You Have Made a Difference - Jaana Nyström

Jaana, a diver from Finland, instantly fell in love with sharks after encountering them on a dive this year in Palau.  Jaana says: “Though I was afraid at first, they weren't a bit aggressive; a few of them seemed to be just curious.  The more I saw them the calmer I was - and they lost interest!”

It was then, that she started to look into the creatures, and the roles they play in today’s world.

“I didn't realize before my studies, what major part sharks play in our ecosystem!  When that dawned on me, I decided to do something to help save the sharks, and as I'm in remote Finland, the best way to do it is via social medias.  I've taken up Causes, signed petitions and taken pledges, sent various emails to corporations who exploit their position somehow or don't just plain understand what harm they are causing...”

One of these emails, was to Citibank in Singapore, who recently ran a promotion involving shark fin soup.  Shark-finning is a practise that involves the sharks fins all being cut off while the animal is still alive, and then throwing the animal back into the sea, unable to move adequately and in a lot of pain where they inevitably die after a couple of days. 

The email, displayed here with the kind permission of Jaana, show just how simple it is to make these companies take note.

Dear Ms Yip at Citibank

I am writing to express my disappointment that your company has chosen to exploit a threatened species in the interests of promoting your credit card services.  100 million sharks are killed every year, but they are an essential part of our ecosystem helping to balance the oceans and especially reefs.

By promoting shark fin consumption and the unsustainable practice of shark finning, Citibank is directly contravening its own publically stated environmental policy which states that “working to promote environmental sustainability is good business practice”.

We have created a Facebook group about your promotion and Citibank advocating this ecologically terrible act and we plan to send this onto even more people.

Accordingly, I call upon Citibank to show itself to be a responsible corporate citizen by stopping this promotion immediately and by making a commitment both not to run such promotions in future and not to serve sharks fin soup at any corporate or client entertainment functions.

Yours in hope

Ms Jaana Nystrom, Finland

Within a week, Citibank had replied stating that as of the 24^th, their promotions have been stopped as they “are committed to conducting our business in line with our corporate social responsibilities.”  They even go on to say that they will continue to take responsibility for the impact their operations have on the environment. 

Jaana’s email made them listen.  Even if others had emailed too, every email counted.  She has also sent messages to the restaurant involved in the promotion, and so fingers crossed, they will listen too. 

Either way, well done Jaana, you made a difference!