ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: In Singapore, a campaign is under way to protect an infamous sea creature. Sharks are facing the threat of extinction because of excessive hunting. Singaopore's Channel NewsAsia reports on an effort to rescue the much feared fish.</s>JULIA NG, CHANNEL NEWSASIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Having survived for over 400 million years, sharks inhabited the world's oceans long before the arrival of dinosaurs. As top predators of the oceans, sharks play a vital role in marine ecosystems, and to threaten their existence is to endanger the balance of the ocean's entire marine life. But the growing demand of shark fins as a luxury food, especially in Asia, is fast threatening to wipe out 400 million years of evolution. Already, some shark species have been reduced by 90 percent, and contrary to popular belief, shark fins do not grow back, and sharks with their fins hacked off either drown, or bleed to death. Now, 25 years since the movie "Jaws" first stunned the world, depicting sharks as vicious man eaters, WildAid and "Jaws" author Peter Benchley himself are calling for an immediate international ban on shark finning.</s>PETER KNIGHTS, DIRECTOR, WILDAID: Our main objection to shark finning is that it's incredibly wasteful. Around 90 percent of the animal is just thrown overboard. If we carry on like we're doing now, there will be no sharks left to provide shark fin soup, so we can -- appealing to consumers at this point, please don't eat shark fin soup, help the sharks, help the tradition, stop it now.</s>NG: Author Peter Benchley will be in Singapore on the 20th of July to kickoff the month-long shark conservation campaign and help "Jaws" viewers see sharks in the proper perspective.
Shark Conservation Campaign Gets Under Way in Singapore