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The season for shark finning is over -- permanently. Shark-finning ban
becomes federal lawBy Harold Morse
Star-BulletinPresident Clinton signed a bill yesterday that bans cutting off shark fins -- a delicacy in Asia -- and the related practice of returning finless sharks to the sea to die.
Pacific Ocean fishermen supplying fins to Asian markets are said to be the targets.
But new rules signed into law this year by Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano had already curtailed the shark fin trade in Hawaiian waters. Hawaii law says shark fins brought to Hawaiian ports must either be on the shark or, if sliced off, the carcasses must be aboard. That's now also a federal requirement.
"If you're a fisherman who is making money from shark fins, it (the ban) is a bad thing," said Paul Dalzell, a Western Pacific Fishery Management Council biologist. "If your perspective is toward conserving sharks, then it's a good thing."
Shark populations throughout the world have been heavily fished, particularly off the U.S. East Coast, he said. Having to bring carcasses in reduces the amount of finning, he said.
"What we understand from the state and the other enforcement agencies, the level of finning (here) had declined markedly" because of the state law, he said.
The federal law may impact American Samoa and Guam, whose ports have seen transshipment of fins from foreign vessels, Dalzell said.
The U.S. Department of Commerce took action in 1993 to halt finning in Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico waters after it became clear it was reducing shark populations. Clinton's action makes the ban law and extends it to the Pacific.
Thus, it is illegal for a fishing boat to enter an American port or operate in the 200-mile U.S. federal water territories carrying shark fins without the carcass. Fishermen are unlikely to take up room aboard vessels to carry shark carcasses, which have little market value.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.