Animal Law Academy Webinars
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animal Legal Defense Fund Webinars
The Animal Law Academy Webinars is a series of webinars hosted by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) encompassing various topics of the animal law field. These webinars are for anyone who is interested in animal law, students, scholars, attorneys, etc. Webinars are free and open to the public and only require registration.
*Note: If you are not from the United States, you can choose as an example the state of New York and the ZIP 10022.
Agenda of the presentation
Why sharks?
Threats to the sharks' population
Legal framework
Regulations in certain countries
International legally binding instruments
International legally non-binding instruments
Conclusion/Proposals to strengthen the protection of sharks
Abstract
Sharks are one of the oldest species inhabiting the marine environment. They arose approximately 400 million years ago and have faced both mass extinction and population growth. Sharks are an integral part of ocean life and play a significant role in the marine ecosystem. However, despite their ecological and intrinsic value to the marine environment, they still receive little consideration from the public and protection under the law. There are a dozen threats that sharks face nowadays, such as fishing activities, shark finning, shark fin soup, and climate change.
A lot of people associate sharks with dangerous animals attacking people, but in fact, only a few species have a tendency to attack by themselves, the rest are considered harmless. Sharks are considered to be recognized as animals having "negative charisma" and those animals that people should be afraid of. The public's concern plays an important role in the legal protection of sharks because any movement starts with raising awareness. Currently, the problem of the conservation and management of sharks exists on the international level and within many countries across the globe. Global protection can be reached through international cooperation and drawing the public's attention to the issues associated with sharks.
The presentation will cover the legal protection of sharks in certain countries and touch upon international instruments, both legally binding and non-binding. It will also propose possible solutions to improve the conservation and protection of sharks on the international level.
About the speaker
Lu Shegay is a graduate of the Animal Law LLM Program, Lewis & Clark Law School. She earned her LL.B degree at KIMEP University in Kazakhstan, the only university that offers the course of animal law in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Lu’s forthcoming work is the chapter on animals in agriculture in Animal Law, which will be published in Kazakhstan and become a supplemental reading for KIMEP University’s Animal Law course. She contributed to the discussion of the draft law on the Animal Welfare Act of Kazakhstan, served as an advisor and research assistant on foreign legislation in animal law issues, and contributed to the discussion on the closure of aquariums in Kazakhstan.
Lu is a managing director at the Institute of Animal Law of Asia (IALA).