Wolfgang Leander got the shark scoop this afternoon from Washington DC.With shark news from both the Maldives and now in the US it would seem this is has been a great week for sharks:
Some very good news coming out of Washington D.C today...The House of Representatives passed the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81) yesterday. This bill would require sharks to be landed with their fins still naturally attached, which allows for better enforcement and data collection in stock assessments and quota monitoring.
For more information please read Oceana's press release (who also happened to be a driving force behind this initiative) and visit their website - specifically their shark section.
Editors Note:Kudos to those that made this happen. On the subject of first rate eco work support Oceana.org, they actually effect change with your money and your time.
1 comment:
It's certainly a good beginning.
Hell, it's a GREAT beginning!
But let's not kid ourselves: "finning" is merely a destructive and repugnant technique and even after the ban, the killing of Sharks remains perfectly legal.
Shark fishing continues despite ample evidence to the fact that it is not only unsustainable, but that stocks will require hundreds (!) of years to recover from today's severely depleted levels.
With that in mind, anybody claiming that stocks need to be "assessed" and that quotas need to be "monitored" is just perpetuating the tired old strategy by Fisheries Agencies to "collect data" (i.e.: procrastinate) until there's nothing more worth protecting.
All very pro-fishermen but alas, equally anti-Conservation.
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