Bill Description:
This bill will prohibit the commercial trade of shark fins within the U.S.[teaserbreak]
Background:
Shark finning is a particularly cruel practice in which people cut the fins off live sharks and return their bodies to the water where the sharks inevitably die. The animals who are cast back into the ocean suffer slow, painful deaths by drowning or blood loss. Shark fins are most commonly used in shark fin soup, an Asian dish that connotes wealth and status.
Shark finning does not threaten just a few sharks, but 73 million sharks every year worldwide. Many of these sharks are endangered species. Sharks reach maturity later in life than other fish and have small litters of offspring, making them highly susceptible to overfishing.
The U.S. has banned the practice of shark finning aboard vessels in U.S.-controlled waters, but there is no law against the removal and sale of shark fins once brought ashore. The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act will close this loophole, thereby eliminating the U.S. contribution of shark fins to the global market and putting the U.S. in a stronger position to advocate for abolishing the fin trade internationally.
Take Action:
Contact your U.S. senators and representative, and urge them to cosponsor S. 3095/H.R. 5584!
Read the full text and follow its progress here for the Senate version and here for the House version.