Reply to Steve Waters (Sun-Sentinel)

[Broadbill-Pro]

Sunday - May 4th, 2008 Sun-Sentinel Article

The National Coalition for Marine Conservation (NCMC) has pointed out a serious loophole in a law designed to protect sharks and a new bill in Congress designed to close that loophole.

The Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 was passed to prevent anglers from catching sharks, cutting off their fins and dumping the carcasses in U.S. waters. Shark fin soup is prized by some cultures and shark fins command a high price.

The loophole came to light in March when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an American ship that was caught 250 miles off Guatemala in 2002 with about 65,000 pounds of shark fins worth more than $600,000 did not break the law.

The reason given by the judges was that the American ship was not a fishing vessel. According the shark finning act, it is illegal for a "fishing vessel" to possess shark fins without the rest of the carcass. The judges ruled that the ship in question was merely transporting shark fins back to the United States that it bought from foreign vessels.

Rep. Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, the chairwoman of the House of Representatives subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, has introduced the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5741) to close that loophole and encourage other countries to prohibit shark finning. The bill is waiting to be heard by the subcommittee before it can move to the floor of the House for a vote.

The NCMC, which is a member of the National Marine Fisheries Service's highly migratory species advisory panel, supports Bordallo's bill. It recommends people contact their representatives and ask that the bill be amended to require that sharks remain in whole condition until the ship arrives in port. The NCMC noted that commercial anglers can remove a shark's fins at sea, but it is difficult to match shark fins to shark carcasses, which makes it hard to enforce the finning ban.




Steve,

First off I do not support the sale of shark fins unless the carcass is also sold for consumption. The article you wrote today only tells half the story, as you know I am also a Member of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel along with the Representative of the NCMC you quoted. The discussion of finning sharks is always on the table at our bi-annual meetings. The current regulation is that shark fins can be removed from the shark at sea, but can not exceed 5% of the carcass weight at the time of discharge. This regulation is flawed in that depending on the species it is possible for the wet fin weight to reach as much as 9% of the total carcass weight. The Enforcement Division from NOAA has assured us that they are not looking to arrest Fisherman who are slightly over the 5% rule, but the Fisherman I have spoken to are not satisfied with allowing each Officer the ability to interpret the law as he/she desires.

Shark fin weights are recorded at the time of discharge from the vessel, if the "carrier" you wrote about in your article was transporting fins that have no record of harvest then certainly they are illegal. If you are trying to convince us that this "non-fishing" vessel operated within a loop-hole because they were transporting previously reported product, then the proposed Shark Conservation Act of 2008 that would limit the transport of such product must be denied.

There are several reasons that shark fins should be removed from the carcass while at sea, the most important of them being the proper cleaning of the animal which allows the stomach portion to be discarded where the pectoral fins are attached and another is the ability for fishing vessels to store the product in holds that are designed to stack fish cores in a uniform manner. Many American Shark Fisherman operate from 30' to 35' vessels, these vessels are not capable of holding sharks in their unprocessed state with dorsal and pectoral fins attached, this law would impose a hardship on them.

It appears to me that the proposed Shark Conservation Act of 2008 is just another attempt to create a "loop-hole" to punish American Fisherman who abide by the law. I troubles me that you would use the advantage of being published in our local newspaper to sway opinion, without disclosing the entire story. If the American public has a problem with the harvest of sharks, then lets examine that and not disguise a new law that is just another step in banishing the commercial shark fishing sector.

Sincerely,

Capt. Vincent S. Montella