November 26, 2013 — Editor’s note: This opinion piece signed by Oceana chief Andrew Sharpless and Actress January Jones of Mad Men, fails to note the importance of the posession exemption for dogfish that Oceana has supported in several states.
Commuters traveling through the metro station near the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) headquarters might notice something unusual — a series of ads posted by Oceana urging NOAA to protect sharks and not shark finners. NOAA is tasked with "the management, conservation and protection of" our nation's "living marine resources," so it might come as a surprise that the agency is challenging state laws that help protect sharks.
Each year, shark finners slaughter as many as 73 million sharks for shark fin soup. Slaughter is no understatement — they typically hack off every one of a shark's fins before hurling the shark back overboard, dead or dying. The insatiable demand for shark fins has already contributed to population declines as high as 90 percent for many species.
The U.S. government banned shark finning in U.S. waters in 2000, but until recently the trade in shark fins was still legal across the country. Between 2010 and 2013, eight U.S. states and two territories passed bans on trade in shark fins. By closing a large percentage of the U.S. market and reducing demand, the state bans help protect sharks globally. Previously, an average 68 percent of the shark fins imported into the U.S. were imported into the eight states that enacted these bans.
Read the full opinion piece at the Huffington Post