Florida bill moves one step closer to ending shark fin trade throughout the state

LAKE PARK, Fla. (CBS12) — Conservationists in Florida are one step closer to ending the shark fin trade throughout the state.

On Tuesday, Senate Bill 680 passed unanimously through the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee.

Jim Abernethy is a local marine-life advocate who owns Scuba Adventures down the street from the Blue Heron Bridge. He agrees the trade needs to stop.

"We are the worst state in the United States for killing sharks," he said. "We’ve already banned the ivory trade, we've already banned the rhino trade, it makes sense that we get out of the shark fin trade."

Abernethy says commercial shark fishermen kill 900,000 sharks every year, primarily for their fins.

"There's roughly 21 of them, of those shark fishermen that actually kill sharks on a daily basis. They, according to their records, make $160,000 of income from that," he said.

Abernethy says Florida is a primary supplier of shark fins. Some of that activity is in Palm Beach County, but most of it is in Miami.

"We are now the center for all of South America and Central America to ship their shark fins to Asia through Miami," he said.

Nationally, there is a ban on shark finning.

However, that legislation only outlaws removing fins from sharks in the water. So fishermen can still legally remove them on land.

That's why Abernethy says passing the tougher Florida bill is so important.

"We should save the shark, because it controls the ecosystems, keeping our oceans healthy and balanced where we derive over 70 percent of our protein and over 50 percent of our oxygen. It doesn’t matter where you live on the planet, we need to keep the animals that maintain that oceans health and balance, alive," he said.

One more committee needs to pass the bill before it heads to the House and Senate floor.

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