Life certainly was fun while it lasted out there in the ocean. I wasnt an exceptional shark by any means–never on Shark Week or in an epic battle with a zombie–just a normal fish with a cartilaginous skeleton doing my thing, always moving and capitalizing on 64 million years of evolution. That is, until I got scooped up by the tuna industry. Then it was game over for me.
Was I sad to be dead? Of course. Once I became an ex-shark, I was SUPER sad for a while, thinking that I had just been killed in a totally pointless way so the tuna industry could scoop up more profit. But then I saw that Greenpeace had developed an 8-bit PacMan style game based on my life and I realized that I hadnt died in vain! I was a star!
Greenpeace developed Shark vs. Mermaid Death Squad so humans like YOU can act on behalf of bycatch like ME. Even if youre thousands of miles away from an ocean, you can help stop the tuna industry from ripping up our oceans. In Shark Vs. Mermaid Death Squad, you get to choose to be a shark, turtle, or manta ray and then try your best to escape from the industrys hit squad by racing through supermarket aisles. Each level is based on one of the supermarkets in Greenpeaces annual Carting Away the Oceans Report, so it starts easy (Safeway and Whole Foods) and gets harder as go. By the time you get to Bi-Lo Winn Dixie, youll be swimming for your life.
Now, I know you would love to be out in the ocean swimming with my pectoral-finned brethren, fighting the Mermaid Death Squad first hand–but by playing this game and sharing it with your friends, youre telling major tuna buyers that you care about where your food comes from. And that matters. But heres a pro tip; WATCH OUT! The Chicken of the Sea Mermaid, Charlie the Tuna, and Mr. Bumble Bee want to keep your supermarkets full of unsustainable and destructive tuna products, and they wont stop until theres nothing left to catch.
The game is hard, but so is life. Take it from me: its worth it!
Obviously, the Mermaid Death Squad is serious business that I take personally. If humans dont change their tuna industry, it will be Game Over not just for sharks but for our oceans. Irresponsible tuna companies are sending species like me and my turtle compatriots to the brink of extinction. Overfishing runs rampant in all oceans, and countless animals are killed every year because of the tuna industry. I know that canned tuna is an affordable source of protein that many human families depend on, but if companies like Chicken of the Sea, Starkist and Bumble Bee don’t change their fishing methods, sharks and humans alike will lose the ocean ecosystems we depend on–and tuna scarcity will cause the price of tuna to skyrocket.
Luckily, even if you cant escape in the game, you can still take it to the next level and tell the tuna industry to stop ripping up the ocean with the take action now button.
So until we get to hang out in the afterlife, where I now pass the time doing Busby Berkley routines with my Great White pals, please do your part and help stop the tuna industry from ripping up the sea.
Its too late for me, but not for our oceans!
