SUMMARYA conservation group has asked the U.S. government to consider sanctioning China over shark finning by Chinese distant-water fishing fleets. The petition says shark populations have fallen sharply and alleges the practice is concealed from inspectors, potentially putting China’s $1.5 billion seafood exports at risk if U.S. authorities find a legal violation.
For migrant workers trapped onboard Chinese distant water fishing fleets, cutting the fins off sharks as they writhe violently on rusted decks in the Indian Ocean isn’t accidental. It’s an intentional and lucrative act that marks the start of a bloody half-a-billion-dollar offshore supply chain, tacitly supported by Beijing yet covertly concealed from port inspectors globally.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit focused on the protection of endangered species, filed a formal petition this month requesting the U.S. government potentially sanction China for failing to meet American shark conservation standards. Shark populations have declined by more than 70 percent since 1970, with more than one-third of all shark and ray species now threatened with extinction. Yet each year, Chinese-flagged vessels catch, brutally fin, and discard thousands.
Should the National Marine Fisheries Service identify China as having violated the US Moratorium Protection Act, then President Trump could be expected to ban the import of all $1.5 billion of Chinese seafood.