The California Fin Ban

Photo:Ben Nelms

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA’S SHARK FIN BAN

Quickly after Hawaii’s landmark fin ban in 2011, the California legislature passed a bill prohibiting the possession, sale, trade or distribution of shark fins, coming into effect as a law on January 1st, 2012. Restaurants were given a phase-out period of one year, until January 1st, 2013. From that date on, fins in restaurants were officially illegal.

California has about 1/3 of the country’s Asian population and used to be one of the largest consumers of shark fin soup outside of Asia. That has hopefully changed since the fin ban took effect, but there have been reports of people still seeing shark fin soup on menus. Surely, it would not be available in every restaurant as most restaurant owners are actually law-abiding citizens. But there are some that are willing to break the law. And that is probably something that could be addressed with some grass-roots action by us in the conservation community. More about that later.

WHERE TO REPORT FIN VIOLATIONS?

If you see shark fin soup sold at a restaurant or fins being traded/sold, please call:

California Department of Fish and Wildlife, CDFW (562-342-7100)

Cal-Tip, Californians turn in poachers and polluters (1-888-334-2258)