Oregon Shark Trade is “Fin-ished”
On Thursday, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into effect bill HB 2838, which bans the sale, trade and possession of shark fins in the state’s waters.
Oregon joins the company of Hawaii and Washington as US states who have signed similar legislation. In June, parallel legislation in California passed the Assembly, but has not yet cleared the Senate. All of these state measures come on the heels of federal legislation tightening the ban on shark finning in US waters, signed by President Obama earlier this year.
“With the global trade in shark fins pushing sharks toward extinction, it will take strong actions such as this to prevent us from making irreversible changes to our ocean ecosystems,” said Whit Sheard, senior advisor for Oceana, a maritime conservation organization. “The bipartisan support for this bill once again demonstrates that support for healthy oceans is a non-partisan issue.”
With state legislature on the west coast increasing the awareness of anti-finning policy, it is only a matter of time before all coastal states jump on board and “fin-ish” finning for good.
