Hopes US shark fin trade ban bill could help save species

Transcript

A bill that would ban the trade of shark fins in the US could set an example for the whole world if it's passed.

The bill's champion, Congressman Gregorio Kilili Sablan from the Northern Marianas, says a US-wide trade ban will help save the endangered species.

Jo O'Brien reports.

What the congressman wants to stop is shark fins from overseas being sold to the United States.  He says his bill would remove the economic incentive for a practice that sees more than 70 million sharks killed each year for their fins alone.

GREGORIO KILILI SABLAN:  We are going to pass a law that bans the importation of shark fins and the trade of shark fins into the United States and hopefully help in preserving sharks, hopefully also be an example to the rest of the world.

The United States has already banned shark finning.  But RNZ International Correspondent Mark Rabago says the Northern Marianas was the first territory in the US to ban the trade in shark fins five years ago.

MARK RABAGO:  It spurred Palau, the Phillipines, and parts of the US to also come up with a law so in the way the CNMI was a trailblazer for this so it just makes sense for a delegate from a small island in the middle of the Pacific to introduce this law.

The bill has bipartisan support in the US Congress, and has won the backing of organisations such as Seaworld and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, along with Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman.  Animal welfare group, the Humane Society is also supporting the bill.  Its wildlife manager Iris Ho says finning means many shark species are now threatened with extinction.

IRIS HO:  A lot of times these sharks are being killed for their fins while the animals are still alive and the body is thrown overboard, and many sharks will die from blood loss, or eaten by other animals, or suffocation.

Iris Ho says the US has the biggest market for sharkfins outside Asia, and Congress understands the need to shut down the trade.

IRIS HO:  Shark fins are still very much imported in the US, exported from the US, and also traded within US borders. As long as US is providing this market for shark fins then we are incentivising sharkfinning activity elsewhere.

The ban on the trade in shark fins has meant that in the Northern Marianas there are no longer any restaurants selling shark fin soup.  The legislation would allow exemptions for the use of sharks for subsistence purposes in the US as it does on the US territory.  Gregorio Kilili Sablan says the indigenous people of the Northern Marianas make use of the entire fish.

GREGORIO KILILI SABLAN: Destroying millions of sharks simply for their fins is a wasteful practice that our indigenous Chamorros and Refaluwasch cultures in the Northern Marianas would never have allowed. We would have used as much of the shark as possible for food, for tools, and other purposes.

Mr Sablan says his ancestors also understood the role of sharks in preserving the health of the oceans.  He says it was a privilege to introduce the bill to the US Congress.