Note from Somani: PLEASE DON'T DELETE ANYTHING. Feel free to edit but please don't delete.
Some references for the education team can be found on the "Call to Action" page.
Also, information on getting protein from non-animal sources can be found on Protein in the Vegan Diet and on this Protein Information Sheet.
...Key points include 46% of Californians are "very concerned" that fish/seafood is being overfished, but 56% still eat seafood more than once a week. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S_206MBS.pdf. From Public Policy Institute of California.
Our plan for education would include informing people of the negative consequences of fish consumption in hopes to reduce it, such as toxic mercury content which can be found in fish species of the oceans. Another possible approach would be to inform individuals of the advantages of becoming a vegetarian. In terms of alternatives, we would encourage aquaculture, and make fishermen aware of it as a possible job opportunity other than fishing from the oceans.
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- Hydroponics in poor countries...?
- Use celebs to talk about fish problem
- On the restaurant menus that serve sea food should be marked that it deals with an endangered fish, which would discourage the consumers.
- Have fisheries in the School and College Curriculum (worked in India--The education board has made it compulsory for every student to have a subject Environment Education before getting their graduation.)
- Have international drawing competition about 'SAVING THE OCEANS' among students. (Camlin color contest has again worked in India in creating awareness about environment problems)
- Advertisement on search pages like Google or Yahoo! which links to trivia quizzes on fisheries make people aware of it)
have events held in colleges or educational institutions which collect money for FISH
- 'Wash your hands', 'don't drive drunk' and 'Have safe sex' posters and banners in public places have worked in the past...So we propose to have captions and banners like "save the fish" in public places.
- just as it is mandatory to have 'Smoking is injurious to health' written on every cigarette pack, on every place where there is a recipe of dealing with endangered fish, there should be a mandatory caption like 'Save the fish'. Though it might not be effective immediately, it would atleast make people aware of the problem and make them know that something is wrong. This might help people solve the problem in the long run.
- (on a lighter note)
- have a facebook group or orkut community "save the fish-we need you"
- media - channel 1, CNN, BBC
- lectures and talks in schools
- create an organisation to have lesson plans-- give a day to terrascope.
- Create special interests group to be focussed on the this problems
- donations from high profile people.
- integrate the ideas of fish conservation into school curricula. Just like schools have mandatory Health classes, schools can also integrate environmentalism into mandatory classes. If we can educate children about safe sex, we can educate children about protecting the earth.
Quelling the Demand for Fish
"Global consumption of fish has doubled since 1973, and the developing world has been responsible for nearly all of this growth. Countries with rapid population growth, rapid income growth, and urbanization tend to have the greatest increases in consumption of animal products, including fish products, and the developing world has experienced all three trends. China, where income growth and urbanization have been major factors, dominates consumption of fish products. It accounted for about 36 percent of global consumption in 1997, compared with only 11 percent in 1973. India and Southeast Asia together accounted for another 17 percent in 1997, with total consumption doubling since 1973" (Ahmed et al., 2003).
Works Cited
Ahmed, M., Delgado, C.L., Meijer, S., Rosegrant, M.W., Wada, N. (2003). The Future of Fish: Issues and Trends to 2020. International Food Policy Research Insitute and WorldFish Center. Retrieved 18 November 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://www.ifpri.org.