EU Citizens' Initiative: Stop Finning - Stop the Trade

Every year, between 63 and 273 million sharks die from fishing. This figure is probably underestimated due to the lack of reliable data and the extremely high number of unreported cases of illegal fishing worldwide. 

Sharks are hunted worldwide, mainly for their fins. These are consumed as shark fin soup, especially in Asia. You can pay up to 90 € for this supposed delicacy, which contains only a few grams of fins. A lucrative business with huge profit margins at the expense of the sharks!  

The lucrative business with shark fins is also driven by Europe, as a major supplier of shark fins to the markets in Southeast Asia. Since 2013, the European Union requires all sharks to be landed with all "Fins Naturally Attached" thereby prohibiting the retention, transhipment and landing of detached shark fins in EU waters and by all EU vessels, without exceptions. The fins must remain naturally attached to the carcass of the animal up to the point of first landing. Fins can then be separated from the animal and exported as detached or loose fins, mainly to Southeast Asia. In 2016 alone, Spain reported landings of 53,000 tons of blue shark from the Atlantic, equivalent to about 1.75 million animals. Despite the increasingly threatened state of many shark populations, the total catch of blue sharks in the Atlantic, has almost doubled since the beginning of the millennium. Besides targeting blue sharks (Prionace glauca), the shark species, which is globally most heavily fished in all oceans, the EU fleet also targets shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) sharks in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, where this globally endangered shark species remains without any protection and can be caught without limits.  

For the North Atlantic a retention ban for shortfin mako has been defined until 2024 and the EU’s Scientific Review Group (SRG) has also agreed on a negative opinion for the South Atlantic thus prohibiting the trade of this CITES App II listed species in the EU. However, despite all of this the fishing induced mortality remains far too high in the North Atlantic, hindering this overfished stock to rebuild until 2070, as the EU fleet continues discarding mako sharks mostly dead, while other fishing nations such as Canada and USA have already increased the ratio of live releases to 70% and 60% respectively 

The shark fishing operation is very profitable but mostly because of the value of the fins. On average, almost 3,500 tons of fins with a total value of around 52 million euros are exported from the EU every year. Due to few inspections in EU ports and only sporadic inspections of fishing vessels at sea, combined with the absence of any inspections in ports outside of EU, finning continues in many areas and especially in the High Seas. No one can say for sure how many shark fins are still illegally landed also in Europe or imported into the EU.. Only very few countries have passed a "Fins Naturally Attached" legislation (e.g. USA, UK, Canada, India, South Africa) while most other countries and all of the large tuna RFMOs continue to allow a fin to carcass ration of detached fins being on board and landed as detached fins and even finning remains being allowed or at least tolerated in several countries. Therefore, of the origin and legality of the majority of fins being traded globally is hard to trace, but nevertheless detached fins can legally be imported or transiting the EU.  

And in many instances this also includes fins of CITES App II listed species which are illegally traded without the required export permits and in praxis impossible to detect in midst of thousands of other fins, packaged dried, frozen or chemically treated as loos fins of all sizes in hundreds of boxes as part of a cargo; an impossible task to achieve even for the most experienced customs officers and even if having access to modern DNA analysis testing that can identify each fin down to the species level, via a time consuming and expensive test. 

For more details on the background and the truth behind the allegedly sustainable and well managed EU shark fisheries, that operate in all oceans with a small but extremely efficient fleet of longliners, read our background information provided to the EU Commission in support of the demand of the European Citizen’s Initiative:

• Letter to the EU Commission
• Analysis of the parliamentary debate

That is why we demand: The trade of shark fins in Europe must be stopped immediately! The barbaric practice of finning and the unsustainable exploitation of shark populations can only be stopped when trade regulations make this trade financially unviable. The exports, import and transit of detached fins of sharks and rays must be prohibited. It is time for Europe to finally act consistently to protect sharks and our oceans!