Saving Seafood

US ports to use Covid-like tests to identify illegally trafficked seafood species

April 7, 2025 — Last year, a colleague of Diego Cardeñosa sent the international shark trade researcher a few pieces of shark fin taken from a bowl of soup in New York City. Using a PCR test similar to those used during the Covid-19 pandemic to test for the virus, Cardeñosa was able to identify the species behind the fin as sandbar shark, an endangered species found in tropical and warm-temperate waters.

Now, Cardeñosa and other scientists from Florida International University, alongside law enforcement officials from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), plan to deploy the tests at ports across the country in order to crack down on seafood fraud and fish trafficking.

Illegal fishing adversely affects legitimate commercial fishers as well as fish populations. Almost a third of shark species are threatened or near threatened with extinction and the value of world trade in shark parts is almost $1bn a year, according to the UN.

At the same time, US consumption of seafood is increasing, rising by more than 30% in the decade from 2002. About 80% of this comes from foreign exports – mostly from Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the US department of agriculture.

Read the full article at The Guardian 

New Jersey shark fin ban bill: Assembly to vote today on measure to protect sharks

March 25, 2019 — The New Jersey Assembly will vote on a bill today that will prohibit the selling, trading, distribution or possession of any shark fin that has been separated from a shark prior to its lawful landing.

The bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee last Monday after already having passed the Senate. If it clears the assembly, it will go to Gov. Murphy to sign into law.

Assemblyman John Armato D-Northfield, one of the bill’s primary sponsor told the Asbury Park Press they’re trying to “get out in front of” shark finning.

Fishing industry members here say the bill will hurt local fishermen not involved in the illegal trade and punishes the wrong people.

“It’s a clear attempt to discourage the industry from participating in sustainable shark fisheries. The industry is monitored, regulated, observed, managed under rigorous scrutiny and this legislation could care less,” Greg DiDomenico, president of the Garden State Seafood Association, said.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

China tariffs could hurt remaining US shark fin business

June 29, 2018 — A new set of Chinese tariffs on U.S. seafood including items made from shark fins could jeopardize what remains of the American industry for the controversial products.

China announced the 25 percent tariffs in mid-June that are expected to apply to exported American goods such as lobster and salmon beginning in July. They also will apply to whole or cut shark fins, as well as shark fin products that are canned or preserved, according to a Chinese government website.

The U.S. has long banned “shark finning,” a practice long reviled by animal welfare groups that involves removing the fin from a shark and discarding the animal at sea. It is still legal to remove and sell the fin of a legally harvested shark after it is brought to land.

The steep tariffs, which could turn away business from U.S. exporters, might have implications for American shark fishermen and processors. China is one of the biggest buyers of shark fins, as the product is used to make shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy.

“My sense is that’s going to decrease demand for sustainably fished U.S. shark fins, and increase demand from countries with less sustainable fisheries,” said Shaun Gehan, an attorney for Sustainable Shark Alliance, which represents shark fishermen and dealers. “It’ll just be a hardship for the small fish houses and the fishermen that participate in this fishery.”

Hundreds of fishermen in the U.S. seek numerous species of shark for their meat and fins in a tightly regulated fishery. The fins represent about a quarter of the value of a shark, and fins that U.S. fishermen harvest are often shipped to Asia for processing.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the East Oregonian

Read a letter from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren on the tariffs’ effect on the lobster industry here.

 

Butchered shark fins seized from shrimp boat off Key West

April 4, 2017 — Florida wildlife officers made a grisly discovery aboard a Key West shrimp boat this week: dozens of pairs of dismembered shark fins.

The boat was discovered about 20 miles north of the island Wednesday night, an indication that illegal finning still occurs in Florida waters despite being banned more than 16 years ago. Buying and selling fins also remains legal in most states, fueling a practice that targets some of the world’s biggest and longest-lived sharks that are also among the planet’s oldest species.

“When we import them we have no idea if they came from sustainable shark fisheries or fisheries where they’re still finning,” said Mariah Pfleger, a scientist for Oceana, which is pushing a bill to ban the trade.

The boat was stopped by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers who alerted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service. FWC referred questions to NOAA and NOAA declined to release details, saying it was too soon in the investigation.

However, Oceana reported that officers found between 30 and 40 pairs of fins. NOAA Fisheries is continuing to investigate and no charges have been filed, spokeswoman Kim Amendola said in an email.

Read the full story at the Bradenton Herald

The following was released by the Sustainable Shark Alliance in response to this event:

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA), a coalition of shark fishermen and dealers along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, applauds Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission efforts to combat unlawful shark finning in a reported enforcement action involving a Key West shrimp boat. Such alleged unlawful activities, where a shark’s fins are removed and its carcass is discarded, harm the legal and federally permitted shark trade by U.S. fishermen laboring under conservative catch quotas and strict anti-finning laws.

Shark finning has long been illegal, and shark finning in the United States is extremely rare. Given the frequency of at-sea and dockside enforcement inspections, this violation is clearly an outlier.

The SSA strongly urges state and federal law enforcement agencies to remain vigilant in their efforts to eliminate illegal activities, including identifying the would-be buyers and ultimate customers for the fins. The legal shark fishery is closely monitored: harvesters must report catches of individual sharks and total amounts landed, and buyers must have federal permits and report all sharks purchased to the federal government. Exports are also reported, though the SSA supports enhancing the system for tracking shark fins after they leave the dock.

“This reprehensible activity harms law-abiding U.S. fishermen,” said Shaun Gehan, attorney for the SSA. “While some groups will use this unfortunate incident to push an agenda of banning fin sales, the fact is such laws will not dissuade criminals as would meaningful penalties such as those now before the Florida Legislature.” Nearly all fins harvested in the United States are exported to China.

The ability to sell fins is essential to the economic survival of SSA members. On average, fins account for fifty percent of the value of the landed catch. Given restrictive harvest limits and the costs associated with operating fishing vessels, loss of fin income would make it unprofitable for the fishery to continue. This would harm U.S. fishermen and their communities, while boosting profits for foreign fishermen not subject to the same strict conservation laws and oversight.

Sharks are managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under a very restrictive quota system that has been in place since the mid-1990s. As a result, populations of large and small sharks have been sharply increasing. In its last survey, NMFS found the most sharks in the survey’s 29-year history, 65 percent more than the one prior. Given the success of domestic shark management, efforts to ban fin sales have been opposed by fishery managers and leading scientists specializing in sharks.

Regulators mull change to rules about some shark fin removal

May 10, 2016 — NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Interstate fishing regulators are considering changes to rules that govern the removal of fins from coastal sharks by fishermen.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is set to consider an amendment that would allow fishermen to bring smooth dogfish to land with fins removed as long as their total retained catch is at least 25 percent dogfish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Stamford Advocate

Seven Fishing Associations File an Amici Brief to U.S. Supreme Court in Shark Fin Lawsuit

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — January 28, 2016 — Seven fishing associations have filed an amici brief in support of the Plaintiffs’ petition for certiorari in Chinatown Neighborhood Association, et al. v. Kamala D. Harris, which seeks to overturn California’s shark fin possession ban.  The Sustainable Fisheries Association, Rhode Island Fisherman’s Alliance, Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Garden State Seafood Association, North Carolina Fisheries Association, Virginia Seafood Council and America Scallop Association take the position that the ban frustrates the purpose of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

The Plaintiffs’ suit claims California’s shark fin law directly affects the fisheries of abundant, sustainably federally managed shark species such as Atlantic spiny dogfish and winter skate. According to the brief, “The California shark fin ban directly conflicts with the basic purpose of commercial fishing – allowing commercial fishermen to possess, and to place in the stream of domestic and international commerce, legally harvested fish.”

The brief argues that the California law conflicts with commercial fishing regulations that are governed and sanctioned by the MSA and should be preempted by the federal law. Commercial fishermen may catch Atlantic spiny dogfish and winter skate but the ban outlaws the fins from those legally caught sharks from being possessed in or shipped through California. According to the brief, this arrangement “creates an impermissible conflict by frustrating a primary purpose of MSA.”

The fishing associations argue that the law also conflicts with existing treaties between the United States and foreign countries by stopping fins from sharks like Atlantic spiny dogfish and skate at the California border, barring access to the ports and airports of California and ultimately prohibiting commercial fishermen from conducting foreign trade. The suit considers this a direct assault on the MSA and lawful businesses.

According to the brief, “the shark fin possession ban is not only ‘an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress’…but it frustrates treaties and overtly blocks international trade,” and harms the members of the fishing associations.

View a PDF of the amici brief