SavingSeaFood - San Franciscans move to reduce shark slaughter

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San Franciscans move to reduce shark slaughter

This morning (Dec. 21) the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Shark Conservation Act, after the Senate passed it yesterday. It now heads to President Obama's desk for a signature, which it is expected to receive. Shark activists are thrilled, as the bill closes several loopholes in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976.

The act requires fishing boats to land sharks with their fins attached, and prevents other boats from transporting fins not attached to sharks' bodies. This summary highlights key provisions of the bill.

However, David Shiffman, a shark biologist in training and a blogger at Southern Fried Science, expressed concerns about the act's loophole for the smooth dogfish shark fishery off the North Carolina coast, an exemption granted in a bid to win the vote of Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). Smooth dog fishermen will be allowed to remove fins at sea as long as the weight of the fins landed isn’t more than 12 percent of the weight of the rest of the shark.

Read the complete story from Spot.us

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Monterey Bay's historic "wetfish" industry is under attack by extremist groups who claim overfishing is occurring. Touting studies with faulty calculations, activists are lobbying federal regulators to massively limit fishing, if not ban these fisheries outright. Apparently the facts don’t matter to groups with an anti-fishing agenda

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