Bill description:
This bill prohibits the possession, sale, offer for sale, trade, or distribution of shark fins or shark tails.[teaserbreak]
Exemptions to this prohibition:
- 1. A person who holds a license or permit to take or land
sharks may remove a fin or tail from a shark during the process of preparing the shark’s body, as long as the fin or tail is disposed of immediately.
- 2. A person with a permit may possess fins or tails for noncommercial, scientific research.
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 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.
Shark fins are most commonly used in shark fin soup, an Asian dish that connotes wealth and status.
Take Action:
Florida residents, contact your state senator and urge him or her to support this bill!
Read the full text and follow its progress here.