Wednesday, September 7, 2011
(Dive Travel Business News - Sept 7, 2011) -- California has joined Hawaii, Oregon and Washington in banning the import of shark fin products. The California Senate passed legislation Sept 6. 2011 that would ban the trade, sale and possession of shark fins, rejecting arguments that the conservation measure discriminates against Asians who consume shark fin soup. A majority of both Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of it. Backers of the bill said they hoped California Governor Brown would sign the bill but expected the lobbying battle would continue in the coming month.
While environmental and animal welfare groups pushed for the Legislature to ban the sale and possession of shark fins, an emotional battle over traditional shark fin soup split California's Chinese American community. The legislation was co-sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance and was supported by several Chinese-American politicians. However some Chinese-American state senators fought the measure.
The fight pitted influential Chinese American politicians against one another, some of whom are running for mayor of San Francisco. Chinese traders and restaurant owners hired lobbyists to oppose a ban, and busloads of Chinatown residents descended on the state Capitol, saying that a ban would violate cultural custom. State Sen. Ted Lieu said the bill “goes out of its way to be discriminatory,” adding, “They single out one cultural practice.”
Shark’s fin soup is popular in China as well as in communities with large Chinese populations, and can sell for up to $100 per bowl. While the U.S. only consumes a small portion of the world’s shark fins, California boasts two of the largest Asian food markets out of Asia and consumes far more shark products than other states.
Based on similar laws passed in Hawaii and Washington, AB 376 will make it illegal “for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin” in the state of California. The bill aims to reduce the demand for shark fin soup by making it illegal to have fins. AB 376 is not a ban on “finning” (defined as cutting off a shark’s fins and dumping the rest of the animal overboard- if the shark is still alive at this point it will bleed to death or drown). Although there are a few exceptions in that exist shark finning at sea has been illegal in U.S. Atlantic waters since 1993 and nationally since 2002. Laws like AB 376 make it illegal for people to possess the shark fins themselves, not for fishermen elsewhere to acquire them in the first place.
The ban on shark fin possesion wouldn't start until Jan 1, 2012. The bill allows those who possess shark fins to dispose of their stocks until June 30, 2013 and includes provisions that would allow fishermen who legally catch sharks to keep the fins for their personal use or donate them to taxidermists, research or medicinal institutions.
Activists have begun pushing for shark fin bans across the U.S. in an effort to combat the global shark fin trade, which scientists estimate kills between 26 million and 73 million sharks a year. Sharks are one of the oceans’ top predators, keeping the entire ecosystem in check, but shark populations have declined dramatically over the last few decades as a result of human greed over shark fin sales, and lack of understanding about shark behaviour and the nature of shark attacks. if signed into law by the Governor and properly enforced, the bill will help to save many species of sharks where the market for fins is a major driver of population declines. For many other species of sharks, as well as equally threatened skates and rays, the major threats are unsustainable fishing practices and lack of conservation efforts focused on other threats facing sharks.
Additional Sources:
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=11058
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/29/local/la-me-shark-fin-20110629
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