EU seeks to control killing of sharks
Date: 31-Mar-03
Country: BELGIUM
European Parliament members approved a proposal to set out how EU vessels may catch and land sharks. This was to ensure fishermen do not hack off fins illegally and dump the bodies in the sea, sometimes still alive, in a process known as "finning".
While shark fins are prized in Asia, shark meat is of little value as it is considered tough. Fins from some species can fetch up to $15,000 each in China.
Shark fin soup is widely served at Chinese wedding banquets, for example, as a symbol of generosity and wealth. As many as 40 sharks can be killed to supply each wedding.
The EU's proposed regulation, which should be discussed by the bloc's fisheries ministers in May, would ban EU-registered ships as well as non-EU vessels that operate in EU waters from landing or selling shark fins that are removed on board.
But fishermen would still be able to remove fins if they could prove that they were making efficient use of all shark parts by processing them separately on board, although the entire body would still have to be accounted for.
"The scale of finning internationally appears to be disturbingly high," said British Liberal Democrat MEP Elspeth Attwooll, who drafted the bill. "At the same time stocks of sharks such as blue shark are declining alarmingly."
"Today's vote is the first step on a long road towards ensuring that shark populations do not become extinct. Progress must be swift before it is too late," she said in a statement.
European fishing fleets have become a major exporter of shark fins to supply Hong Kong, the most significant market.
Environmentalists say around 100 million sharks are caught worldwide every year, mostly just for their fins.