It’s time, the Associated Press reports, for multilateralism with teeth:
UNITED NATIONS — They have the scars and missing limbs that make it hard to forgive, but these victims are tougher than most. And now they want to save their attackers.
They are shark attack survivors, a band of nine thrown together in an unlikely and ironic mission to conserve the very creatures that ripped their flesh, tore off their limbs and nearly took their lives.
Calm down, Associated Press, calm down! What’s going on here?
They want nations to adopt a resolution that would require them to greatly improve how fish are managed, including shark species of which nearly a third are threatened with extinction or on the verge of being threatened.
“If a group like us can see the value in saving sharks, can’t everyone?” asked Florida shark bite victim Debbie Salamone, 44, whose Achilles tendon was severed in a 2004 attack that temporarily halted her ballroom dance hobby.
This makes it sound like the shark was on the dancefloor, but anyway…
Salamone, a former journalist, initially made plans to eat shark steaks in revenge. Then, she said, she turned tragedy to something productive by joining the Washington-based nonprofit Pew Environment Group and recruiting like-minded shark attack survivors to work for shark conversation. Organized by Pew, the group is gathering at U.N. headquarters Monday hoping to win new protections globally for the ocean’s top predators.
I only wish that the Pew Group had imitated the NGOs that parked a helicopter outside the UN a couple of years ago to protest the lack of choppers in Darfur… the sight of Great White snapping at the General Assembly would be rather exciting…
[H/t David Bosco.]
