PETITION TARGET: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell
UPDATE (1/3/2023): Congress has passed the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act and President Joe Biden signed off as part of an annual military policy bill for a signature! Thank you to everyone who signed our petition speaking up for these sharks!— Lady Freethinker Staff
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Every year, an estimated 73 million sharks worldwide are cruelly butchered and killed for the shark fin industry.
It’s a brutal process; these majestic apex predators are hauled from the ocean and their fins barbarically sliced off before being thrown back into the water.
Sharks must be able to swim in order to get enough oxygen as the water filters through their gills. Once they lose their fins, they are helpless. Unable to move, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, dying slowly from suffocation and blood loss — if another predator doesn’t attack them in the meantime.
This mass slaughter of sharks is pushing many species towards extinction, with more than 70 percent of the most common species used in the trade considered to be at critically low population levels.
Now, hope is on the horizon with a new bill introduced by Rep Gregorio Sablan and Rep Michael McCaul. The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2019 has enormous bipartisan support and is backed by a variety of conservation organizations.
While shark finning has been illegal in U.S. waters since 2000, the trade in fins throughout the country is still legal; fins are currently imported from countries that have no regulations protecting sharks. Twelve states have state-wide bans on the trade, but even so, many restaurants in these states still feature shark fin on the menu.
Sign the petition urging Senator Mitch McConnell and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to support this bill’s passage through Congress, and send a message to the rest of the world that the U.S. is a leader in shark conservation.
