Shark Fin Trade Ban Bill Passes Senate Commerce Committee
A bill that would ban the sale of shark fins in the U.S. passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee April 3. The bill, led by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., also passed out of committee two years ago (see 1705180030), and had more than 30 co-sponsors and a companion House bill, but never came up for a vote in either chamber.
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A report from the Commerce Committee last year said that shark fin imports total less than $3 million annually. The bill says that there could be fins from as many as 73 million sharks for sale every year. "The trade in shark fins is primarily focused on large coastal and pelagic species that grow slowly, mature late, and have low reproduction rates," the bill says, and the harvesting is cruel, as sharks are thrown overboard with their fins removed, leaving them to drown or starve. "Abolition of the shark fin trade in the United States will remove the United States from the global shark fin market and will put the United States in a stronger position to advocate internationally for abolishing the shark fin trade in other countries," the bill says. The bill would add shark fin trade to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, with a maximum civil penalty of $100,000.