The practice has been administratively banned in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. H.R. 5461 will establish the ban in law and extend it to the Pacific Ocean. The United States will intensify efforts to convince other countries to join in prohibiting shark finning. But in the U.S. Pacific Ocean where shark finning is still practiced, the number of sharks killed only for their fins has grown dramatically. Shark fins on sale in Hong Kong market.
Sharks are among the most vulnerable species in the ocean.
Their slow growth, late maturity and small number of offspring leave them particularly vulnerable to overfishing, pollution and other threats. Shark finning feeds the Asian market for shark fin soup. The fins make up between one and five percent of a shark's bodyweight, meaning that 95 to 99 percent of the shark is going to waste. The bill does not ban the sale of fins, but prohibits landing or possessing them without the entire shark carcass in all U.S. federal waters. As most fishermen lack the storage capacity to transport the shark carcasses to shore, the bill effectively bans most finning.