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Byrne Creek art club wants to save sharks

While many of Burnaby's Grade 8 students were finishing their homework on Monday night, Maya Arradaza and Heather Fisher were on an assignment of another kind - convincing council to support their efforts to end shark finning.

While many of Burnaby's Grade 8 students were finishing their homework on Monday night, Maya Arradaza and Heather Fisher were on an assignment of another kind - convincing council to support their efforts to end shark finning.

The Byrne Creek Secondary School students are part of the Shark Fin Free Art Club, which was established with the help of sponsor teachers Judy McLeod and Taryn MacDonald.

Students who saw Rob Stewart's movie Sharkwater in art class last year decided to start the club to do their part to save sharks, as well as the planet.

"We're here to help the sharks, to help stop the distribution and sale of shark fins because in 10 years, the large sharks are going to become extinct," Heather told council at Monday night's meeting.

The students showed councillors two videos, including a graphic depiction of shark finning practices.

"I could see on my classmates faces that they, too, were shocked," Heather said about Sharkwater. "We were so astonished that this was happening, but it actually is still happening in other places. And it's just really sad."

But Heather said she was also inspired by the concern of her fellow students.

Maya, on the other hand, said she noticed a lot of apathy when the film was shown in her class, and that made her want to act.

"I was actually really interested," she said. "It made me sad that no one really cared about this."

The students came to the meeting to ask council to support a provincial ban on the sale and distribution of shark fins.

Mayor Derek Corrigan thanked the students for their presentation and mentioned that the Union of B.C. Municipalities passed a resolution in 2012 asking the provincial and federal governments to ban the import and sale of shark fin products.

"So it is an issue that's been on the front burner for cities," he said. "And it continues to be an important issue to lobby on to make sure we are a leader worldwide in ensuring that this barbaric practice ends."

Mayor and councillors thanked the students for their bravery in speaking to council and commended them for their activism.

The shark fin issue was a major one in Burnaby a few years ago, when activists asked council to create a shark fin ban bylaw, preventing the sale of shark fin products in the city.

However, council voted against instituting a bylaw in 2013, saying it would be too difficult to enforce on the municipal level.

Activists such as Anthony Marr of the Vancouver Animal Defense League disagreed with the decision.