Ban the Sale, Transportation and Possession of Shark Fin in the State of Michigan.

We the people of the State of Michigan call up on our elected officials to take action and pass legislation to ban the Sale, Transportation and Possession of Shark Fins any where in the State of Michigan and to levy heavy fine and penalties for those found to violate the ban.

Every year tens of millions of Sharks are caught at sea only to have their Fins removed and the still alive sharks are often dumped back into the Oceans where they bleed to death or drown and even eaten alive by other fish.

All this senseless killing is for nothing more then a bowl of soup; that sales at local restaurants for $35 a bowl on average.  Shark Fin has no taste and takes on the flavor of the herbs and ingredients of the soup it cooked in.  Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. Due to the clandestine nature of finning,
records are rarely kept of the numbers of sharks and species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to shark fin markets such as Hong Kong and China.