On Saturday, September first, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) called on all tuna processors, traders and importers to refrain from transactions with vessels that carry out shark finning or with vessel owning companies that do not have a public policy prohibiting the practice. This ban is the final step of a sweeping measure that saw the world’s most recognized tuna brands adopting policies prohibiting the act of removing a shark’s fin and discarding the carcass at sea.
Shark finning violates the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries as well as several other resolutions adopted by the FAO, other international marine organizations and national governments.
This measure, and the support it has received from our partners in industry, puts fishing vessel owners on notice that shark finning is an unacceptable, illegal practice and continuing to engage in it will drastically shrink the market for your product, said Susan Jackson, President of ISSF. ISSF applauds the many companies that have adopted an anti-finning policy and we look forward to that list growing even longer.
2010 Pacific News Center | Sorenson Media Group