I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 737 
To prohibit the sale of shark fins, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 23, 2019 
Mr. SABLAN (for himself, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, 
Mr. BUCHANAN, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. 
CRIST, 
Ms. 
DEGETTE, 
Mr. 
FITZPATRICK, 
Mr. 
GALLEGO, 
Mr. 
GARAMENDI, Ms. HILL of California, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. JOHNSON of 
Georgia, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KATKO, Mr. KEATING, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. 
KINZINGER, Ms. KUSTER
of New Hampshire, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. 
LOWENTHAL, Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. MITCHELL, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PA-
NETTA, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mr. 
RASKIN, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. RYAN, Mr. 
SCHWEIKERT, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. SOTO, Mr. SUOZZI, Ms. 
TITUS, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mrs. TORRES of California, Mr. 
VELA, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. AGUILAR, 
Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. GOMEZ, and Mr. WEBER of Texas) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To prohibit the sale of shark fins, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Shark Fin Sales Elimi-
nation Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON SALE OF SHARK FINS. 
(a) PROHIBITION.—Except as provided in sections 3 
and 4, no person shall possess, offer for sale, sell, or pur-
chase any shark fin or product containing any shark fin. 
(b) PENALTY.—For purposes of section 308(a) of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Manage-
ment Act (16 U.S.C. 1858(a)), a violation of this section 
shall be treated as an act prohibited by section 307 of 
that Act. 
SEC. 3. EXEMPTION FOR TRADITIONAL FISHERIES, EDU-
CATION, AND SCIENCE. 
Section 2 shall not apply with respect to possession 
of a shark fin that was taken lawfully under a State, terri-
torial, or Federal license or permit to take or land sharks, 
if the shark fin is separated from the shark in a manner 
consistent with the license or permit and is— 
(1) destroyed or discarded upon separation; 
(2) used for noncommercial subsistence pur-
poses in accordance with State or territorial law; 
(3) used solely for display or research purposes 
by a museum, college, or university, or by any other 
person under a State or Federal permit to conduct 
noncommercial scientific research; or 
(4) retained by the license or permit holder for 
a noncommercial purpose. 
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SEC. 4. EXEMPTION FOR DOGFISH. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—It shall not be a violation of sec-
tion 2 for any person to possess, offer for sale, sell, or 
purchase any fresh or frozen raw fin or tail from any stock 
of the species Mustelus canis (smooth dogfish) or Squalus 
acanthias (spiny dogfish). 
(b) REPORT.—By not later than January 1, 2027, 
the Secretary of Commerce shall review the exemption in 
subsection (a) and shall prepare and submit to the Con-
gress a report that includes a recommendation on whether 
the exemption should continue or be terminated. In pre-
paring such report and making such recommendation, the 
Secretary shall analyze factors including— 
(1) the economic viability of dogfish fisheries 
with and without the continuation of the exemption; 
(2) the impact to ocean ecosystems of con-
tinuing or terminating the exemption; 
(3) the impact on enforcement of the ban con-
tained in section 3 caused by the exemption; and 
(4) the impact of the exemption on shark con-
servation. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) SHARK.—The term ‘‘shark’’ means any spe-
cies of the orders Pristiophoriformes, Squatini-
formes, 
Squaliformes, 
Hexanchiformes, 
Lamni-
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formes, Carchariniformes, Orectolobiformes, and 
Heterodontiformes. 
(2) SHARK FIN.—The term ‘‘shark fin’’ means 
the raw, dried, or otherwise processed detached fin, 
or the raw, dried, or otherwise processed detached 
tail, of a shark. 
SEC. 6. STATE AUTHORITY. 
Nothing in this Act affects any right of a State or 
territory of the United States to adopt or enforce any reg-
ulation or standard that is more stringent than a regula-
tion or standard in effect under this Act. 
Æ 
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