Shark Finning Legislation and Shark Welfare. An Analysis of the Kristin Jacobs Ocean Conservation Act

Thousands of sharks are cruelly killed worldwide every day due to the lucrative shark finning trade. This practice is negatively impacting marine life, as sharks are the greatest ocean predators and maintain the delicate balance of the marine ecosystem. Shark finning consists of removing the fins and discarding the rest. The sharks are alive during the process, and when tossed back into the water without fins they cannot swim, thus sinking to the depths where they asphyxiate and / or are devoured by other fish. The fins are primarily consumed in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Asian communities elsewhere in the world for making shark-fin soup. Efforts to stop the practice of shark finning vary, ranging from demanding fisheries to bring sharks to land before removing the fins, to prohibiting the trade of shark products, to the total ban of shark fishing. Legislation varies significantly between countries and states, ranging from zero to absolute protection, whereby absolute means prohibiting the possession, sale, importation and exportation of shark fins. The economic implications of the shark-fin trade are considerable, which renders the application of laws and regulations very difficult. However, the increasing business of diving with sharks offers an alternative that shows us that the value of a living shark is far greater than when it is sold for parts. Analyzing legislation from the United States, as well as international legislation, aims to show its weakness when it comes to efforts to protect sharks, and in particular the application of the concept of shark welfare when legislating in their favor. The case study will focus on the Kristin Jacobs Ocean Conservation Act, investigating and analyzing the legal efforts made in the state of Florida (USA) to stop shark finning, and analyzing the legal implications for shark welfare.

Shark Fin Regulations in the United States: Animal Welfare, Cultural, and Policy Considerations

Sharks play critical roles in the marine ecosystem, and they face serious threats due to overfishing. Conservation efforts have focused on the consumption of shark fins, especially the “finning” practice that removes the fins of a shark and discards the carcass at sea. This article reviews the shark fin legislation in the United States, including the “finning ban” which outlaws finning practices and the “fin ban” that prohibits the use of shark fins entirely. Our case study specifically focuses on the animal welfare, cultural, and policy debates surrounding these bans. We discuss how and why shark finning is regarded as a cruel practice and whether shark fin bans discriminate against Chinese Americans. At the policy level, there is an ongoing policy debate whether a ban on shark fins in the United States would lead to increased protection of sharks or it would have little effect on the global trade. Due to the lack of detailed information on shark fisheries, the policy discussion is likely to persist. Although this case study focuses only on regulations on shark fins, we would like to emphasize that shark fin industry is not the only threat to sharks. Conservationists also need to consider other issues such as bycatch, habitat destruction, and a wider array of policy tools to protect sharks.

DAMPAK PENGOLAHAN DAN KONSUMSI SUP SIRIP IKAN HIU

Indonesia is an archipelagic country that consist of 2/3 ocean and 1/3 land. The extensive territorial ocean is certainly have a lot of diversity of marine existence. One of them is shark. There are 25 kinds of sharks in indonesian’s oncean. Lately sharks have become one of the topics discussed in fisheries institutions and fauna activists, due to the increasing activity of hunting shark. Shark finning is cutting off a shark’s fin and throwing the rest of the still-living body, often by dumping it back into the ocean.The body’s sharks without fins are often thrown back into the ocean alive, where they are die because unable to swim properly and bleeding profusely or die of blood loss. Shark fins are tempting targets for fishermen because they have high monetary and cultural value. Fins are used in a popular dish called shark fin soup, which is a symbol of status. This review will provide a description of definition of shark finning, shark fin soup, dengerous delicacy for humans and sharks alike and aim to protect Indonesia is an archipelagic country that consist of 2/3 ocean and 1/3 land. The extensive territorial ocean is certainly have a lot of diversity of marine existence. One of them is shark. There are 25 kinds of sharks in indonesian’s oncean. Lately sharks have become one of the topics discussed in fisheries institutions and fauna activists, due to the increasing activity of hunting shark. Shark finning is cutting off a shark’s fin and throwing the rest of the still-living body, often by dumping it back into the ocean.The body’s sharks without fins are often thrown back into the ocean alive, where they are die because unable to swim properly and bleeding profusely or die of blood loss. Shark fins are tempting targets for fishermen because they have high monetary and cultural value. Fins are used in a popular dish called shark fin soup, which is a symbol of status. This review will provide a description of definition of shark finning, shark fin soup, dengerous delicacy for humans and sharks alike and aim to protect shark population. Keyword : Indonesian’s ocean ; Save our shark ; Shark Finning ; Shark fin soup. shark population.

Shark finning in eastern Indonesia: assessing the sustainability of a data-poor fishery

For over two decades, Indonesia has reported higher average shark landings than any other nation, but very little local information exists on the fishery and life histories of targeted species. This poses severe challenges to shark sustainability and conservation in this vast archipelago. We draw on diverse sources of data to evaluate the sustainability of the shark fishery in eastern Indonesia, a particularly data-poor region where sharks are primarily targeted for their fins. Shark fishers from three coastal communities were interviewed on their perceptions of catch trends over the past twenty years and asked to collect fishing data during fishing trips in the Seram, Arafura and Timor Seas. For the most frequently harvested species, we estimated maximum intrinsic rates of increase (rmax) to predict their resilience to fishing pressure. Our results indicate that shark fishing practices in the region are likely to be unsustainable. The catches of several species largely comprised of immature individuals and most fishers attributed observed declines in shark numbers, size and species diversity to overfishing. Hammerhead sharks have relatively high intrinsic resilience but are nevertheless at risk of local extinction due to their availability to the fishery and the value of their fins. Sandbar, dusky and grey reef sharks have lower resilience and are frequently caught but not managed. We recommend a composite management approach, including consistent implementation of existing trade restrictions, fisheries research and opportunities for fishers’ livelihood diversification, to stem shark harvests in eastern Indonesia.

A case study of the forensic application of DNA Barcoding to sharkfin identification in the Mexican Pacific

One of the problems that arose from the meetings of the Barcode in Mexico project was the urgency of having a method in which Mexican authorities could trust for detecting shark finning. This study examined DNA barcoding as a method to identify 14 dried shark fins confiscated by the Mexican Government in two exportation shipments in Mazatlán and Manzanillo ports. Fins were DNA barcoded using the COI mitochondrial gene and provided matching sequences of six species: Prionace glauca, Carcharhinus falciformis, Carcharhinus limbatus, Alopias pelagicus, Mustelus henlei and Rhizoprionodon longurio. There is no information on DNA barcoding sharkfin trade in the Mexican Pacific and this is the first group effort with Mexican Government Agencies for the conservation of sharks.