One of the greatest successes in the history of Sharkprojekt is celebrated in Austria

Sharkproject is celebrating one of the greatest successes in our organisation's history: the tireless efforts of Gabriela Futterknecht, representing Sharkproject Austria, led to a unanimous parliamentary decision to ban the import of shark products at the end of 2022. Now the regulation is finally coming into force.  

• Import ban on all shark products including fins, meat and skin
• the end for questionable cosmetics, sexual enhancers, shark fin soup and shark steaks in Austria is thus sealed
• Pioneering role for the whole of Europe

Austria as role model

What has been a long time coming has now come to a happy conclusion. We reported back in December 2022 about the press conference at the Museum of Natural History and the unanimous motion for a resolution in the Austrian Parliament. However, as it takes a lot of time to formulate new regulations with legal force, the case was very quiet for the time being.

However, Gabriela Futterknecht from Sharkproject Austria always stayed in touch with Lukas Hammer, the member of the National Council who tabled the motion in parliament at her request. On 22 April 2024, the time had finally come: the Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility and Innovation's New Species Protection Ordinance (only available in German) came into force. 

Sharks are now just as strictly protected in Austria as other endangered species. Not only the import and processing of shark meat, but also the import of shark bites and similar holiday souvenirs is now a punishable offence. Offences against the species protection regulations can be punished with fines of up to 40,000 euros and prison sentences of up to two years.

While the consumption of shark products is probably ‘a problem of the countries that border the sea’ in the minds of most citizens, very few people realise that Austrian imports of shark products were previously in fifth (!) place in Europe. This means that the import ban not only sets a great example for other (European) countries, but also has a direct and tangible impact due to the loss of volumes.

Huge Media response

The new Austrian regulation went like a wave through the German-speaking media landscape. Our own press release was taken over directly by the OTS. Lukas Hammer, a member of the National Council, also published his own OTS report. Numerous well-known newspapers and online news services then reported on this ground-breaking innovation (please note that the articles are only available in German): 

• Kronen Zeitung 
• Heute
• Vorarlberg Online
• Falstaff
• presse-nachrichten.de
• MSN
• Puls24
• Head Topics
• Der Standard
• nachrichten.at
• Kurier
• Die Presse
• Wirtschaft Direkt
• Der Welt
• Ö3
• Top News