Austria plans to ban the import of commercial shark-products

A big success for the international shark protection: In a press conference which was held on the 6th of December in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna the Austrian Parties represent in the Parliament showed unanimity. 

In a joint press conference of Lukas Hammer, speaker for Enviroment of the party "Grüne" and chairman of the Environment Committee, Joachim Schnabel, representative of the party "ÖVP", Julia Herr, speaker for Environment and climate protection of the party "SPÖ" and Michael Bernhard, speaker for Environment and climate protection of the party "NEOS" the participants thanked Gabriela Futterknecht, Sharkproject Austria, for the important awareness training of Sharkproject about sharks, their role in marine ecosystem and their upcoming extermination. 

Beginning with 2023 there shall be a regulation for the trade of 90% of all shark species, which are traded for their fins (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora - CITES). But only when we are able to stabilize the shark populations due effective management and regulation of the fishery, the sharks can fulfill their important role for preservating the balance in our oceans. 

"This also affects us Austrians, as every second breath we take comes from the ocean", says Lucas Hammer. 
Joachim Schnabel aims at raising awareness while Michael Bernhard insists, that we must limit our consume. Julia Herr brings in the overfishing and the disastrous consequences for our oceans and doesn't see any alternative to the initiative. 

"Another aspect that supports the import ban are the health risks. Shark meat is highly contaminated with methyl quicksilver", underlines Gabriela Futterknecht.  
Consumers are hoodwinked with pseudonames like Schillerlocke, Sea Eel or Spiny Dogfish and don't know they consume shark products. Lacking labelling e.g. in cosmetics, dietary supplements etc. prevents consumers to reenact, if the product contains shark (e.g. in form of Squalene, which is made from shark livers). There are already alternatives, as Squalene can also made from plants or by using biotechnology. Prof. Harald Pichler and his team are working on a respective research project at the TU Graz. 

A representative of Sharkproject will take part at the next meeting of the national council as guest. Then the national council will enact a law to ban the import of commercial shark products. 

The Environment Committee send out a  APA-OTS-press report which already lead to articles by well-known Austrian daily newspapers like Kurier and Der Standard. 

The team of Sharkproject will keep up the fight for shark protection. With your support we can keep up our campains and projects and therefore ask for your donations.