Please cosponsor the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act
Dear Legislator,
As your constituent, I urge you to cosponsor and push for passage of the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, H.R. 2811, which will prohibit the commercial trade of shark fins and products containing shark fins. In the last Congress, this bill passed the House by an overwhelming margin of 310 to 107 and has already passed out of the U.S. Senate in this Congress as part of a broader legislative package, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, S. 1260.
The United States is one of the biggest players in the international trade of shark fins. Although our country prohibits shark finning – a gruesome, inhumane practice in which fishermen cut off sharks' fins, then toss the mutilated animals back into the ocean where they drown, bleed to death, or are eaten alive by other fish – many other countries do not. By participating in this global business, the United States fuels shark finning elsewhere as well as the decline of shark populations everywhere.
Sharks have occupied our oceans for 400 million years, but scientists warn that existing populations cannot sustain the current level of exploitation. Fins from as many as 73 million sharks are traded worldwide annually, and sharks are being killed 30 percent faster than they can reproduce.
By passing this bill and getting our country out of the destructive shark fin business, the United States will expand our leadership in global shark conservation and strengthen the current ban on shark finning in U.S. waters.
As top predators, sharks help ensure the health of oceans. Please support the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, H.R. 2811, to protect these great creatures as well as our oceans themselves.
Thank you.
[Your Name]
