Sustainability is the beating heart of our business and we’re not only committed to bringing you gorgeous goodies so that you can look good and feel good, but we’re also committed to a good cause. Every year we will select a South African environmental organisation to donate 1% of the profit from each sale to, and our beneficiary for 2024 is Plett Shark Spotters. Here’s why.
Some facts
There are:
∼100 species
of sharks in South Africa
∼5 people
killed by sharks annually around the world
100 million sharks
killed by people annually around the world
Sharks need our help!
1% goes to a good cause
We’re proud to donate 1% of the profit from each sale to a South African Environmental Organisation, with Plett Shark Spotters being our current organisation of choice. So, every one of your purchases translates into positive environmental and social action!
Why sharks?
We know ‘sharks’ can be a scary word, and you may even be thinking to yourself “but I don’t want my money to go towards sharks”. Listen, we get it. The media and our popular culture portray these animals as monsters out to get us. But the fact of the matter is sharks are just cruising along, trying to live their lives. And shark bites account for only 5 deaths across the whole world every year! Contrast this to the average 320,000 deaths caused by drowning every year, the water is actually way more scary than the shark. Also, on the other side of the coin, we kill about 100 million sharks every year, which has resulted in one third of all species facing extinction! This means serious trouble, because sharks are necessary for healthy, functioning ocean ecosystems, which we rely on for food and oxygen. Like it or not, we need sharks. And sharks need our protection.
Why Plett Shark Spotters?
So yes, occasionally a shark will kill a person. And our usual response to this in the past has been to kill the sharks first before they can get to us. But this is no longer a sustainable option because many sharks are facing extinction. So, in 2004, Shark Spotters was born in Cape Town – pioneering a new way to pro-actively reduce interactions between ocean goers and sharks, without affecting the shark at all! It’s success meant it became the primary shark safety strategy used in Cape Town, and it has recently been implemented in Plettenberg Bay, following the highly unusual two shark-related deaths in 2022. We are proud to support Shark Spotters given their non-lethal approach to reduce shark-human conflict, their commitment to providing environmental employment and upskilling opportunities to previously disadvantaged South Africans, and their dedication to shark research, conservation and raising awareness around these issues.