Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

International Ban on Shark Finning

By Ted Venker
TIDE
Mar/Apr 2005

A remarkable achievement occurred last November which should be a cause for celebration among all marine resource conservationists. In a unanimous vote of the 65 countries of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the vile practice of shark finning was outlawed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Sharks are often caught on longlines either as a directed fishery or as a bycatch in the tuna and swordfish fisheries. After the sharks are hauled on board, fishermen cut off the fins which are the most important, and valuable, ingredient of shark fin soup in Asia. A bowl of shark fin soup can sell for as much as $100 in some countries. Once the fins are removed, the shark is tossed, still living and helpless, back into the ocean to die a lingering death. Keeping the carcass on board takes up too much space better reserved for more valuable species.

Shark finning is so barbaric that it is simply amazing that it is has been allowed to continue as long as it has. The United States banned the practice in the Atlantic more than a decade ago, and other countries with domestic finning bans include Brazil, Canada, Namibia, South Africa and the European Union.

However, a majority of countries have been slow to follow suit and no country controls waters outside its own 200-mile limit. Only international regulatory bodies like ICCAT have the ability to influence the behavior of vessels on the high seas by closing ports to renegade longliners and prohibiting them from landing their catch.

The Bush Administration pushed for a binding measure on shark finning and the U.S. delegation led the effort by introducing a proposal to ban the practice early in the ICCAT meeting. As the recreational commissioner on ICCAT, CCA General Counsel Bob Hayes guided a deal through a mine field of the separate and diverse interests of 65 countries to achieve the first international ban on shark finning.

“It required an incredible series of excruciating meetings,” says Hayes. “The U.S, Japan and the EU all put forth proposals and so they all had to be folded together. On top of that, the final proposal also had to mesh with the laws and jurisdictions of countries that had already banned finning. It was amazingly difficult, but it was such a worthwhile effort that it was almost fun.”

With its adoption, vessels in the Atlantic carrying shark fins must have the rest of the body on board in order to utilize the entire shark or face trade sanctions outlined in agreements hammered out in previous ICCAT meetings. The Commission also agreed to monitor shark catch worldwide and identify areas that serve as shark nurseries.

Although the ban does not extend to the Pacific or other oceans, the significance of this event cannot be overstated. Tens of millions of sharks have met a grisly, wasteful demise every year and sharks are particularly susceptible to overfishing due to their slow growth and because they produce so few young. Although the United Nations adopted an international shark-conservation plan in 1999, few countries had produced national plans to carry it out. Many species of shark are thought to be in peril, with some populations reduced by more than 90 percent since the 1950s.

The ICCAT ban is a significant first step towards rolling back the unsustainable mortality of sharks in all the world’s oceans. Bob Hayes and all of the people who worked to achieve this milestone deserve the gratitude and appreciation of all CCA members and everyone who values our marine resources.