AWI and other shark advocates have been pushing for passage of this bill—which represents a giant step forward for shark conservation—since it was originally introduced in January 2009 by Representative Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU) in the House and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) in the Senate in April. Following its passage, Senator Kerry issued a statement: “Shark finning has fueled massive population declines and irreversible disruption of our oceans. Finally we’ve come through with a tough approach to tackle this serious threat to our marine life.”
The Shark Conservation Act will curb the practice of shark finning, by which living sharks’ fins are sliced off and their mutilated bodies thrown back into the ocean, where the sharks endure long, painful deaths. Shark finning kills an estimated 73 million sharks each year, driven by the demand for shark fin soup.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act, making it unlawful to possess a shark fin in U.S. waters without a corresponding carcass. Loopholes in the ban, however, prevented effective enforcement, and finning continued. As a countermeasure, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued regulations in 2008 mandating that sharks must be landed with fins attached in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, but not the Pacific. The Shark Conservation Act extends this requirement to all U.S. waters, and prohibits the transfer of shark fins at sea.
“Finally we can say that the U.S. has an enforceable finning ban,” said AWI’s president, Cathy Liss. “Requiring that sharks be landed with their fins attached is the only way to truly enforce a finning ban and we are thrilled that the U.S. has set the bar for other countries to follow suit.”
The version of the bill that passed includes an exemption for smooth dogfish sharks, for which a small fishery exists in North Carolina primarily targeting the fish for meat. The exemption will allow these few fishermen to continue to separate fins of this species from carcasses at sea to conserve space on their boats. These fishermen will be responsible for demonstrating that the fins on their boat belong to the carcasses.
“We congratulate Congress, and applaud this landmark bill’s champions for their leadership in passing this important bill,” Liss added. “Though we are disappointed that the bill does not include a blanket ban on the removal of all shark fins at sea, it clearly signals that the U.S. is committed to ending the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning.”
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Media Contact: Serda Ozbenian, AWI, (202) 446-2144
