partnership collaboration with Linkodes was established. A digital business card mobile application vendor, Linknodes has a vision to go green through public environmental awareness and education. Linkodes has more than 30,000 users across 26 countries and has dedicated their mobile application landing page with a shout-out for this campaign.
They have also come up with ‘I’m a Shark Hero’ namecard templates for every user to freely pledge and share in their social networks. With the assistance of this intelligent automation platform, SSMY is able to reduce data entry time that volunteers normally need months to complete and cut out manual data entry errors, therefore obtaining 100% accurate information of pledgers.
Another BASH collaborator is ZooBabies, a premium personalised online t-shirt printing company. ZooBabies has collaborated with animal support charities as well as autistic kid centres in the past. For their newly-launched campaign t-shirt page, SSMY is proud to be selected as their first campaign beneficiary.
Custom-made SSMY t-shirts will be released for sale on the ZooBabies website to support SSMY’s continued effort in raising awareness to save sharks. Zoobabies’ t-shirt concept idea for SSMY is to let the outfit do the talking, with the slogan “I’m a Shark Hero”.
Individual names and text are added onto the t-shirts to spread thoughts and messages. All ZooBabies t-shirt are locally made in 100% cotton to ensure all day breathability and comfort.
"We are also Malaysia’s sole distributor of the ever-popular ‘Wild Republic’ range of animal soft toys, which are renowned for their non-toxic and high-standard toys,” said Elaine Tan, founding partner of Zoobabies.
“Our aim is to raise awareness about threats posed to the future of many animal species. To create awareness about nature among the future generations – kids – has always been my passion. When you care about something through and through, it becomes your responsibility to protect it, so we are here to let your outfit to do the talking. Spread the love around!''
Shark Run and weddings
An outdoor activity in collaboration with Acexelent Sdn Bhd will be the BASH Run slated for 11 November 2017, at Sun Suria City Sepang. Families and kids are welcomed to take part in this 4km conservation run. Objectives for this run are to raise awareness about sharks and educate the public about shark conservation. There will also be a carnival, a small fun fair and instant photo booth.
SSMY is also actively seeking wedding event planners and bridal houses to collaborate meaningfully in raising awareness about sharks by educating clients to go for non-shark fin consumption at their weddings. For this initiative, Berjaya Hotels and Resorts has pledged stay rewards to winning wedding couples in conjunction with Wedding Without Fins Contest. In addition, they will render support to SSMY awareness campaigns in their annual Berjaya Tioman reef clean up exercise in October.
Meanwhile, SSMY is privileged to have Pocotee and Friends assisting SSMY campaigns through their CSR programme. Pocotee Loh is Malaysia’s most famous caricature artist with millions of user downloads of her renowned WeChat stickers. Her wonderful and creative artwork has lent much meaning to the cause of shark preservation in this country and beyond.
SSMY is also honoured to have iM4U as the official volunteer platform partner. As the leading youth volunteerism platform in Malaysia, the organisation encourages youth volunteers to participate in SSMY campaigns to drive further awareness and interests in volunteerism and conservation.
Shark Savers Malaysia is a non-profit membership-based organisation dedicated to saving sharks through building awareness, education, and grassroots action. For more information please email hello@sharksavers.org.my or visit @SharkSaversMalaysia on Facebook.