PETA’s Flying Beach Banner Warns: Most Dangerous Predator in the Water Isn’t a Shark

Humans at an All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Buffet Beat Even Sharks’ Killing Record by a Nautical Mile, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
August 9, 2013

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Cape Cod, Mass. — Inspired by the Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week” marathon and shark sightings off Marconi Beach—where an explosion in the seal population has given rise to increased shark activity—PETA has arranged for an airplane to tow a banner from Chatham to Provincetown and back down to Brewster on Sunday to remind beachgoers that the most dangerous predator in the water isn’t the one with five consecutive rows of pointy teeth. To offer a solution to Homo sapiens’ killer reputation, the banner reads, “Dangerous Predator in Water: YOU! Go Vegan.”

When: Sunday, August 11, 3–5 p.m.
Where: The plane will fly over the beaches from Chatham to Provincetown and back down to Brewster.

“There’s only one species depleting the oceans’ fish, and that’s humans,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “Hyping the threat of shark attacks may raise ratings for Shark Week and Sharknado, but far more dangerous is the killer heart attack that humans may suffer after they chow down on high-cholesterol fare such as lobster and shrimp.”

While sharks killed fewer than a dozen people last year, humans kill and consume more than 100 million sharks and billions of other sea animals each year. As Shark Week comes to a close, PETA encourages people to continue to think about what sharks and other fish killed for food experience as they are hacked apart, slit open, and slowly suffocated on the decks of fishing boats.

Most fish in restaurants and supermarkets are caught using huge commercial fishing nets—sometimes miles long—that stretch across oceans and swallow up everyone and everything in their path. When hauled up from the deep (along with dolphins, turtles, seals, and other “trash catch”), fish are often crushed to death, their eyeballs bulging out of their heads from the pressure of sudden surfacing. Others are still alive when they are gutted.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.