National/supranational Restrictions
Many countries now prohibit finning; however, international waters are unregulated. International fishing authorities are considering banning shark fishing (and finning) in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Finning is banned in the Eastern Pacific, but shark fishing and finning continues unabated in most of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. In countries such as Thailand and Singapore, public awareness advertisements on finning have reportedly reduced consumption by 25%.
There are four main categories of restrictions, as follows:
- shark sanctuary (an area where shark fishing is entirely prohibited;
- area where sharks must be landed with fins attached;
- area where fin to body mass ratio-based regulations have been implemented;
- area where shark product trade regulations exist. (Source: L. Biery and D. Pauly "A global review of species-specific shark-fin-to-body-mass ratios and relevant legislation" Journal of Fish Biology 2012)
Read more about this topic: Shark Finning
Famous quotes containing the word national:
“...America has enjoyed the doubtful blessing of a single-track mind. We are able to accommodate, at a time, only one national hero; and we demand that that hero shall be uniform and invincible. As a literate people we are preoccupied, neither with the race nor the individual, but with the type. Yesterday, we romanticized the “tough guy;” today, we are romanticizing the underprivileged, tough or tender; tomorrow, we shall begin to romanticize the pure primitive.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)