Swimming Fast - For the SHARKS!

The above photos are from the 2009 Sarasota Shark Tournament in Florida. Great Hammerhead, Bull, and Lemon sharks were all caught for sport and prize money. (Great Hammerheads are listed as an Endangered Species on the IUCN Red List.) In November 2011 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) agreed to prohibit the harvest of three species of Hammerhead shark and Tiger sharks in Florida waters. FINS UP to all who worked hard toward making this law happen!	"Finning millions of sharks for a nutritionless, poisonous, overpriced soup is likely the pinnacle of waste, ignorance, and absolute environmental destruction in how we blindly abuse and mass commodify animals as a food source." ~Todd Cameron When I was a kid I used to spend hours and hours in the pool pretending I was a shark. Not much has changed.... Sharks have been a passion of mine since before I can remember. The JAWS films arrived at an impressionable age for me, fueling the fire, and one of the most amazing experiences I had was an opportunity to dive with sharks on my birthday in the Bahamas. I was hooked! Unfortunately we are learning that it is the sharks that are now hooked; these animals are hunted in numbers upwards of 100 million a year for their fins which are sold on the Asian markets for big bucks. A bowl of prized shark fin soup (cartilaginous shark fin offers zero nutrition and has no flavour) can sell in excess of $100. Due to this great demand and profits reaching in excess of US $1.2 billion a year, sharks are caught by the hundreds on long-lines (lines up to 150km long with thousands of baited hooks) hauled aboard and after their fins are sliced off and while still alive they are tossed back into the ocean to drown and bleed to death. This can take days... In one year enough long-lines are set out in our oceans to circle the planet 550 times. Essentially one of the oldest, most beautiful and most important species in our largest ecosystem is brutally tortured, maimed, and killed for profit. This barbaric act of 'finning' sharks has to stop now. Not just for sharks but for our oceans, our planet, and ultimately us. In 2010 I traveled to Australia for the Whitsunday Swim, a 14.5km crossing from Whitsunday Island to Hamilton Island in an effort to raise awareness for shark conservation. In late 2011 in partnership with Daryl Farmer of Running 4 Reefs I started totaling all my swim training and race distances to span 2300km, the length of the Great Barrier Reef. We both expect to finish in early 2013. I am super motivated and driven to train for a cause I strongly believe in and can help bring about some much needed change. I am going combine my passions to ‘Swim Fast – For the Sharks’ and dedicate my races towards helping our sharks, and by hopefully making some waves I'll raise some awareness in the process. FINS UP! Todd Cameron tc.sharkisland@gmail.com STATS DOB: August 11th Sign: Leo Height: 6’ 1” Weight: 170 lb Diet: Raw Vegan Ⓥ Resides: Shark Island Aumakua: Sphyrna Mokkaran Spirituality: The ocean is my temple, water my religion, and sharks are my gods... Swim Team: Unattached "Rogue Shark" With Rob Stewart, director of SHARKWATER. Toronto, Canada - June 2011 MY "MUST VISIT" SHARK HOTSPOTS Blue, Mako - Rhode Island (August 2011!) Great Hammerhead, Tiger, Lemon, Caribbean Reef - Bahamas Bull - Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Dec 2012!) Oceanic Whitetip - Cat Island, Bahamas (May 2013!) Great White - Guadalupe Island, Mexico & South Australia Reef Sharks - South Pacific & Great Barrier Reef Scalloped Hammerhead, Whale Shark - Cocos Island, Costa Rica Oceanic Whitetip - Cat Island, Bahamas SWIMMING FAST - FOR THE SHARKS © 2010 - 2012

The above photos are from the 2009 Sarasota Shark Tournament in Florida. Great Hammerhead, Bull, and Lemon sharks were all caught for sport and prize money. (Great Hammerheads are listed as an Endangered Species on the IUCN Red List.) In November 2011 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) agreed to prohibit the harvest of three species of Hammerhead shark and Tiger sharks in Florida waters. FINS UP to all who worked hard toward making this law happen!

"Finning millions of sharks for a nutritionless, poisonous, overpriced soup is likely the pinnacle of waste, ignorance, and absolute environmental destruction in how we blindly abuse and mass commodify animals as a food source." ~Todd Cameron

When I was a kid I used to spend hours and hours in the pool pretending I was a shark. Not much has changed.... Sharks have been a passion of mine since before I can remember. The JAWS films arrived at an impressionable age for me, fueling the fire, and one of the most amazing experiences I had was an opportunity to dive with sharks on my birthday in the Bahamas. I was hooked!

Unfortunately we are learning that it is the sharks that are now hooked; these animals are hunted in numbers upwards of 100 million a year for their fins which are sold on the Asian markets for big bucks. A bowl of prized shark fin soup (cartilaginous shark fin offers zero nutrition and has no flavour) can sell in excess of $100. Due to this great demand and profits reaching in excess of US $1.2 billion a year, sharks are caught by the hundreds on long-lines (lines up to 150km long with thousands of baited hooks) hauled aboard and after their fins are sliced off and while still alive they are tossed back into the ocean to drown and bleed to death. This can take days... In one year enough long-lines are set out in our oceans to circle the planet 550 times. Essentially one of the oldest, most beautiful and most important species in our largest ecosystem is brutally tortured, maimed, and killed for profit. This barbaric act of 'finning' sharks has to stop now. Not just for sharks but for our oceans, our planet, and ultimately us.

In 2010 I traveled to Australia for the Whitsunday Swim, a 14.5km crossing from Whitsunday Island to Hamilton Island in an effort to raise awareness for shark conservation. In late 2011 in partnership with Daryl Farmer of Running 4 Reefs I started totaling all my swim training and race distances to span 2300km, the length of the Great Barrier Reef. We both expect to finish in early 2013. I am super motivated and driven to train for a cause I strongly believe in and can help bring about some much needed change. I am going combine my passions to ‘Swim Fast – For the Sharks’ and dedicate my races towards helping our sharks, and by hopefully making some waves I'll raise some awareness in the process.

FINS UP!
Todd Cameron
tc.sharkisland@gmail.com

STATS

DOB: August 11th
Sign: Leo
Height: 6’ 1”
Weight: 170 lb
Diet: Raw Vegan Ⓥ
Resides: Shark Island
Aumakua: Sphyrna Mokkaran
Spirituality: The ocean is my temple, water my religion, and sharks are my gods...
Swim Team: Unattached "Rogue Shark"

With Rob Stewart, director of SHARKWATER.
Toronto, Canada - June 2011

MY "MUST VISIT" SHARK HOTSPOTS

Blue, Mako - Rhode Island (August 2011!)
Great Hammerhead, Tiger, Lemon, Caribbean Reef - Bahamas
Bull - Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Dec 2012!)
Oceanic Whitetip - Cat Island, Bahamas (May 2013!)
Great White - Guadalupe Island, Mexico & South Australia
Reef Sharks - South Pacific & Great Barrier Reef
Scalloped Hammerhead, Whale Shark - Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Oceanic Whitetip - Cat Island, Bahamas

SWIMMING FAST - FOR THE SHARKS
© 2010 - 2012