Canada bans trade in shark fins

Canada has become the first G20 country to ban the import and export of shark fins after the passing of the new Fisheries Act.

Ocean and Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, in announcing the ban on June 20, called the practice "unsustainable" and "inhumane".

"Shark finning is an unquestionably destructive practice, which is contributing to the global decline of sharks and posing an ongoing threat to ocean ecosystems," Wilkinson said. "The new actions are a clear example of Canadian leadership on the conservation of our ocean environment."

Canada is the third-largest importer of shark fins outside Asia, the top importers being the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, where shark fin soup has been a traditional delicacy for many generations.

The demand has led to as many as 73 million sharks being killed for their fins every year, according to the United Nations.

The harvest has faced heavy criticism because most of the fins used for soup are collected through shark finning, which is cutting off a shark's dorsal fin and dumping it back into the ocean to die a slow death.

Canada has prohibited shark finning in domestic waters since 1994. After years of legal wrangling, the government stepped in.

Senator Peter Harder said that ending the trade in shark fins was an "urgent matter", and the government acted with resolve.

A fellow Conservative senator, Victor Oh, however, said he doubted that a ban on trade in shark fins would help save sharks.

"What people don't recognize is that the shark meat market has been growing considerably," Oh said. "A shark fin ban will likely have a negligible direct effect on global shark mortality; as in some areas after the ban, it causes fishermen to simply catch more sharks to obtain the same income as prior to a ban, which would not help save sharks."

Oh added that a ban on the shark fin trade would not change sharks' vulnerability to overexploitation, even if demand for their fins weakens in the long term.

Other shark products in demand include food such as shark steak, health supplements (liver oil and bone) and cosmetics.

Benedict Leung, a member of the Fair and Responsible Governance Alliance in Canada, said the ban marginalizes certain longtime cultural traditions, especially Asian ones.

"This is a useless law that has no impact on anyone else at all," Leung said. "This law basically enforces nothing. In Canada, we can still hunt sharks domestically. From the east to west coast, millions of sharks are killed every year."

If the government really wanted to protect the ocean, it should pass a law that bans fishing of the entire shark, instead of part of it, Leung said.

"As Asian people, we always say we need to protect the ocean … we should not kill tuna, hamachi and other ocean animals to protect their growth. This is our common goal, but not just saying 'no importing and exporting shark fins,'" Leung contended.

"It's only for certain people who want applause for doing something and try to marginalize certain cultures. This is a cultural attack instead of protecting the ocean and sharks," he said.

Peter Tam, a businessman who has been in the seafood trade for many years, said the ban itself has a purpose, but the impact is insignificant.

"The bill is only regulating the import and export of shark fins, but not banning us from selling or consuming shark fins, at this point," he said. "But I do see that the government is slowly tightening things up."

Tam said Canada does not export shark fins to begin with. It only exports shark meat to countries other than China, which does not consume it.

"I have been importing shark fins attached to the shark for the past six months," Tam said. "We simply cut off the shark fins for ourselves and sell the shark meat to other meat wholesale companies to compensate for the extra cost of importing the whole shark."