More on the Sharkfin Trade bill...Much more -- Archive

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Subject: More on the Sharkfin Trade bill...Much more

Author:
ED

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Date Posted: 924119423PDT

Posted by Jim Morris on April 14, 1999 at 03:09:21: at sharktagger edited for length.

I just received word from Bob Endreson that the Hawaiian shark-fin trade ban Bill has just been revived in the Hawaiian House of Representatives!

However, Bob mentioned that we are really going to have the put the pressure on as soon as possible. Standby as I will post to this thread again with the email and fax numbers to the Hawaiian government officials that we need to get to as soon as I receive their email and fax numbers from Bob.

Forwarded:

Just received the Following from Bob Endreson in Hawaii(you can still email support for the Hawaiian shark-fin trade ban to: banfins_hawaii@yahoo.com):

.......One of the Bills that received a great deal of attention this year was HB 1706 relating to Shark Finning. The intent of the Bill was to ban shark finning which has become more and more a part of both domestic and foreign longline vessels operations. International statistics are staggering as it is estimated that 1.66 Billion Pounds of shark fins are landed annually worldwide while the pacific accounts for 572 million pounds. Recently 11 tons or 22,000 pounds of
dried shark fins were landed at Pier 35 in Honolulu Harbor.

(See..............

http://www.envirowatch.org/shkstory.htm

Enforcement agents from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)and Department of land and Natural resources did hand out citations in this matter, for permit violations, but were limited as to what they could do. Putting things in perspective, 22,000 pounds of shark
fins equates to approximately 100,000 sharks killed simply for their fins.

A recent NMFS survey of observers on the Honolulu based longline boats revealed that of 819 sharks caught by Longliners, 743 were finned and of those 706 were landed alive. That is 86 % that could have been released alive but were killed for 1 % of their body parts. According to one scientist, this is analogous to what the Buffalo hunters did years ago. They killed the buffalo for it's tongue and hide and left the carcass to rot. They thought they would
never have an impact on the buffalo herds until one day they looked up and they were all gone.

If you want more information about this sort of practice, there's an excellent video on the Web at..........

http://www.planet.ark.com.au/index.html

go to their main menu and click on "save the shark", it's an eye opening video.

HB 1706 prohibiting shark finning, is not breaking new ground. States from Texas to Maine have shark laws on the books and the NMFS
have Federal Laws in place as well for all Atlantic and Gulf waters. However, Hawaii will be the first State to ban this practice before the shark populations are decimated such is the case in the Atlantic and Gulf.

The Bill received overwhelming support from the Department of Commerce, the fishing industry, the conservation community and all of
the Department Heads of the Governor's administration. Unfortunately according to news accounts and reports from the Senate, Senate President Mitzuguchi opposed this Bill and therefore other in the Senate might be influenced by his actions and were afraid to vote in favor of this Bill. He claimed more data was needed, yet the only report that was being done by the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) was an socio-economic study. In Fact, the national Policy of
NMFS and the Department of Commerce was to ban finning and they all supported the Bill.......

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: More on the Sharkfin Trade bill...Fax Number	ED	924119609PDT
I want to encourage everyone to call this number. -- Jim Day, 924223992PDT