SAN FRANCISCO – With millions of sharks killed annually only for their fins, new legislation is seeking to offer extra measures to stop the practice and protect the ocean's delicate food web.

Protection of sharks and ocean ecosystems is the focus of the new legislation introduced on Monday by Assemblyman Paul Fong (D-Mountain View) and Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael).

Fong announced the legislation, AB 376, at a press event held Monday morning at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

He was accompanied by famed shark expert Dr. John McCosker of the California Academy of Sciences. McCosker has spoken out before on the need to discourage the shark fin soup market and legislate against shark finning.

AB 376 seeks to reduce the demand for shark fins by targeting the market for fins in California, which reportedly has one of the largest markets for shark fins outside of Asia.

It would ban the possession, sale, trade and distribution of shark fins in the state, which is meant to close a major enforcement loophole in existing law.

Should this law pass, California would become the second state to ban the possession and sale of shark fins, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Hawaii enacted similar protections in July 2010 and similar legislation is now pending in the legislatures of Guam, Oregon and Washington.

“While shark finning is illegal in the U.S., consumption of shark fin soup in California contributes to shark finning in other parts of the world, a practice that is driving numerous shark populations to the brink of extinction, said Dr. Geoff Shester,” California Program Director at Oceana. “This bill will help reduce pressure on shark populations globally by ending the demand for shark fins in California.”

President Obama recently signed the Shark Conservation Act, which will crack down on the lucrative and abusive trade in shark fins and close critical loopholes in the federal law to improve enforcement, such as requiring boats to land sharks with their fins still attached.

The group Shark Savers reported that up to 73 million sharks are killed annually for their fins, with some shark populations declining by as much as 90 percent as a result.

Shark finning involves fishermen slicing off a live shark’s fins while at sea. The sharks are then thrown back into the water to die. Without fins, sharks will bleed to death, drown or are eaten by other species.

Experts report that removing sharks from ocean ecosystems can destabilize these systems and even lead to reductions in populations of other species, including commercially-caught fish and shellfish species lower in the food web.

Sharks are apex predators whose survival affects all other marine species and the oceans’ ecosystems. Unlike other fish species, sharks produce few pups, and thus, many species are endangered and/or threatened due to the fin trade.

Fins are currently being imported to the U.S. from countries with few or even no shark protections in place, Oceana reported.

“Thanks to Assemblymembers Fong and Huffman, California has the opportunity to send sharks a valentine and lead our country internationally in helping to balance the world's ecology and environment,” said Jennifer Fearing, California senior state director for The HSUS. “We must cease the senseless and cruel slaughter of one of the great predators of the world's oceans."

Oceana and several other groups including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Ocean Conservancy, WildAid and the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance, praised the introduction of the bill and commended the legislators for their efforts to protect species that have been swimming the world’s oceans for more than 400 million years.

Not commending Fong and Huffman was state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), who gathered with Chinese restaurateurs on Monday to decry what they said was an attack on cultural cuisine.

“I am very concerned with the plight of many shark species and the illegal shark fining trade,” Yee said. “That is why I support the federal law that bans the practice of killing sharks only for their fins and I would support state legislation to strengthen it. I would also support legislation to create greater penalties for and enforcement of illegally killing sharks or selling any product from an endangered species.”

But Yee said the proposed law to ban all shark fins from consumption “is the wrong approach and an unfair attack on Asian culture and cuisine.” He said some sharks are well-populated and many can and should be sustainably fished.

He called it the “latest assault on Asian cultural cuisine,” pointing to his fight last week against a proposal at the California Fish and Game Commission that would have banned frog and turtle consumption.

“I had to pass legislation last year just to allow for the production of Asian rice noodles, and similar bills were needed to allow for Korean rice cakes,” he said. “There have also been previous efforts to end live food markets, roasted duck, and several other cultural staples.”

AB 376 will be heard in policy committee in March.

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