Just over a month ago, on April 27, the Atlantic Shark Institute (ASI) announced that they would be releasing a new license plate in cooperation with the state of Rhode Island. The plate, featuring a striking image of a mako shark hand-painted and designed by renowned marine artist Paul McPhee, is available now for passenger, commercial and combination plates.
“We are really excited to finally make this plate available to Rhode Island residents, and the timing is perfect as we enter the sharky summer season here in Rhode Island,” said Jon Dodd, Executive Director of ASl. “McPhee is a spectacular marine artist, and he captured the spirit of ASI, the passion of the Ocean State, and the beauty of the mako shark in one fantastic painting. Sharks are in trouble, and they need our help. Over 100 million are killed annually and that’s simply not sustainable,” continued Dodd. “With no paid employees, every dollar from our supporters, and from these license plates, will go toward vital research aimed at answering critical questions about shark health, ocean health, and our health,” continued Dodd.
The shark plate can be ordered on the Atlantic Shark Institute website at www.atlanticsharkinstitute.org. A set of plates costs $42.50, with $20 of the purchase going to fund ASI and their shark research. There is also a link on the RI DMV – Charity Plate site that will connect interested buyers to the ASI site.
Like all Rhode Island issued charity plates, the RI DMV will not produce or mail plates until 600 have been ordered. And Dodd admitted that number seemed daunting at first, “I read an article that said it took nine years for the Boston Bruins plate to reach 600 orders!” But in the case of the ASI shark plate it didn’t even take half a day to eclipse the 600 order milestone! After more than two years of planning, designing and completing the process of having the plate approved by the state, the weight was lifted in just 10 hours. We are so appreciative and still stunned at the support, the interest, and the number of people who are helping to fund our work,” Dodd said.
However, they also had some degree of confidence. They had done a lot of customer research, listened to the feedback and comments from their more than 10,000 followers, asked folks to vote for various styles and designs, and made sure every step was carefully thought out. “We managed everything from the best day of the week to launch, the marketing, the process description, linkages between sites, sharing of data with the DMV, and more,” said Koeck, ASI’s webmaster and technologist.
By Monday, May 1 they had tallied an astonishing 2,800 total plates, passenger plates made up the bulk of that with 2,200 total sales. By May 7th more than 4,000 Rhode Island residents had ordered a set of “shark plates” for their vehicles!
Dodd went on to say that none of this could have happened without two key supporters, “Representative Fogarty and Senator Sosnowski were truly spectacular in helping us move this legislation forward, navigating the process, the hearings, getting the bill heard, and finally winning approval could never have been done without them, and we could not be more appreciative of their efforts,”
“This plate will be available forever and we can’t wait to see the first one on the road here in Rhode Island,” Dodd said. “I’m going to be saying ‘thank you’ to folks all over Rhode Island for a long time.”
If you’re interested in reading more about what the Atlantic Shark Institute does, or would like to order plates for your Rhode Island registered vehicle, please visit www.atlanticsharkinstitute.com.
