Two Federal
laws (passed in 2000 and strengthened in 2010) made removal of shark fins
illegal, but did not ban the possession and sale of the fins. Every year millions of sharks are killed only for
their fins. The remainder of the shark
is dumped back into the ocean to die. A 2013 California law made possession and sale of shark fins illegal. A group including restaurant owners, shark
fin suppliers and Chinese American community organizations filed suit against
the state. Monday the United State Supreme Court upheld the California law.
California’s ban on the possession and sale
of shark fins survived a legal challenge Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court
rejected an appeal by Bay Area suppliers and sellers of shark fin soup, a
traditional dish in the Chinese American community.
Federal law prohibits shark “finning,” the
removal of fins from sharks, but does not forbid possessing or selling shark
fins. California lawmakers went a step further with a statute that took effect
in July 2013 and had the impact of removing shark fin soup from restaurant
menus.
What
cultural relevance is gained by driving a species to extinction?
Many species of sharks are currently in
danger due to shark finning, including the scalloped hammerhead, which is
endangered, and the smooth hammerhead, which is vulnerable according to the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Between 1.3 and 2.7 million
of just these two sharks are killed every year in the shark fin trade, and the
northwestern Atlantic population of the scalloped hammerhead declined from
around 155,500 in 1981 to 26,500 in 2005. Today, some shark populations have
decreased by 60-70% due to human shark fisheries.
For more
information on the impact of the war on sharks read this report.
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