2000 Management Resolutions

Shark Finning Ban

R E S O L U T I O N
June 2000

WHEREAS “finning” refers to the wasteful practice of slicing off a sharks valuable fins and discarding the body at sea;

WHEREAS finning is driving alarming increases in shark mortality in the U.S. Western Pacific;

WHEREAS the number of sharks landed in this region has increased by more than 2000 percent in recent years, from 2,200 sharks in 1991 to nearly 60,000 sharks in 1998;

WHEREAS the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service have failed to take action to ban finning in federal waters of the Pacific;

WHEREAS shark finning is prohibited in federal waters of the U.S. Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean, as well as the waters of numerous Atlantic and Pacific Coast states;

WHEREAS rising shark waste in the Western Pacific threatens to undermine the United States’ leadership role in international shark conservation initiatives;

WHEREAS the United States House of Representatives recently passed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act by a 390-1 margin;

WHEREAS time is short for complementary Senate action before the end of the 106th Congress;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the American Elasmobranch Society calls upon the United States Senate to immediately act to ban finning in all U.S. waters.

(Cailliet, Burgess)