September 27, 2012 — Environmental groups have launched a global campaign to stop fishermen from slicing sharks’ fins off at sea before tossing the animals overboard to sink to slow deaths. But the push is ensnaring New England fishermen and processors, who take fins only from dead dogfish already landed for their meat.
Bans passed, or being proposed, in a number of states do not distinguish between methods used for obtaining fins, and local fishermen say if they can’t sell the fins, dogfish would be unprofitable.
“We agree . . . we don’t want sharks being killed only for their fins, but we aren’t doing that,’’ said Walinski, a slim 55-year old who goes out seven mornings a week in his 35-foot boat to catch his daily 3,000-pound quota of spiny dogfish. “Still, if we can’t sell the fins, we’d be done — there is such a fine margin to make money on dogfish.”
Dogfish is a low-value type of shark but a growing niche of the fishing industry, especially on Cape Cod and in Southeastern Massachusetts, as cod and flounder stocks plummet and the species makes a rebound from heavy overfishing in the 1990s. About 200 fishermen in Massachusetts chase “dogs,” and they caught about 11.5 million pounds last year, up from a low of 1.2 million pounds in 2004.
The killing of sharks for only their fins is already banned in US waters, but environmental groups want to stop the importation of shark fins that are destined for Asian restaurants in the United States. Knowing a federal import ban would likely spark free trade complaints from other countries, the groups are pushing for state bans on possession of shark fins to accomplish the same goal.
In the past two years, legislation has passed in five states – including California, from where some New England shark fins have long been exported to Asia. The laws largely prohibit the possession, sale, trade, and distribution of detached shark fins. Similar bans have been proposed, but not yet passed, in seven East Coast states, including New York, another export hub of local dogfish fins. There has been no legislation offered in New England, likely because of the dogfish’s importance to local fishermen.
Read the full story at the Boston Globe