November 28, 2012
Victory! EU Passes Strict Shark Finning Ban
You might have missed it, but over Thanksgiving Oceana won some major victories. One that we are especially excited about was the vote by the European Parliament to impose a strict ban on shark finning. While this ban has technically been in place since 2003 the new vote closes a crucial loophole by requiring all vessels in EU waters, as well as all EU vessels around the world, to bring their sharks to shore fins attached.
This is a major victory for Oceana, which has been pushing for the strict ban for years. It is also an especially big victory for sharks. The EU is the largest exporter of shark fins to China and Hong Kong in the world. Fishing the Atlantic, Indian, Mediterranean, and Pacific Oceans it has become the world’s top fisher of sharks.
The practice of shark finning is just as brutal as it sounds. Once captured, a shark is brought on board and its fins are sliced off. The finless shark is then discarded in the ocean, where it is left to struggle and die. Up to 70 million sharks are killed every year, mostly to serve the market for the Chinese status symbol delicacy, shark-fin soup. Sharks are slow-growing, late-maturing, long-lived and give birth to few young, making them unable to cope with such high levels of exploitation.
By requiring the sharks to be brought on board fins attached fishermen are unable to stockpile huge numbers of fins in their holds and the number of sharks that can be killed on any one trip is dramatically curtailed.
Executive director of Oceana Europe Xavier Pastor put the victory in context:
“The European Parliament has closed an important chapter in the European history of shark conservation, by adopting a full ban on shark finning that will guarantee that this wasteful practice does not occur in the EU. The EU is finally accepting its responsibility as a major global player in shark fisheries and shark fin exports. It can now carry its head high in international fora, to continue fighting against shark finning worldwide, and to press for other important management measures that are currently lacking for sharks.”
Learn more about sharks, which have survived every major extinction for 400 million years but now face their greatest challenge.