I was lucky enough to witness another important event I wanted to tell you about, while I was at the Bahamas doing my research on the giant manta rays.

The Bahamas have always been famous about exceptional shark diving. Recently, the tourism industry, divers and environmentalists seemed to be successful and protected the Bahamian sharks when a company in the islands announced plans to begin exporting shark fins for soup to Hong Kong. Tourism is a major industry in the Bahamas and shark-diving makes approximately $80million a year for the country, so the agriculture and fisheries minister recently signed a law that bans all commercial shark fishing in the country! Shark fishing in the 243,000-square-mile territorial waters, as well as the sale, import and export of shark products are prohibited now! They recognized that the endangered animals are worth more to visiting divers than they are to fishers, so the new law is protecting 40 species of sharks now that are inhabiting the Bahamas. It was estimated that around 73 million sharks are taken each year for their fins, and they are often released while still alive, but the Bahamian goverment now also increased shark-fishing fines from $3,000 to $5,000.

Hoping that other countries will follow them soon!