Born Free USA celebrates the passage of a bill to ban the import and export of shark fins in Canada. Though domestic shark finning has been illegal since 1994, Canada is the largest importer of shark fins outside of Asia. This new bill, which Born Free USA has worked on for years, will ban shark fin imports into country.
Each year, the shark fin trade claims the lives of approximately 73 million sharks. These animals are captured in the wild, their fins are cut off, and their bodies are often discarded back into the ocean, where the sharks – severely injured and often unable to swim – are left to die. More than 70 percent of the 14 most common shark species in the fin trade are considered at high or very high risk of extinction. Born Free USA applauds the shark fin ban in Canada and calls on other nations to follow this compassionate example.