Shark populations are being declined faster than we can count. And these numbers are adding up to like over a hundred million sharks per year are dying they say, just for their fins.

Thank you for allowing me to speak to a group of supporters on sharks because that is not always my situation. Four years ago, I had a decision to make. And I learned about this tiny group called the Pacific Islands Conservation Initiative in the Cook Islands. The founder of that initiative had a dream. His name is Steve Lyon and he wanted to create a shark sanctuary. I couldn't even find this country on a map three weeks prior. But I decided to jump on board to help make his dream a reality. Our campaign was as grassroots as it gets. We used handheld cameras and found local ambassadors. And we tried to create a roadmap of local people that we could teach about sharks that could then go out into the community and talk about it.

We talked to mamas and papas, we talked to school children we talked to farmers, to voyagers and to fishermen. We started getting quite a bit of support from the community. From places that we expected, from the children. But also from some places we didn't expect like from commercial fishermen. We also received support when we weren't looking. There were times where we would be on outer islands meeting one on one with mayors, barefeet under coconut trees where we would discuss the regulations with them. The regulations that we were proposing, which in short we weren't taking away the rights of the local fishermen. So, if the local fishermen were to catch a shark they would be allowed to bring it ashore and eat it. That was common, there was a culture in the Cook Islands. We weren't trying to take that away. Because we were transparent and working with local people and asking their opinions, we garnered their trust as well. And while we were on these outer islands, a bank decided to use a local rubbish sculpture competition to show their support for sharks. You notice they put their fin on the head. This is what you do when you see a shark in the wild underwater. Sometimes I'm like mmmmmm! But usually this works a bit better. we used around the campaign to show universal support for shark protection.

We did not have an easy road. We would think that we had a slam dunk. We had a binder full of letters and posters and angry mamas talking to politicians but we still couldn't get their attention. Anyone that's worked on our campaign understands that it's 80 percent pain that's why they call it a campaign. And about 20 percent happy times. So, I'm happy to share some of the happy times with you guys. One of the ways we thought to target the politicians was at an upcoming Pacific Leaders Forum. Sixteen member nations around the Pacific came to the island of Rarotonga. It was so important that even US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton came. And as an American in the South Pacific which is not usually cool, let me remind you I really wanted to catch a glimpse of her. And so she ran outside to take a photo with the rest of the leaders and I went up and just sort of looked all wide-eyed and my friends were like “Oh, you know, you should go say hi to her.” I'm like, “You don't understand I cannot just jump out at Hillary Clinton and say, 'Hey.'” But, uh, apparently I was overcome with a sense of insanity and I jumped out and said “Hillary, I'm American!” And much to my surprise she stopped and she turned to me and she said “What are you doing here?” I was like, “Oh, my god! Hillary Clinton's is talking to me.” And I said, “Ah, I'm working on sharks.” We have this campaign going. And she was like, “Cool. So is there anything I can do to help?” And like, I had to think about it and ummm...

Um, she was affectionately referred to as Aunty Hillary in the Cook Islands. She still has a doughnut and a smoothie named after her. And she doesn't realize it but this tiny gesture made a bit of a difference politically, because if Aunty Hillary was down in the Cook Islands showing her support for sharks, maybe other people could too. Something else more powerful happened, down in the Cooks. They have a parliamentary system and also a traditional leadership system. And so the traditional chiefs are called the Ariki. And the head of the House of Ariki he's known as the king. He invited us to his home island to show his support for sharks. And I was there to tell them why they needed to protect sharks. Except there was one problem. They hated sharks. Sharks stole fish from their lines that they needed to feed their families. And so for me to try to make a case for them to protect sharks I needed to make a case that mattered to them. It wasn't enough to say that within 50 years we've wiped some species of shark populations down to just three percent. It wasn't enough for them. I needed to find something that mattered. We talked about how sharks were apex predators in many ecosystems how they balanced coral reef ecosystems. Balanced reef ecosystems meant more fish to feed your families. Healthy reefs also meant healthy oceans. Healthy oceans produce our oxygen. These are very important, simple facts that we could talk about that weren't known to these fishermen before.

I was feeling all right. And then a hand went up, and the reality of who I was trying to talk to sharks about sort of hit me all at once, and I found myself frozen with my toes stuck to the tile because I was barefoot, and in Polynesia. And I asked myself, Like, “how the hell did I get here?” Well, this is them. And you notice there is like a naïvely happy girl in the front. So, these are the guys that I had to try to talk to who had very real experiences with sharks. They're in canoes every day trying to feed their families and sharks are literally ripping the tuna off of their lines. And, so when the man who's sitting behind me in the turquoise shirt he raised his hand, told me how much he hated sharks. He literally said like, “I hate them. They terrorize me in my canoe. I wish they would all disappear from the planet.” I'm like, “Oh, this is not going well.” And then he said, “But I've learned something today. I wasn't sure of the importance of them to our reef. I have children, I have grandchildren and I would like for them to fish and for that reason I will support you.” For me, that was the single most powerful moment of the entire two years of the campaign. And soon after that happened... We made front page of the paper. And this small group of farmers, fishermen voyagers, Miss South Pacific growers and fishermen, they came together and were successful in getting regulations that ban the import, export, sale, trade, possession and trans-shipment of sharks and rays in the entire exclusive economic zone of the Cook Islands. So, it was... an area the size three times of Texas. So, it's 772,000 square kilometers. And, it connected the existing Shark Sanctuaries in the world. So, it's now the largest contiguous Shark Sanctuary on the planet.

And while I was so proud of this group of local people the scientist in me had to step back and say like “Okay, this is great but is it going to work?” And so, I decided to try to combine all of the experiences I've had to create an organization called Sharks Pacific. And what we do is we... we combine science, we find political levers we work with local people and we try to tell the stories. Eleven thousand sharks have been killed in the past one hour. And that is by conservative estimates. I am asking you guys in the audience who are creative and passionate and connected join us in this fight 'cause we can do a lot better than extinction. Thank you.