October 17, 2023 — A joint operation between the U.S. and Canada recently completed a high seas patrol to detect illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the North Pacific, and discovered more than 3,000 illegally possessed or stored shark fins.
The joint operation, dubbed Operation North Pacific Guard, ran earlier this year. It was the first time that Canada took the lead in the mission, which has taken place each year since 2019.
December 16, 2022 — To save a fearsome predator from extinction, the United States is on the verge of putting in place a near total ban on buying and selling fins sliced off of sharks.
Late Thursday, the Senate approved language making it illegal, with few exceptions, to trade shark fins. The provision, which the House had inserted into an annual military policy bill, is now headed to President Biden for his signature.
U.S. lawmakers hope to put a dent into a worldwide shark trade that harvests between 26 million and 73 million sharks a year, according to one estimate. Fishers abroad often chop the fins from sharks while still alive and dump the bodies overboard.
But American shark fishers warn that banning fin sales here will result in fishers throwing away fins and do nothing to curb overfishing in foreign waters that are not as well regulated as U.S. fisheries. And some members of Asian communities, where shark fin soup is served at celebratory meals, have criticized past limits on shark fin sales as unfair.
“It’d be like telling a farmer to waste half of a chicken or half of a cow,” said Kevin Wark, a commercial fisher who catches shark and monkfish out of Barnegat Light, N.J. “It’s just not going to work out for us.
In fish markets, the fin is the most valuable part of a shark. The flat appendage is a main ingredient in shark fin soup, a delicacy in China and other countries where, for centuries, the brothy dish has traditionally been served at weddings and other big events.
U.S. fishers will still be able to catch sharks and sell the rest of their meat. After New Jersey put in place a statewide fin sales ban, Wark said he must cut off and throw away the fins to bring the rest of the shark to market.
The ban, he added, is a “poster child of people doing something to make themselves feel good and think that they’re going to save the species.”
“It just creates a system of waste,” he added.
When California moved forward with its own fin ban about a decade ago, it caused consternation among many Asian-Americans, even those that supported the prohibition.
“It’s not that this ban is ‘racist’ as some have put it, it’s that it’s the kind of thing that smells a bit of cynical political posturing,” cookbook editor and radio host Francis Lam wrote in a 2011 Salon article, which he said in a direct message on Twitter that he still stands by today.
Shaun Gehan, a lawyer who represents commercial fishers, said the industry has already been hit hard by a slump in sales after pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong and the coronavirus pandemic limited access to Asian markets. The local ban, he added, does little to solve unsustainable fishing practices abroad.
“It certainly hurts a small, sustainable sector of the domestic fishing industry. But it’s also stupid,” Gehan said. “It does nothing to solve the problem where it actually occurs.”
December 8, 2022 — House lawmakers on Thursday passed measures that would ban buying and selling shark fins in the United States and help the country combat illegal fishing as part of the annual defense spending bill.
The National Defense Authorization Act, which passed Thursday in a bipartisan 350-80 vote, includes the “END Wildlife Trafficking Act” and the shark fin sale provision.
August 26, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
U.S. shark fisheries are among the most sustainably managed commercial and recreational fisheries in the world. Here are six things fishermen do to help help us maintain a sustainable shark fishery:
1. Have the Proper Permits
Fishermen need a federal fishing permit to fish for sharks. These permits, issued by NOAA Fisheries, help us communicate and enforce regulations and monitor how many sharks are caught.
2. Follow Bag and Size Limits
Commercial fishermen follow annual catch limits, gear restrictions, closed areas, and retention limits when fishing for sharks. The recreational shark fishery also has bag and size limits. These limits maintain the sustainability of the shark fishery by controlling the harvest. Minimum size limits protect many juvenile sharks from harvest and ensure they have the opportunity to mature and reproduce.
3. Use Circle Hooks
Fishermen use circle hooks when using their rod and reel or longline fishing gear to catch sharks. Circle hooks increase the chance of hooking a shark in the jaw instead of the gut. This reduces injury to the shark’s internal organs and increases their chance of survival when released. A shark that is hooked in the jaw is easier and safer to dehook. The only exception to using circle hooks is when recreational anglers are fishing with artificial lures or flies.
4. Fins Attached
Fishermen land sharks with their fins still attached. This prevents the cruel and wasteful practice of finning, which has been banned in the United States since 2000. Only sharks landed under the strict and sustainable commercial restrictions mentioned above may have their fins removed and sold after landing.
5. Identify Shark Species
Commercial fishermen that use longline or gillnet gear are required to attend Handling and Release workshops where they learn which species they can keep and how to release those that are prohibited (including learning about the best ways to release sea turtles and marine mammals). Recreational fishermen are also trained in Catch and Release Best Practices so they know how to handle and safely release sharks. There are more than 20 prohibited shark species in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. If a fisherman accidentally hooks a prohibited species, they release them in a manner that enhances survival. Both commercial and recreational fishermen use shark identification guides to help identify which sharks they are catching
6. Report Catch
Fishermen report their catch through various programs, including:
Commercial landings are also reported through dealer reports.
Collecting information on catch and landings helps assure the sustainability of the shark fishery. The data from these programs are essential to support stock assessments that determine how much harvest a fishery can support and whether current harvest levels are within sustainable limits.
August 20, 2021 — In order to promote shark conservation, a ban has been initiated on the import and export of detached shark fins, the UK Government announced. This ban will include shark fin products like tinned shark fin soup.
Shark species are facing population decline, and shark finning is a huge force behind this. Out of over 500 species of shark, 143 are listed as ‘under threat’ under the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A key indicator and sign of ocean health is the presence and amount of sharks in marine areas. Sharks also play a major role in marine ecosystems because they help maintain healthy and normal levels of fish lower to them in the food chain.
November 6, 2020 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:
The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has released its fifth annual Update to ISSF Conservation Measures & Commitments Compliance Report, which shows a conformance rate of 99.4 percent by 25 ISSF participating companies with all 27 ISSF conservation measures in effect as of October 1, 2019.
As part of its commitment to foster transparency and accountability in the fishing industry, ISSF engages third-party auditor MRAG Americas to assess ISSF participating seafood companies’ compliance with ISSF conservation measures according to a rigorous audit protocol.
The November 2020 report is based on updates to the initial annual audit results published in April 2020, wherein some companies had “minor” or “major” non-conformances with conservation measures in the prior year:
MRAG Americas defines a minor non-conformance as: “Company does not fully comply with a particular conservation measure or commitment, but this does not compromise the integrity of ISSF initiatives.”
The rate of full conformance for each period since participating-company compliance reporting began is reflected below:
“Since 2015, we’ve seen consistent growth in the conformance rate of our participating companies with ISSF conservation measures, regularly exceeding 90 percent in full rate of conformance and achieving nearly 100 percent in most recent years,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “The compliance and audit process helps ISSF hold industry participants to a high standard with reliable transparency. The world’s leading seafood companies are driven to make sustainability a central part of how they do business.”
The Update to ISSF Conservation Measures & Commitments Compliance Report is published each November to track ISSF participating companies’ progress in conforming with ISSF conservation measures like these:
In addition to the summary compliance reports published in April and November, MRAG Americas issues yearly individual ISSF participating company reports that detail each company’s compliance with all ISSF conservation measures. These include “update” reports, published throughout the year, that explain how individual companies have remediated any non-conformance on the conservation measures.
More Information about ISSF Conservation Measures & Compliance
For long-term tuna sustainability, tuna companies worldwide choose to participate with ISSF, follow responsible fishing practices, and implement science-based conservation measures. From bycatch mitigation to product traceability, ISSF participating companies have committed to conforming to a set of conservation measures and other commitments designed to drive positive change — and to do so transparently through third-party audits.
September 21, 2020 — Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a measure into law banning the import and export of shark fins in Florida.
Sen. Travis Hutson sponsored the bill (SB 680), but the measure is named after the late Kristin Jacobs. She sponsored the House version of the bill (HB 401). Jacobs passed away in April — almost exactly one month after the Legislature approved the legislation — after a yearslong battle with cancer.
“This bill’s really important to the state,” Jacobs said as the Legislature approved a final version of the bill.
Jacobs prioritized banning the shark fin trade. Toward the end of the legislative process, Rep. Toby Overdorf offered an amendment renaming the bill the “Kristin Jacobs Ocean Conservation Act.” That amendment was approved.
“It was an incredible honor and privilege to help Rep. Jacobs across the finish line with this bill,” Overdof said. “The aptly named Ocean Conservancy Act allows her advocacy for the environment and for bipartisan relationships to continue long after her passing.”
September 8, 2020 — Shark fin soup, considered a delicacy in some countries, has long fueled demand for illegally harvested fins. But federal authorities in Georgia announced this week that they had dismantled at least one source for the ingredient: a multimillion-dollar organization they described as an international money laundering, drug trafficking and illegal wildlife trade ring.
A dozen people, including Terry Xing Zhao Wu, 45, of Burlingame, Calif., and two businesses on opposite ends of the country face multiple charges, including fraud and money laundering, for their roles in what the authorities called the “Wu transnational criminal organization,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said in a statement on Thursday.
“United with our partner agencies, we have shut down an operation that fed a seemingly insatiable overseas appetite for illegally traded wildlife, and seized ill-gotten assets derived from that despicable criminal enterprise,” Bobby L. Christine, the U.S. attorney for the district, said in the statement.
September 1, 2020 — Hamada Suisan Co. Ltd., the owner of a Japanese-flagged fishing vessel, was charged in federal court Monday tied to the illegal trafficking of shark fins.
The charges of aiding and abetting the attempted export of shark fins stems from a November 2018 discovery of hundreds of fins in the possession of workers from the fishing vessel, M.V. Kyoshin Maru No. 20.
According to the Department of Justice, the vessel’s Indonesian workers legally came to Hawaii to board flights out of the Honolulu International Airport. During routine TSA screenings of carry-on luggage, agents found some 962 shark fins within their bags, weighing in approximately 190 pounds.
July 14, 2020 — If there’s one thing most of the public knows about shark conservation, it’s that they’re under siege by global fleets of vessels that scoop them up, cut off their fins and deposit them back into the ocean to drown, a cruel practice known as shark finning.
But what if that practice, while real, isn’t the singular threat it’s made out to be?
“There are many threats facing sharks, but one, which is not the biggest threat, gets the most attention,” says David Shiffman, a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University who studies shark conservation.
An analysis of ten years’ worth of media reports, published in June by Shiffman et al in the open-access journal iScience, shows that two-thirds of all articles about threats to sharks focused on finning and the trade in shark fins — two separate issues that are conflated so frequently, write the authors, that “it was impossible to tease these two threats apart.”
A more pressing threat, overfishing, was mentioned in just four of ten articles. Recreational fishing for sharks, which the authors call an emerging threat, only made it into a tenth of the articles.
Critically endangered sharks, meanwhile, got a tiny fraction of the attention of the better-known species, like great white sharks. They showed up just 20 times in nearly 2,000 articles.
The result of the skewed media coverage, Shiffman says, is that “a concerned citizen learning about this important issue from newspapers would be badly misinformed,” which could lead them to support policies that, at best, won’t work.
Mongabay reached Shiffman over email for an interview that’s been edited lightly for length and clarity.