Shark fishing would remain legal, but shark “finning” would be outlawed under a bill heard for the first time Thursday.
Sen. David Simmons’ (R-Altamonte Springs) legislation seeks to crack down on the manufacture of shark fin soup and homeopathic medical products made from shark fins. Nature watchers including the Sierra Club back the measure, which they say would help stop an inhumane practice which leaves the sharks from which the fins are gathered cast off or left to die.
Diving Equipment and Marketing Association lobbyist Bob Harris brought a chart pock-marked with red dots with him to a Senate committee Thursday showing shark finning has meant humans kill many more sharks every year than are killed by the animals.
“There’s about 12 people a year killed by sharks around the world – the average is about 12 a year," Harris says. "Each one of these red lines and red dots that you see is a shark that is killed for shark fin soup. Every hour, 11,000.”
The bill allows the assessment of fines for shark finning, but the crime is only a misdemeanor.
