“More and more, we see the islands of the Pacific stand tall against commercial fishing fleets that are depleting shark populations,” said Matt Rand, director of Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group. “Pacific island leadership is helping these fish, threatened by the fin trade, to keep their place as apex predators in the ocean food chain. Guam, a major fishing hub, now joins other Pacific Ocean voices in support of shark conservation.”
The world is increasingly hearing from small island nations and territories — places where ecotourism is a viable industry — on the need for meaningful conservation action:
• In March 2009, Delegate Madeleine Bordallo of Guam introduced the Shark Conservation Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. It took almost two years to move the bill, which closed loopholes in the U.S.’s finning prohibition, through both houses of Congress. The bill was signed into law in January 2011.
• In September 2009, the Pacific island nation of Palau declared its waters a shark sanctuary, prohibiting them from being commercially fished. The Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, and Honduras took similar steps in early 2010.
• In May 2010, Hawaii passed a state law prohibiting the possession, sale or distribution of shark fins, and in January of this year, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands passed a similar bill.
The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental organization that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life. www.PewSharks.org
