Vegetarian Star

Edward Norton is supporting a bill introduced to the California State Assembly by members Paul Fong and Jared Huffman that would ban the sale of shark fins in California.

Norton has been active with WildAid, a group that’s been tracking the shark fin trade for years and is trying to reduce the demand for shark fins internationally.

“As a life-long diver, I have seen the depletion of sharks caused by the shark fin trade first-hand all over the world from Indonesia to the Galapagos Islands,” Norton said. “The Fong/Huffman bill is a vital step towards reducing demand and protecting these important animals and has my full support.”

A couple of years ago, Hawaii became the first state to ban shark fins, which are used in soups and considered a delicacy in Chinese restaurants. Bowls of shark fin soup may cost anywhere from $10 to $100.

To obtain the meat, hunters cut the fins off sharks while they are still alive. The sharks are then thrown back overboard and left to die.

Besides the animal cruelty involved, the decimation of the shark population fueled by this practice has consequences on the ecosystem. Sharks are the top predators of  the oceans. Without them, an entire system can collapse. It’s estimated that about 73 million sharks are killed for their fins every year. Sharks finned often come from threatened populations. Some researchers have found as much as twenty-one percent of shark fins in Hong Kong, for example, have originated from coastlines in places like the United States where sharks are considered endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Photo: PR Photos

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