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Loading...Oregon Passes Law To Ban Shark Finning
Just in time for Shark Week, Governor John Kitzhaber recently made it illegal to sell, trade, or possess shark fins in the State of Oregon. The bill, which passed the State House of Representatives and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, makes Oregon the third U.S. state to prohibit shark finning behind Hawaii and Washington.
A similar measure passed in the California State Assembly earlier this year, but must to be approved by the Senate before it can become law.
“With the global trade in shark fins pushing sharks toward extinction, it will take strong actions such as this to prevent us from making irreversible changes to our ocean ecosystems,” said Whit Sheard, Senior Advisor and Pacific Counsel for Oceana. “The bipartisan support for this bill once again demonstrates that support for healthy oceans is a non-partisan issue.”
Shark finning is brutal a process whereby sharks are caught, the fins are cut away from the body, and the carcass is thrown back into the sea. Without fins, sharks bleed to death, drown, or are eaten by other species. Used mostly to provide ingredients for the Asian delicacy, shark fin soup, in recent decades this practice has contributed to a 99 percent decline in some shark populations.
Although shark finning is already illegal in U.S., European, Canadian and Australian waters, it’s still common in international waters. Fins are imported to the U.S. from countries with less stringent protections, and because it’s not against the law to possess the fins in most states, this demand continues unabated.
However, scientists are starting to understand that eliminating sharks from ocean ecosystems can destabilize the ocean food web and even lead to declines in populations of other species, including commercially-caught fish and shellfish species lower in the food web.
Related Reading:
Sharks And Other Predators Are Essential For Ocean Health
Five Of The Biggest Sharks In The World [Slideshow]
Shark Finning Outlawed In Chilean Waters
via LA Times
Read more: oceana, oregon, predators, shark conservation, shark finning, Shark Week
Image Credit: Flickr - usfwspacific
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Glad to know I added these items as a staple in my diet and I enjoy them all.
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Kim W I agree with your sentiment. Though we are an omnivorous species, we need to do it in as environmentally…
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+ add your ownGo, Oregon! Tx.
Great,thanks.
That is a great move and timely at that.
Another law Oregon has that we should follow...the right to work. Self service gas stations and self check out lanes are illegal in Oregon. That was done in order to spurr economic growth, and it worked, because the state has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
great news! -- let's all follow Oregon's suit.
Thanks for the article.
that is good news for the sharks and for everyone that is against cruelty to animals
SharkWater was such an eye-opening documentary on what is happening to sharks. I recommend it to anyone!
We must protect these creatures. They only kill for food to survive. We kill them for no really good reason except fear. Save these waters and the life in them!!
This will help the health of the ocean, that is all that lives in that area of the ocean, or in other words the ecosystem in that area of the ocean. Thanks.
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