Sustainable Shark Alliance Archives - Page 2 of 2

Sustainable Shark Alliance, Southeastern Fisheries Association Applaud Florida Law Cracking Down on Illegal Shark Finning

May 25, 2017 — The following was released today by the Sustainable Shark Alliance and the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) and the Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) applaud the State of Florida, Governor Rick Scott, and the Florida Legislature for passing a new law strengthening prohibitions against the illegal act of shark finning. The bill was passed unanimously by both chambers of the Florida Legislature and signed into law yesterday by Gov. Scott. It will take effect beginning in October.

The legislation raises existing fines and penalties for shark finning, which has been illegal under federal law for decades, and codifies a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rule prohibiting this practice. Anyone caught removing shark fins before the shark has been landed at the dock will be subject to escalating punitive measures, such as fines and suspended permits, that culminate in a loss of all Florida fishing license privileges for a third offense.

“The SSA is grateful to Florida’s lawmakers for taking an approach that both protects sharks and allows law-abiding fishing families to continue to earn a living,” said Shaun Gehan, an attorney for the SSA. “This is the right way to eliminate shark finning and promote shark conservation. While some have proposed measures that would totally eliminate the sustainable harvest of sharks, Florida is showing why U.S. shark fisheries continue to be the gold standard around the globe.”

As originally introduced, the bill would have completely eliminated the sale and trade of shark fins in Florida. But after industry and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission presented facts about how Florida’s commercial fishermen responsibly land and harvest sharks, the bill was altered to specifically target those engaged in illegal shark finning. It was introduced in the Florida Senate by Sen. Travis Hutson, where it passed 39-0, and in the Florida House by Reps. Joe Gruters and Alex Miller, where it passed 115-0.

“This bill started out bad but ended up good, because lawmakers listened to their constituents and listened to the science,” said SFA Executive Director Bob Jones. “Our commercial fishermen catch the whole shark in a process that is rigorous and transparent. We despise anyone that would take any kind of animal and cut part of it off and just throw the rest away. That’s immoral and that’s wrong.”

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation.

About the Southeastern Fisheries Association

The Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) is a Florida-based nonprofit trade association founded by a core group of fish dealers in 1952. The SFA defends, protects, and enhances the commercial fishing industry in the Southeastern United States while maintaining healthy and sustainable stocks of fish.

Shark Fin Soup Could Become Extinct Across the United States

May 23, 2017 — The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act by U.S. Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton would extend a similar prohibition to all 50 states. In the upper house, Sen. Cory Booker’s Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act would prohibit the import, export, sale and trade of shark fins. The fishing industry is fighting the legislation, while animal rights advocates say the practice of finning, in which sharks are often maimed and left for dead, needs to stop.

Shark finning is illegal in domestic waters, but sharks are sometimes caught outside the United States and their fins imported. Advocates for the business argue that federal regulations already require all domestic fishing to be ecologically sustainable and that so few sharks fins traded in the United States — the Sustainable Shark Alliance says the country is responsible for about 3 percent of global shark fin trade — that the law is unnecessary.

“We believe in sustainable harvesting [of] every aquatic species and using the whole animal whenever possible,” says Robert Vannase, executive director of Saving Seafood, a public outreach group funded by the commercial fishing industry. “There is demand for shark fins, and we think it makes much more sense for that demand to be fulfilled by well-regulated, sustainable fishing rather than to have the U.S. check out of the market entirely.”

Industry advocates emphasize that when sharks are caught or imported, the whole fish is used. Banning shark fins would contradict this ethos of sustainable fishing, they say. “Why would you throw them in the trash,” says Greg DiDomenico, executive director of New Jersey’s Garden State Seafood Association and a vocal critic of the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act. He adds that such a ban could put some small-scale fishing concerns out of business. “This is a razor-thin margin business,” DiDomenico says. “It will remove another choice for American working fishermen.”

“It’s punishing people who are playing by the rules,” adds Shaun Gehan, an attorney for the pro-fishing-industry Sustainable Shark Alliance.

Read the full story at L.A. Weekly

ENGOs Renew Push for Shark Trade Elimination Act Passage; Industry, Scientists Push Back

May 16, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Like sharks in a feeding frenzy, a group of scientists, students and Oceana are circling, renewing their push to pass the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act, threatening sustainable U.S shark fisheries. The scientists and ENGOs also say sharks are in decline.

On the other side, the Sustainable Shark Alliance, a U.S. seafood industry trade group, opposes the legislation. It’s unnecessary, they say, won’t make a dent in the global shark trade and ultimately penalize responsible fishermen.

“Oceana presents a false choice between a sustainable domestic shark fishery and other uses, such as tourism,” Shaun Gehan, a lawyer for the Sustainable Shark Alliance, said in a statement. “University and federal studies alike show growing domestic populations.”

The practice of shark finning, using only the fins and releasing the shark, has been banned in the U.S. since 1993. Some states have passed legislation banning trade of some shark parts or some species.

“The Shark Finning Prohibition Act ended the brutal practice of finning, the removal of the sharks’ fins while discarding their bodies at sea, and the Shark Conservation Act eventually closed some of its loopholes ensuring that sharks are landed with their fins naturally attached to their bodies,” the scientists wrote in their May 9 letter to Congress. “However, the United States continues to allow the buying and selling of fins. Five of the 11 countries that export shark fins to the U.S. do not prohibit shark finning. Therefore, while the U.S. bans shark finning in its own waters, it indirectly promotes this practice elsewhere and perpetuates the global trade in shark fins.”

Alliance members and other scientists counter that the Shark Trade Elimination Act will, by removing sustainably sourced shark parts, result in the increase of illegal trade of shark fins.

“Oceana and their partners are grossly misinformed and are misinforming the public,” said Bob Jones, Executive Director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association. “The U.S. shark fishery is the most sustainably run shark fishery in the world. Oceana should be promoting the responsible practices of the fishery instead of working to dismantle it.”

Dr. David Shiffman, a renowned shark conservation biologist, also is against the proposed legislation and wrote about it on the marine science and conservation blog Southern Fried Science.

“Shark fin trade bans do not allow for a sustainable supply of shark fins to enter the marketplace, punishing American fishermen who are doing it right,” Shiffman wrote. “Sustainable trade is incompatible with a total ban on trade, at least in the same place and time. The United States has some of the most sustainable managed shark fisheries on Earth. When these fisheries provide fins to the marketplace, it shows that fins can absolutely come from a well-managed shark fishery.”

Moreover, using the sustainably managed U.S. shark fisheries as examples would be better in the long run when the U.S. is negotiating with other countries, Shiffman said.

“This can be an important example for international fisheries negotiations and associated advocacy (e.g., ‘the United States manages their shark fisheries well, and so can you, here’s how.’),” Shiffman wrote. “According to Dr. Robert Hueter of Mote Marine Laboratory, a nationwide ban on the shark fin trade ‘will cause the demise of a legal domestic industry that is showing the rest of the world how to utilize sharks in a responsible, sustainable way.’ (And yes, sustainable shark fisheries absolutely can exist and do exist, although there are certainly many more examples of unsustainable shark fisheries.)”

While not affecting illegal international shark populations, the bill will hurt U.S. shark fishermen who play by the rules. It will force fishermen to dispose of shark fins on every shark they catch, which currently account for 50 percent of a shark’s value. Proper management can only occur when U.S. shark fisheries are allowed to collect the full value of their catch – without this revenue, shark fisheries will not be able to afford fuel costs and will cease to exist, the Alliance said in the statement.

“Our members are struck by the intolerance of the proponents of this campaign. It is clear that they are indifferent to the potential loss of income. I guess the livelihoods of fishing families are insignificant to the folks who support Oceana’s agenda,” said Greg DiDomenico, Executive Director of the Garden State Seafood Association.

Other respected shark scientists have come out in opposition to the legislation as well, including Dr. Robert E. Hueter. Hueter is the Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota Florida, and has more than 40 years of experience in shark research.

“This bill will do nothing to effectively combat the practice of finning on the high seas and in other countries, where the real problem lies, and it will not significantly reduce mortality of the sharks killed in global fisheries every year,” Hueter wrote in a letter to Congress.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

SHAUN GEHAN: Shark fin bill hurts Americans, hinders shark conservation

May 16, 2017 — After more than three decades of stringent conservation measures and sacrifices by American shark fishermen, domestic shark populations are on the rise. But just as fishermen are on the verge of being able to realize the reward for years of painful cuts and downsizing, Congress is considering a bill that will effectively end the fishery.

Laudable in intent—attacking the wasteful practice of harvesting sharks solely for fins—the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act is likely to do more harm than good, both to the sharks it seeks to protect and to American fishermen abiding by the world’s strictest rules.

Its sponsors, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Edward Royce (R-Calif.), would mandate discarding shark fins and ban their importation or sale. Unlike ivory, however, the U.S. is a very minor market for fins. All fins produced domestically are exported, mostly to China.

Notably, and with industry support, shark finning has been illegal in the U.S. since 1993. Over time, that ban has been expanded and measures to ensure effective enforcement have been created. Those include stiff penalties, at-sea and dockside enforcement, and a requirement to land sharks with fins attached. Combined with scientifically determined catch limits, this has led to a rebound in shark populations that has been recognized by federal managers, independent shark experts, and academic research institutions.

The bill will, as a practical matter, end domestic commercial shark fishing because, on average, fins account for half the value of the landed catch. Absent that income, fishermen would lose money catching and landing these fish. The ban also runs counter to the main principle behind this nation’s fisheries law: to maximize the economic return from sustainable use of our marine resources.

Read the full opinion piece at The Hill

Sustainable Shark Alliance Opposes Unnecessary Bill Threatening to Shut Down U.S Shark Fisheries

May 12, 2017 — The following was released by the Sustainable Shark Alliance:

The future of sustainable U.S. shark fisheries is threatened by a renewed push by environmental groups to pass an unnecessary law that will do little to dent the illegal global shark trade, while penalizing responsible U.S. fishermen. Earlier this month, Oceana circulated a new letter with 150 signers, mostly academics and students, in favor of the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act, which would ban the buying and selling of shark fins in the United States but do nothing to improving shark conservation.

Shark finning – a reprehensible practice universally derided by responsible fishermen whereby a shark’s fins are removed and the mortally wounded creature is released back into the ocean – has been banned in the U.S. since 1993.

“Oceana presents a false choice between a sustainable domestic shark fishery and other uses, such as tourism,” said Shaun Gehan, a lawyer for the Sustainable Shark Alliance. “University and federal studies alike show growing domestic populations.”

Today, roughly three percent of shark fins in the global market come from the United States. Removing these sustainably sourced fins will only create a void that would be filled from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing operations operating in the international market.

While not affecting illegal international shark populations, the bill will hurt U.S. shark fishermen who play by the rules. It will force fishermen to dispose of shark fins on every shark they catch, which currently account for 50% of a shark’s value. Proper management can only occur when U.S. shark fisheries are allowed to collect the full value of their catch – without this revenue, shark fisheries will not be able to afford fuel costs and will cease to exist.

Respected shark scientists have come out in opposition to the legislation, including Dr. Robert E. Hueter. Dr. Hueter is the Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota Florida, and has over 40 years of experience in shark research.

“[The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act] is not about ending finning, therefore, but instead will cause the demise of a legal domestic industry that is showing the rest of the world how to utilize sharks in a responsible, sustainable way,” wrote Dr. Hueter in a letter to Congress. “This bill will do nothing to effectively combat the practice of finning on the high seas and in other countries, where the real problem lies, and it will not significantly reduce mortality of the sharks killed in global fisheries every year.”

The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act paves the way for illegal fishing operations to thrive while effectively shutting down a U.S. industry that has adhered to stringent regulations for decades. Instead of attempting to send a symbolic message, it’s far more important that the U.S. continues to support a shark fishing operation that exemplifies sustainable practices for the world to follow.

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance

Safe Harbour Seafood, Bon Secour, AL
Bryant Products, Bayou La Batre, AL
Madeira Beach Seafood, Madeira Beach, FL
Save On Seafood, St. Petersburg, FL
Seafood Atlantic, Port Canaveral, FL
Greg Abrams Seafood, Panama City, FL
AP Bell Seafood, Madeira Beach, FL
Fishermen’s Ice & Bait, Madeira Beach, FL
Kings Seafood, Port Orange, FL
Wild Ocean Market Seafood, Titusville, FL
Omni Shrimp Company, Madeira Beach, FL
Day Boat Seafood, Lake Park, FL
Phoenix Fisheries, Southport, FL
DSF, Inc., Daytona Bch., FL
Hull’s Seafood Markets, Inc., Ormond Beach, FL
Phillips Seafood, Townsend, GA
Ocean Fresh Seafood, New Orleans, LA
Venice Fish and Shrimp, Venice, LA
Southern Seafood Connect’n, Crisfield, MD
Crystal Coast Fisheries, Morehead City, NC
Avon Seafood, Avon, NC
Wanchese Fisheries, Wanchese, NC
O’Neal’s Sea Harvest, Wanchese, NC
Jeffery’s Seafood, Hatteras, NC
B & J Seafood, New Bern, NC
Willie R. Etheridge Seafood, Wanchese, NC
Crystal Coast Dayboat Seafood, Morehead City, NC
Viking Village Seafood, Barnegat Light, NJ
Carolina Seafood, Rutledge Leeland, SC

Read the release here

Sustainable Shark Alliance Applauds Recent Seizure of Illegal Shark Fins by Florida Wildlife Officials

April 4, 2017 – The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA), representing shark fishermen and dealers on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, calls for an investigation into the recent illegal shark finning incident reported last week near Key West.

The SSA vehemently opposes the reprehensible and illegal act of shark finning. U.S. domestic shark fishermen adhere to the legal and sustainable shark fishing quotas set by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The following was released by the SSA:

The Sustainable Shark Alliance, 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.

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.

Lobbyists circle shark-finning bill

October 12th, 2016 — Shark-fishing houses are banding together to fight a bipartisan bill that would ban the trade of shark fins.

The ad-hoc Sustainable Shark Alliance last week registered to lobby with the sole goal of defeating the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. -Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Del. Gregorio Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands), seeks to expand on Congress’s ban on shark finning, in which fishermen cut off the fish’s fin and return it to the ocean, usually to die.

Supporters say finning is cruel and has decimated populations of shark species, including endangered ones. The bill has dozens of co-sponsors, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). It was introduced at a news conference with actor Morgan Freeman.

But the shark industry, which supports the ban on finning, says the bill would shut down much of the industry.

Domestic fisherman use more than just the fin, but the fin — usually exported to China for use in soup and other culinary purposes — represents about half the monetary value of the fish, said Shaun Gehan, the lobbyist for the ad-hoc coalition.

Read the full story at The Hill