Shark Words

Due to the urgent need to save sharks from extinction, CBS here in Florida aired an interview with me on the subject. You can see it on my website at : http://www.theplayoflife.org/ Just click on the menu bar on the left hand side labelled "My Sunset Rendezvous" and you will see the link on the right.

May 3, 2011 Author and shark behavior researcher  visits South Florida Ila France Porcher, researcher of wild shark behavior, and author of "My Sunset Rendezvous," is in South Florida this month giving a series of informative presentations on the intelligence and social behavior of sharks.  Her talk shares the excitement of her unique method of finding things out about sharks, which are often killed for science and studied dead. From 1995 until 2009 she established never before achieved intimacy with the reef sharks that inhabited the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia. During this intensive ethological study, she made some intriguing discoveries and had many strange and startling experiences. When the Internet became available, she began to connect with other scientists across the world, comparing her observations, while accumulating evidence about sharks that transcends common beliefs. Her book is the story of this study, set in the framework of life in the island...

There is a long article about My Sunset Rendezvous in the latest issue, issue 10, of the Journal Beyond Blue. You can download it at:  http://www.beyondbluemag.com/issues/ There is also an article on shark protection that strongly credits 2009, The Year of the Shark Project, with having given significant impetus to the initiation of many shark protection projects globally. It says that the influence of the Year of the Shark continues to this day.  This is certainly something to be pleased about, for those of us who worked so hard on it.  

Finally the story of my sharks has been released!  It's available through the following link: http://www. strategicpublishinggroup.com/ title/MySunsetRendezvous.html as well as Amazon, etc.  The official press release is pasted below, so that you can get a better idea about it.  It is much more than a book about sharks--stories of other species are interwoven throughout, all relating to wild animal intelligence, and set in the often amusing framework of island life.  It was written to be enjoyed by anyone who loves animals and animal stories and I illustrated it to make the underwater events that occurred more real. They are writer - to - reader messages lovingly and loosely painted in ink and bleach with lots of water, to help make real some of the astonishing and funny things that happened. This work of love was written because there was a story that had to be told, and now, its available. So I very much hope you will read it and thus complete the cycle for ...

The International Year of the Shark powerfully strengthened  our global network of groups and individuals  linked in dedication to the protection of sharks, the hub of which is the Let Sharks Live group. Due to the need for an improved, interacitve Internet outlet, we have created a site at http://letsharkslive.wordpress.com/ Through it we will post information and news from all parts of the planet, so please sign up!  Anyone actively working for the protection of sharks, who would like to join this  think tank network and contribute, is very welcome to.  Please contact me at: ilafranceporcher@gmail.com Here's to continued success in our joint efforts on into 2010 and the decade to follow!

PRESS RELEASE The Let Sharks Live Network The Shark Group December 31, 2009 2009: THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE SHARK ENDS The International Year of the Shark, 2009 , is ending, and the creators, The Shark Group and The Let Sharks Live Network , consider it a fantastic success. It was inspired by findings of The Global Shark Assessment that at current rates of decline, the most threatened shark species will be extinct in 10 to 15 years. In large regions, species that were once numerous have fallen to 1% of their original numbers. The massacre is comparable to that of the buffalo on the North American plains 200 years ago, but on a much larger scale. Yet these highly evolved and intelligent animals, also called the 'Wolves of the Sea' are still fished intensively, and barbarically finned alive, their bodies thrown back to die, for the shark fin soup market. Shark finning has only been practiced intensively since the 1980's, yet has already nearly succee...

Press release December 21, 2008 In Honour of The Year of the Shark, Alibaba Ends its Trade in Shark Fins The International Year of the Shark gets off to a good start on January 1, 2009, as on-line trading giant, Alibaba, ceases its trade in shark fins. The company has been in negotiations regarding the issue for the past year, since shark advocate Brain W. Darvell brought the problem to their attention. Urging Alibaba to cease the trade, which poses a major threat to the survival of the targeted shark species, has been one of the prime projects of The Shark Group . As a result of the information they provided, and the numbers of organizations concerned by the company's involvement in the shark fin trade, Alibaba made the group-wide decision to disallow shark fins, and shark fin products, on any of their trading sites. They have enc ouraged their users to report incidences of shark fin trading, saying that perpetrators woul...