[1]A hammerhead shark swimming gracefully underwater in a clear blue ocean
with a few small fish nearby and a fishing hook stuck in its left mouth
corner

Sharks are dying for online fame as hobby fishers illegally catch and
abuse these ancient animals just to share on social media.

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok must act.

Let's tell them: Stop social media shark abuse!


[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 

   
John,

Our world’s oceans are full of mystical life and home to the most iconic
and ancient inhabitants of our planet.

But today, this world is under siege from social media: shark poaching for
clicks and likes.

Sharks are hooked purposefully, dragged onto boats, piers or beaches,
gasping for life, as their fates are sealed for the sake of a shocking
video to share online. After the ordeal, they are thrown back into the
waters with hooks in their mouth, left to die a slow and painful death.

Social media corporations can be pushed to act -- and right now might be
our best chance. Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) has just
announced Mark Zuckerberg's new No.2 for all-things-policy. The changing
of the guard is a perfect moment to call on them and all social media
platforms to stop social media shark abuse. Will you sign and share? 

[ [link removed] ]Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok: Don’t give platform to shark
abuse – ban illegal shark poachers and posts!

The sharks we see on social media are not an accidental catch – their
capture is a planned act requiring calculated effort and costly tools.
Illegal shark catchers use specific bait like stingrays, paired with
expensive equipment such as massive reels, high-tech drones, and
specialised “fighting plates” designed for hauling these apex predators
from the depths. 

Now, shark poaching has become an epidemic on social media, with some of
the most popular fishing pages openly violating legal protections for
prohibited species. These individuals exploit endangered sharks for viral
content, delaying mandatory releases by hoisting the animals’ gills—or
their entire bodies—out of the water for dramatic videos, all while the
sharks gasp desperately for oxygen.

The stress caused during these events can be deadly for the sharks. For
some species, like the critically endangered hammerhead shark, the toll is
catastrophic, as almost half of them die within hours of being caught and
released. Alarmingly, these vulnerable species are among the most prized
targets for hobby shark hunters on social media. Scientists have
documented a fast disappearance of great hammerheads along the
southeastern U.S. coast, a region now plagued by these reckless practices.

It’s time for social media platforms to put an end to the senseless shark
killings by regulating their content and policies. And together, we can
enforce it. Are you in?

[ [link removed] ]Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok: Don’t give platform to shark
abuse – ban illegal shark poachers and posts!

These majestic caretakers of the seas are already under immense threat
from overfishing, habitat destruction, and climate change. Let's do what
we can to save them from social media.



[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 



Thanks for all that you do,
Ildem, Eoin and the team at Ekō


More information:

[ [link removed] ]Capture stress and post-release mortality of blacktip sharks in
recreational charter fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico, Conservation
Physiology, 01. January 2020.
[ [link removed] ]Anglers' online boasts reveal illegal shark hunting, Nature, 18. August
2017.
[ [link removed] ]Recreational Shark Fishing, American Shark Conservancy, 01. January
2024.

 

 

Ekō is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

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