Shark Week 2019 brought us seven days completely dedicated to watching our favorite scary fish swim across our television screens. While Shark Week is a beloved tradition, we often forget that these intimidating predators are also prey. In light of this, our post-Shark Week to-do list should include passing the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act to protect declining shark populations worldwide.
While sharks may be apex predators in the ocean, humans are still at the top of the food chain. Rough estimates point to 100 million sharks being hunted and killed every year primarily for the fin trade. Because data can be hard to collect on this topic, the actual numbers could be much higher, potentially even double the estimate.
Shark finning is a lucrative business with the demand driven by people wanting to sell shark fin soup. Fishermen are sometimes able to sell fins for as much as $500 dollars per pound, motivating them to kill more and more sharks. Because fins are only 1% to 5% of the shark’s total body weight in most cases, they throw the remains overboard.
Much of the outrage of the shark fin trade comes from the cruelty displayed when obtaining the fins. Live sharks are hauled onto the boat, have their fins sliced off, and then they are dumped back into the water. They will die from one of three things: suffocation from an inability to swim, loss of blood, or being eaten alive by another animal.
Finning is not only cruel to the animals involved, but it is damaging shark populations worldwide. Some shark populations have decreased by 60-70%, and several endangered and vulnerable populations are still hunted. The scalloped hammerhead and smooth hammerhead are great examples; both are at-risk and yet close to 2 million sharks from these species alone are killed every year.
Of course, the ocean cannot lose millions of predators per year without there being a ripple effect. Declining shark populations harm the rest of the ecosystem. Without the top predators keeping the balance, predators lower down the food chain can upset biodiversity across the ocean. One example is an increasing ray population eating more scallops and clams, impacting bivalve harvesting operations around the globe.
For the sake of declining shark populations, oceanic biodiversity, and an economy that includes fishing industries, it is time that we ban the sale of shark fins in the United States. The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act introduced in Congress by Del. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan of Northern Marianas and Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, aims to do just that.
If passed, the bill would make it “illegal to possess, buy, or sell shark fins or any product containing shark fins, except for certain dogfish fins. A person may possess a shark fin that was lawfully taken consistent with a license or permit under certain circumstances.”
The original version of this bill, introduced in 2017, had overwhelming support in the House of Representatives with more than 200 co-sponsors (including 11 committee chairpersons). The bill’s Senate companion legislation easily passed out of committee, but time ran out for Congress to pass the bill.
In a statement after introducing the bill, McCaul commented:
McCaul is exactly right. A ban on shark fins in the United States will not end the trade worldwide, but it will affect global markets. After all, the U.S. is a leading importer of shark fins.
It is time for us to step up and be leaders in conserving global shark populations. For the sake of sharks and Shark Week fans everywhere, let 2019 be the year Congress passes this important piece of legislation.
Kelvey Vander Hart is a staff writer with the American Conservation Coalition.
