California shark fin sales ban will go forward

Great news: California’s landmark ban on buying and selling shark fins will go forward!

Last summer, soon after the state law (AB 376) went into effect, a federal rule change threatened to preempt the law and provide cover for shark fin hunters.

Thousands of CLCV supporters and many others spoke up and submitted public comments to the federal agency proposing the change, telling the agency not to undermine California’s effort to end our state’s role in the destructive practice of shark finning.

We’re thrilled that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) heard us. The agency released a statement this week saying:

NOAA Fisheries and the states of California, Maryland and Washington have agreed through an exchange of letters that their individual state shark finning laws are consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act…

NOAA published a proposed rule last spring to revise existing shark fishing regulations to be consistent with current law. NOAA’s proposed rule enables sustainably managed shark fisheries while eliminating the harmful practice of finning. The proposed rule included a statement about preemption of state laws, if those laws were inconsistent with the MSA. We included this language because eleven states and territories have enacted their own shark finning laws, each of which takes a slightly different approach to shark conservation and management. It was important for NOAA to confirm that these state laws did not restrict the possession of shark fins in a way that could create a problem for fishermen fishing legally for sharks in federal waters.

NOAA has been engaging in constructive discussions with these states about how both the state and federal laws may be interpreted to further the purposes of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the state laws together. We are pleased today to be able to share the results of these productive discussions with California, Maryland and Washington.

In other words, the NOAA proposal won’t preempt California’s or other states’ laws prohibiting the sale, trade and possession of shark fins.

The practice of shark finning – in which sharks are captured, their fins cut off and their bodies thrown back into the sea, often while still alive – is a major contributor to the alarming decline of shark populations around the world. Finning has been linked to declines of up to 90 percent in some shark populations.

Experts estimate that between 26 and 73 million sharks are killed every year to supply the global demand for shark fins, and California was a huge market for the fins.

Back in 2011, thanks to environmental champions in the state legislature and wildlife and ocean advocates throughout California, we won a huge victory when the state legislature passed, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a state ban on the sale, possession and distribution of shark fins. Authored by now-Congressman Jared Huffman and Assemblyman Paul Fong, Assembly Bill 376 made California a leader in shark protection by eliminating California’s market for fins, thereby helping to stop a cruel and outdated practice.

But then, just as California’s law went into effect on July 1, 2013, along came the proposed rule change from NOAA. The agency received an avalanche of public comments on their proposal that would have trumped state law and once again opened the door for shark finning. Those comments, combined with the tireless efforts of Congressman Huffman and other elected leaders, convinced them to withdraw the preemption argument that would have unraveled our hard-earned victory.

Californians are speaking up and helping to put an end to shark finning, which has devastating consequences both for shark species and our entire ocean ecology. Sharks and our fragile ocean ecosystem depend on all of us to protect them, and California’s law is an important step forward in ending this barbaric practice once and for all.

Posted on February 5, 2014
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