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Shark Conservation Act of 2009

Floor Speech

Date: March 2, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Conservative

SHARK CONSERVATION ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - March 02, 2009)

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Mr. BROWN of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, in the 106th Congress, we enacted the Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000. At the time fisheries managers were unable to quantify the number and the species of sharks being harvested in some fisheries and this made shark management unsuccessful. The Shark Finning Prohibition Act required that fishermen land the carcass of the shark along with the fins so that fishery managers could track shark mortality.

Unfortunately, some shark fin buyers attempted to create a loophole in the law by purchasing fins without the carcasses at sea from fishermen and then ``transferring them to transhipment vessels. This clearly violated the intent, if not the actual provisions, of the law.

To make things worse, a court ruling seems to have sanctioned this unintended loophole in the law.

This legislation closes that loophole and I support this legislation.

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