BALTIMORE (USA)- Fishermen on the eastern US coasts catching smooth dogfish are allowed to bring back to port more than twice the ratio of fins to bodies.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided to ease on the restrictions of shark finning. Conservation groups are furious and concerned that the change makes it easier for illegal finning of dogfish and similar sharks to go undetected.
Atlantic states ease restriction on shark finning for the small shark, known as dogfish. Finning refers to slicing off their fins and tossing the still alive shark to the ocean to die. Allowing fishermen to land more fins than carcasses makes it difficult to enforce restrictions on finning
Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, said to the Examiner that the commission’s move is “a giant step backwards” at a time when many other nations are imposing more stringent rules to prevent finning.
US Atlantic fishermen land more smooth dogfish than any other shark species except for spiny dogfish. The catch is mostly exported, with the meat used in fish and chips and the fins in shark fin soup.
Earlier this year, lawmakers in the state of Maryland voted to ban the shark fin trade, but exempted the smooth as well as spiny dogfish. In Texas a ban on shark finning didn’t make it.
It is estimated that the global value of the shark fin trade ranges from U.S. $540 million to U.S. $1.2 billion. More than 70 million sharks die each year as a result of “shark finning”.
Read more at the Examiner