Ocean Sentry
(From sun-sentinel.com)- A shark conservation bill introduced last week in Congress would strengthen the ban on finning, in which the valuable fins are sliced off a live shark and the rest discarded. The fins generally are exported to Asia, where shark fin soup is a delicacy served at weddings and other major events. The Shark Conservation Act of 2009 would ban the removal of shark fins at sea in U.S. waters.
“A growing number of shark populations are threatened, and yet the demand for shark fins remains strong,” Sonja Fordham, shark conservation director for the Ocean Conservancy, said in a statement. “Loopholes have allowed some U.S. shark finning to go unpunished.”
(By David Fleshler)
