Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2021
This bill makes it illegal to possess, buy, sell, or transport shark fins or any product containing shark fins, except for certain dogfish fins. A person may possess a shark fin that was lawfully taken consistent with a license or permit under certain circumstances.
Penalties are imposed for violations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The maximum civil penalty for each violation shall be $100,000, or the fair market value of the shark fins involved, whichever is greater.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1106 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1106
To prohibit sale of shark fins, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 13, 2021
Mr. Booker (for himself, Mrs. Capito, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Portman, Mr.
Blumenthal, Ms. Collins, and Mr. Braun) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit sale of shark fins, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of
2021''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Sharks are critically important species for their
economic, cultural, and ecosystem value.
(2) Many shark populations are in peril worldwide and are
on the decline.
(3) One of the greatest threats to sharks is the global
trade in shark fins. It is estimated that fins from as many as
73,000,000 sharks end up in the global shark fin trade every
year.
(4) Shark fins have no medicinal or nutritional value.
(5) The trade in shark fins is primarily focused on large
coastal and pelagic species that grow slowly, mature late, and
have low reproduction rates.
(6) Shark fins are often removed and retained while the
remainder of a shark is discarded due to the high market value
of shark fins relative to other parts of a shark.
(7) Shark fins are removed primarily to be commercialized
as a fungible commodity.
(8) Shark finning is the cruel practice in which the fins
of a shark are cut off on board a fishing vessel at sea. The
remainder of the animal is then thrown back into the water to
drown, starve, or die a slow death.
(9) Although the United States has banned the practice of
shark finning aboard vessels in waters controlled by the United
States, there is no Federal ban on the removal and sale of
shark fins once the fin is brought ashore.
(10) Once a shark fin is detached from the body, it becomes
impossible to determine whether the shark was legally caught or
the fin lawfully removed.
(11) It is difficult to determine which species of shark a
fin was removed from, which is problematic because some species
are threatened with extinction.
(12) The States of Texas, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois,
Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island,
California, Nevada, and Washington and American Samoa, Guam,
and the North Mariana Islands have implemented bans on the sale
of shark fins.
(13) Shark fins possessed, transported, offered for sale,
sold, or purchased anywhere in the United States are part of a
large international market, having a substantial and direct
effect on interstate commerce.
(14) Abolition of the shark fin trade in the United States
will remove the United States from the global shark fin market
and will put the United States in a stronger position to
advocate internationally for abolishing the shark fin trade in
other countries.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON SALE OF SHARK FINS.
(a) Prohibition.--Except as provided in section 4, no person shall
possess, transport, offer for sale, sell, or purchase shark fins or
products containing shark fins.
(b) Penalty.--A violation of subsection (a) shall be treated as an
act prohibited by section 307 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1857) and shall be penalized
pursuant to section 308(a) of that Act (16 U.S.C. 1858(a)), except that
the maximum civil penalty for each violation shall be $100,000, or the
fair market value of the shark fins involved, whichever is greater.
SEC. 4. EXCEPTIONS.
A person may possess a shark fin that was taken lawfully under a
State, territorial, or Federal license or permit to take or land
sharks, if the shark fin is separated from the shark in a manner
consistent with the license or permit and is--
(1) destroyed or discarded upon separation;
(2) used for noncommercial subsistence purposes in
accordance with State or territorial law;
(3) used solely for display or research purposes by a
museum, college, or university, or other person under a State
or Federal permit to conduct noncommercial scientific research;
or
(4) retained by the license or permit holder for a
noncommercial purpose.
SEC. 5. DOGFISH.
(a) In General.--It shall not be a violation of section 3 for any
person to possess, transport, offer for sale, sell, or purchase any
fresh or frozen raw fin or tail from any stock of the species Mustelus
canis (smooth dogfish) or Squalus acanthias (spiny dogfish).
(b) Report.--By not later than January 1, 2027, the Secretary of
Commerce shall review the exemption contained in subsection (a) and
shall prepare and submit to Congress a report that includes a
recommendation on whether the exemption contained in subsection (a)
should continue or be terminated. In preparing such report and making
such recommendation, the Secretary shall analyze factors including--
(1) the economic viability of dogfish fisheries with and
without the continuation of the exemption;
(2) the impact to ocean ecosystems of continuing or
terminating the exemption;
(3) the impact on enforcement of the ban contained in
section 3 caused by the exemption; and
(4) the impact of the exemption on shark conservation.
SEC. 6. DEFINITION OF SHARK FIN.
In this Act, the term ``shark fin'' means--
(1) the raw or dried or otherwise processed detached fin of
a shark; or
(2) the raw or dried or otherwise processed detached tail
of a shark.
SEC. 7. STATE AUTHORITY.
Nothing in this Act may be construed to preclude, deny, or limit
any right of a State or territory to adopt or enforce any regulation or
standard that is more stringent than a regulation or standard in effect
under this Act.
SEC. 8. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act or its application to any person or
circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other
provisions or applications of this Act which can be given effect
without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the
provisions of this Act are severable.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
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