The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2017 (S.793), which would prohibit the import, export, sale and trade of shark fins. Next, the bill must be brought up on the Senate floor.
Shark finning is currently prohibited in U.S. waters, however, there are no prohibitions on the sale of shark fins imported from other places such as China, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
The bill was a bi-partisan effort by sponsors, Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., John McCain, R-Ariz., Gary Peters, D-Mich., James Inhofe, R-Okla., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. A companion House bill, H.R. 1456, introduced by Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, D-Northern Mariana Islands, has nearly 100 cosponsors.
“What we have realized about ivory is that in order to stop the ongoing slaughter of elephants, we need to completely shut down ivory markets and take away the economic incentive for killing the elephants. And the United States and other countries are now taking aggressive steps to do just that,” Senator Booker said in his statement. “The same holds true for sharks. Banning the trade in shark fins is the only way to shut down the global market for fins and take away the economic incentive to kill sharks for their fins.”
