Marin reformers prevail on shark fin ban as U.S. Supreme Court takes pass

May 24, 2016

The U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld legislation prohibiting the sale of shark fins in California — a movement with Marin origins — by refusing to hear an appeal.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB 376 — co-sponsored by then-Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San Rafael — in October 2011, banning the sale of shark fins for food. Shark researcher David McGuire of Sausalito started the effort to ban fin sales. Among other efforts, he worked to get the town of Tiburon — which means “shark” in Spanish — to approve a proclamation in 2008 backing a Bel Aire School student effort to raise awareness about finning.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up a legal challenge brought by the Chinatown Neighborhood Association and Asian Americans for Political Advancement, meaning the law stands.

“With this ruling, the Supreme Court has removed the final legal obstacle for the California state shark fin trade ban, and sends a strong message that sharks are important for ocean health and deserve protection,” said McGuire, who heads the group Shark Stewards, an organization that works on shark conservation.

“Reducing the trade of illegally or unsustainably harvested shark fins is an important measure towards saving threatened and endangered shark species,” he said.

Shark finning is the practice of removing the fins from a living shark. The primary market for shark fins is to make shark fin soup, a traditional Chinese dish.

Even before the shark fin law was passed, federal and state law prohibited finning in the waters off the California coast. What Huffman’s law did was make it illegal to posses or sell the fins.

The plaintiffs had argued the shark fin law is pre-empted by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act because it interferes with federal management of shark fishing. They also alleged the law runs afoul of a federal commerce clause by interfering with commerce in shark fins between California and other states, according to court filings.

But the court refused to hear the arguments, letting Huffman’s law stand.

“It was a good bill that set a standard that many other states have now followed,” said Huffman, now a U.S. congressman whose district includes Marin. “The state led the way on this issue for the country and world to follow. And a lot of the leading advocates were from Marin.”

Every year fins from up to 73 million sharks are used for shark fin soup, contributing to the decimation of shark populations worldwide, biologists say. Once the fins are sliced off a shark’s body, the animals are often dumped overboard, dead or alive, according to those who sought the ban.

With one-third of shark species threatened with extinction, researchers worry their depletion could cause irreparable damage to marine ecosystems.

Scientists said the practice hurts shark populations because they are slow to reproduce, making them vulnerable to overfishing.

The practice of finning is outlawed in American waters, but it occurs in Mexico, China and elsewhere. The fins are then shipped to the Bay Area and restaurants across the state.

McGuire will travel next month to Asia, where he hopes to raise awareness in China through the media on the issue.

“We are winning the fight, but will we win the battle before sharks go extinct?” he said. “We still have hope.”


Source: By Mark Prado