MEPs vote
566-47 in favour of closing loophole that effectively rendered useless a
nine-year-old ban on finning
guardian.co.uk,
John Vidal, Thursday 22 November 2012
 |
| A fisherman holds the dorsal fin of a hammerhead shark. Photograph: Jeff Rotman/Getty Images |
The
barbaric practice of slicing off the fins of sharks and discarding the live
bodies at sea will be outlawed following a historic vote in the European
parliament on Thursday. MEPs voted overwhelmingly 566 to 47 to close a legal
loophole and ban finning despite opposition from Spain and Portugal.
The EU,
which is one of the largest exporters of shark fins to Asia, banned finning in
2003, but in a loophole, companies with freezer vessels applied for
"special fishing permits" which allowed them to continue if they
landed the fins separately from the bodies. The issuing of these permits has
became standard practice, making a mockery of the law.
Tens of
millions of sharks are killed every year to meet the demand for "shark fin
soup", despite the fact that one-third of European shark and ray species
and one-third of open-ocean sharks are classified as "threatened" by
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. EU companies catch sharks
in the Atlantic, Indian, Mediterranean, and Pacific oceans, and are the largest
exporter of shark fins to Hong Kong and mainland China where they are used for
a gourmet soup.
Conservation
campaigners and animal welfare groups welcomed the vote but said that a finning
ban alone was insufficient to save sharks. "Parliament's overwhelming
support for strengthening the EU finning ban represents a significant victory
for shark conservation in the EU and beyond," said Ali Hood, the Shark
Trust director of conservation. "Because of the EU's influence at
international fisheries bodies, this action holds great promise for combating
this wasteful practice on a global scale."
"This
is a milestone in the global effort to end the wasteful practice of shark
finning," said Sandrine Polti, EU shark policy adviser for the Pew
environment group.
"Shark
finning is not only immoral but it is threatening the very survival of many
native European species. It is astonishing to think that one-third of European
sharks are classed as under threat – something I hope will now change",
said Scottish MEP Alyn Smith, who has campaigned for strengthening the ban for
years.
Conservation
groups will now strongly lobby the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES), which meets in March 2013 to consider proposals
from the EU and US to protect commercially valuable, threatened shark species,
including porbeagles, hammerheads, and oceanic whitetips.
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