Shark fin ban puts pressure on Asian diners

Sharks fins command a high price on the dining tables of Asia

Outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton has signed legislation banning the controversial practice of shark-finning in U.S. territorial waters.

The law is aimed primarily at Pacific Ocean fishermen who supply tens of thousands of shark fins a year to restaurants in Asia where they are prized as a gourmet delicacy.

The bill, signed by the president on Tuesday, outlaws the practice of removing the fins from live sharks at sea and throwing them back into the water to die.

Conservationists say the practice is not only cruel, leaving sharks to suffer an agonizingly slow death, but it is also wasteful as up to 99 per cent of the shark is not used.

The new law makes it illegal for a vessel carrying shark fins without the shark carcasses to operate in U.S. waters or enter an American port.

The bill is expected to discourage many smaller fishing operators from engaging in finning as the carcasses are considered to be of little market value.

It is also likely to add significantly to the price of fins which can already retail for hundreds of dollars each.

In a written statement Mr Clinton said that in addition to the ban the new legislation would provide for the initiation of international negotiations to outlaw shark-finning worldwide and provide for research on shark conservation.

Earlier this year the writer Peter Benchley, author of the killer shark bestseller "Jaws", lent his backing to a campaign to end shark-finning saying the world's shark population had become the subject of "an unprecedented and uncontrolled attack".

Pressure from environmental groups has also caused a number of Asian airlines to drop sharks fin soup from their in-flight menus.

The moves follow growing concern that some shark species were being fished to point of extinction.

A particular worry for conservationists is sharks low rate of reproduction causing the shark population to dwindle in the face of growing Asian demand for fins.

According to the U.S.-based Ocean Wildlife Campaign the number of sharks killed for their fins in U.S. waters has soared by more than 2,500 per cent since 1990.

Much of this demand has come off the back of Asia's massive economic growth and appears to have been only slightly dented by the impact of the region's recent financial crisis.

Many restaurants charge up to $200 for a bowl of sharks fin soup - a dish which is considered both prestigious to consume and to have an aphrodisiac effect.

Shark defenders decry practice of 'finning'

Ocean Wildlife Campaign
The White House

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