By 11 September 2020, the organisation Shark Guardian had collected 115,380 signatures in England as part of a petition against the shark fin trade in Great Britain. This was a significant success: on 12 May 2021, the British government banned the import and export of shark fins. We congratulate them on such foresight and decisiveness.
Unfortunately, the EU—the world's largest exporter of shark fins—is still far from this point. Currently, the citizens' initiative #stopfinningEU has already collected around 220,000 signatures. One million votes must be gathered EU-wide by 31 January 2022 to compel the European Commission to address the issue of the shark trade. Legislative amendments aim to ensure that fins, which are highly valuable for trade, must always remain attached to the shark's body. Under the current "Fins Naturally Attached Policy", fins only need to remain attached to the carcass when the fishing vessels are unloaded. Once on land, the fins are removed and mostly exported to Asia. Identifying protected species is then highly difficult in most cases. Furthermore, such a measure would make the commercial trade in sharks more difficult and thus less lucrative—an important step towards protecting sharks in the Atlantic.
Have you not yet signed? You can access the citizens' initiative here: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/012/public/
