Cash And Limelight For Bite-Back June 5, 2012 by lukesheppard

Dive holiday company blue-o-two has collected more than £11,000 in 12 months for the UK shark and marine conservation charity Bite-Back – by inviting its customers to donate 20p per cylinder-fill on its four Red Sea live aboards. Stacked end-to-end, according to Bite-Back, the 20p coins would create a column 94.3m long – longer than the famous Red Sea wrecks Giannis D (87m) and Carnatic (90m).

The partnership programme, ”Breathe Life Into The Oceans”, has captured the imagination of divers from all over the world, says Bite-Back, and has helped it to fund a number of initiatives. These include negotiating with MAKRO to stop selling blue shark in 18 of its stores; prompting Innocent Drinks to drop an on-pack promotion to win 50 shark-fishing prizes; exposing and reforming Slimming World’s suggestion that its 400,000 members eat shark to lose weight, and rebuilding its website. ”blue o two has been a central supporter of Bite-Back for years,” says the charity’s Campaign Director Graham Buckingham, ”but this new partnership has become a vital bloodline for the work we do. ”We’re indebted to all the divers who took part.” blue o two has pledged its continuing support for Bite-Back in 2012, with plans to raise a similar sum.

Meanwhile Bite-Back has been selected by Microsoft’s search engine Bing to showcase its work through its ”Help Your Britain” month-long promotion. Bing gave up its entire homepage to Bite-Back on 27 April, and throughout May featured its work on a microsite. The Bing project highlighted successful but under-celebrated charities by directing its 11 million UK users to short films about their work.