Canada Passes Total Ban On Shark Fin Imports And Exports

• Thomas Nelson
• August 22, 2019
• Animals, Nature, News, Politics
• 0 Comments

Canada has become the first G20 country in the world to completely ban the import and export of shark fins, which is significant as Canada is the world’s largest importer of shark fins outside of Asia. 160,000 kilograms of shark fins were imported into Canada last year.

Although the import of shark fins has been perfectly legal up until now, the practice of shark finning was made illegal in 1994. The ban was proposed by Senator Michael MacDonald, a conservative, and sponsored by MP Fin Donnelly of the NDP.

Shark fins were already banned in 19 Canadian municipalities and 300,000 people signed a petition in support of the ban.

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In the United States, possession, sale, and distribution of shark fins is illegal in 12 states. It is also illegal in all member nations of the European Union. Still, shark fin soup, the primary way that shark fin is prepared, can be found in restaurants in all these locations.

During the process of shark finning, a live shark is caught, its fins removed, and the remainder of the animal is thrown back where it subsequently dies if it has not already. Around the world, approximately 100 million sharks are killed. Sharks have a slow reproductive rate, making the practice of killing so many sharks dangerous for their continued survival as a species.