SAN FRANCISCO (USA)- As of yesterday the US state of California has put a ban on shark fins. It is the sixth US state attempting to preserve shark populations with such a ban. California grocers who sold the dried fins and restaurants that had the prized shark fin soup onContinue Reading

HONG KONG (CHINA)- It was standard on the menu of every wedding banquet in Hong Kong. But the appetite for shark fin soup is fading. 90 percent of people say they could, or would, go without it, according to the Hong Kong daily The Standard. That’s what a survey ofContinue Reading

BUNDABERG (AUSTRALIA)- Two man in Queensland, Australia, were fined with thousands of dollars for finning sharks. One of the two men was found guilty of finning 49 sharks in central Queensland. Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers boarded the man’s boat in Bundaberg in October last year, where they foundContinue Reading

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (BRUNEI)- The sultanate of Brunei has announced it will enforce the ban on the catch and landings of all shark species from Brunei’s waters. And thus cease the sale of any related products in the domestic market. Furthermore, Brunei will also now officially enforce the ban on the importationContinue Reading

The European Union (EU) agreed this week to tighten up an existing ban on shark finning by eliminating a loophole that allowed fisherman to still remove fins from caught shark. The ban for EU fishing crews has existed since 2003, but with special permits they were still allowed to removeContinue Reading

BALTIMORE (USA)- Fishermen on the eastern US coasts catching smooth dogfish are allowed to bring back to port more than twice the ratio of fins to bodies. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided to ease on the restrictions of shark finning. Conservation groups are furious and concerned that theContinue Reading