13.7 Billion Years: Senatorial Taste Test: Shark Fin Soup

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Senatorial Taste Test: Shark Fin Soup

The American Senate may be rewriting some menus

Never in their 400-million-year existence have sharks been so maligned and treated so poorly by another animal -- Homo sapiens.

To fuel a global demand for the Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup (popular since the Ming dynasty), the barbaric practice of shark-finning maims and kills millions of sharks every year.

The act involves catching a shark, cutting off its fins, then throwing it back in the water, where it sinks to the sea floor, unable to swim. There it dies a slow death, often being eaten alive by other fish.

But amidst all the shark-finners and shark soup-eaters out there, there are some who are trying to help this amazingly resilient and extraordinarily adept predator. Some of those people are American lawmakers.

Introduced by Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo, the U.S. Shark Conservation Act of 2009 has passed the House of Representatives.

Bordallo is a delegate from Guam , a U.S. island territory in the western Pacific that is home to many shark species, including blacktip (Carcharhinus melanopterus), grey (C. menisorrah), whitetip reef (Triaenodon obesus) and nurse (Ginglymostoma ferrugineum).

According to GovTrack.us, the bill includes measures "to prohibit removal any of the fins of a shark (including the tail) and discarding the carcass of the shark at sea."

According to the marine conservation nonprofit group Oceana, the bill "also closes a loophole related to the transfer of fins at sea, which allows bad actors to circumvent the current law" and "allows the U.S. to take actions against countries that have weaker protections for sharks."

Now it's the Senate's turn to vote.

Sharks are a hardy bunch -- the earliest of them appeared before the dinosaurs. But unless our tastes -- and feelings -- change, they may soon join the "terrible lizards."

GET INVOLVED

Sign an Oceana letter urging U.S. senators to pass the Shark Conservation Act of 2009
Sign the Coral Reef Care petition supporting an E.U. Plan of Action for the protection of sharks