Four Hout Bay locals; Brent Lacey, Juliette Ball, Paul Templeton and Robin Richards took to the water to “Paddle for the Planet”. “Paddle for the Planet” is a worldwide movement to create awareness for the environment especially about the terrible things that are happening in the Ocean we use daily. The paddle was held across the world 8am on World Environment Day, Sunday the 5 June 2011.
The team behind it all want all paddlers to be aware of what’s going on in our oceans and want to create an opportunity to make a difference. They want to allow all paddlers the opportunity to help.
Paddle for the Planet’s aim is to support Marine conservation. As it grows we endeavor to support all kinds of Marine Conservation but for this year and the next we are going to raise funds for a marine reserve in Raja Ampat, Indonesia and keep it protected. Each year we want to grow this idea branching out further and further as more paddlers get involved keeping more and more waters protected.
Interesting facts to be aware of
• Each year, three times as much rubbish is dumped into the world’s oceans as the weight of fish caught. (www.marinebio.org)
• 32% of the world’s fisheries are overexploited, depleted or recovering, which threatens the health, economy, and livelihoods of communities all over the world. The global fishing fleet is estimated to be 250% larger than needed to catch what the ocean can sustainably produce. (www.marinebio.org)
• Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being “harvested” in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian “delicacy”. (http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/)
If you are interested to find out more please do look up www.paddlefortheplanet.org; and join the Facebook group (search Paddle for the Planet).
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| Paul Templeton (of DTS), Brent Lacey, Juliette Ball (of DTS) and Robin Richards all paddle for the planet |
