Write a paragraph explaining why Canada’s decision to ban all global imports of shark fin is a step in the right direction in protecting our earth’s oceans? What example do you feel this sets for other countries?
Answers
Canada has become the first country in the world to ban the import and export of shark fins.
The ban passed in the Senate late Tuesday as part of Bill C-68, which overhauls the Fisheries Act. Canada has outlawed the practice of cutting fins off domestic sharks since 1994, but it did not have legislation to prohibit people from bringing fins into the country.
The shark-fin trade thrived under the old laws, with more than 148,000 kilograms of shark fins worth $3.2 million entering the country in 2018 alone, according to Statistics Canada.
“We recognize the clear threat that the shark fin trade poses to the sustainability of our oceans,” Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in Toronto on Thursday at an event to announce the ban. “The practice is simply not sustainable, and it is inhumane.”
Wilkinson made the announcement in front of a shark mural dedicated to Rob Stewart, the late Canadian filmmaker who raised awareness about the shark-fin trade through his Sharkwater documentaries. Stewart died in early 2017 while filming a Sharkwater sequel in Florida.