Even Jaws Deserves to Keep His Fins: Outlawing Shark Finning throughout Global Waters
![handle is hein.journals/bcic24 and id is 415 raw text is: EVEN JAWS DESERVES TO KEEP HIS FINS:
OUTIAWING SHARK FINNING
THROUGHOUT GLOBAL WATERS
JESSICA SPIEGEL*
Abstract: Sharks have reigned at the top of the matine food chain
for 200 million years, but their recent slaughter by fishermen has
imperiled their populations significantly. Unfortunately, this gaceful
animal is killed primarily for its fins, which ar-e used to make shark-
fin soup, while the rest of the carcass is discarded at sea. Even worse,
the shark is usually alive when finned mid then left in the ocean to
bleed to death or drown. There is no global shark-finning regulation
in place, and only very recently has the United States implemented
its own national regulations. A worldwide resolution is urgently
needed to halt the rampant slaughter of sharks, if for no other
reason than that their position as the top predator of the sea is
crucial to maintaining a balance of all life on the planet.
INTRODUCTION
Sharks first appeared on Earth 400 million years ago and, after
200 million years of evolutionary trial aid errol; they have maintained
their position at the top of the marine food chain.' Today, more than
350 species of sharks swim ithe planet, ranging in size fiom less than
one foot long (dwarf shark) to fifty feet long (whale shark).2 Until re-
cently, sharks were not a major target of commercial or recreational
fisheries.3 In the last thirty years, howeve, the shark industry has
boomed in such an unexpected and fi-antic manner that many shark
populations recently have become severely threatened.4 Shark finning
* Jessica Spiegel is the Senior Executive Editor of the Boston College Intenmational and
Comparative Law Review.
1 Michael D. Lemonick, Under Attad,-It Humans, Not Sharhs, 11ho Are Mature's ,X1ost
Feared Predators, TirE, Aug. 11, 1997, available at http.www pathfinder.com/tiie/tag...
0811/environment.underattack_.htnil.
2Id.
3 Mark Hughes, Good Newsfor Shadks, FARTtntANv NEWSLmrEa, at http:/ l -carthla.
org/Newslett/letterl7.htm (Apr. 10, 1998).
4 189 CONG. REc. H11154 (daily ed. Nov. 1, 1999) [hereinafter Debate and Final House
Passage of the Sense of Congress Regarding Shark Finning].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/bcic24&div=22&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Even Jaws Deserves to Keep His Fins: Outlawing Shark Finning throughout Global Waters
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