GUEST ARTICLE: Gabriela Kubíková, EU farmed animal policy consultant and contributor to Živávlna, discusses a bold plan to end the support for shark finning within the European Union.

Sharks have been roaming the oceans on our planet for hundreds of millions of years and survived five mass extinctions. The evolution has turned them into fascinating animals with highly developed senses and their vital role in the marine ecosystem as an apex predator is undisputable. Healthy ocean ecosystems are dependent on sharks but unfortunately, shark populations have seen a decline by 70 per cent over a mere 50 years.

Every year, an estimated 100 million sharks are killed, many of them for their fins, which are in high demand in Asia. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy, as well as a symbol of luxury in Asia, and shark fins are believed to have special properties in traditional Chinese medicine. After being caught and having their fins cut off, sharks are very often still alive when the rest of their body - valueless to the industry - is dumped back into the water, where sharks usually suffocate, bleed out or are eaten by other fishes.

In the European Union (EU), at-sea removal of shark fins is prohibited, so sharks’ carcasses must be landed with their fins naturally attached and only then may the fins be cut off. However, this policy is not enough to stop the EU from being a very significant fin exporter and a major player in this bloody trade. That is why the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Stop Finning - Stop the trade’ demands that the Commission presents a legislative proposal that would extend the “sharks naturally attached” policy to the whole trade of sharks and rays, covering import, export, and transit.

The European Citizens’ Initiative is a tool of participatory democracy, enabling EU citizens to bring an important issue before the Commission if they manage to gather one million signatures from at least seven EU Member States. If successful, organizers are granted a public hearing in the European Parliament, and the Commission, despite not having to comply with the demands, is obliged to address the matter properly and explain the reasoning behind its decision. It is therefore a mechanism citizens should be aware of and should make use of.

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It is undoubtedly true that the success of this initiative could help sharks in the long run - at least by highlighting the issue many are not familiar with and by making it a part of the conversation at the highest level of European politics. For that reason alone, you may consider signing the initiative provided you are eligible to do so - that means you are a citizen of the European Union and are old enough to vote in European Parliament elections (18 years old in most countries). Beware that you may be asked to provide your personal identification number or personal identification document number for the purpose of verification, however, your personal data are protected.

Campaigning to gain support for this initiative has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and now, there are less than 90 days to gather more than 600,000 signatures. Nevertheless, it is a pursuit worth supporting and our signatures are the least we can do to promote raising awareness for better protection of sharks, who are often depicted as cold-blooded monsters, but who are in fact quiet heroes defending the health of the marine ecosystems that all of us depend on.

To quote Paul de Gelder, “people should not be afraid of having sharks in the ocean, they should be afraid of not having sharks in the ocean“.

To add your signature, click here. The collection period ends on 31st January 2022. For more information on the initiative, please visit the website of the Stop Finning EU or follow the initiative on Instagram.

Gabriela Kubíková is an EU farmed animal policy consultant, PhD candidate in animal law and animal rights activist from the Czech Republic. She is also a contributor to Živávlna, a Slovak all-female, all-vegan organisation focusing on creating a more compassionate world through education and art. Visit Zivavlna.sk or find them at Instagram.com/zivavlna.

Lucia Baranová is a Slovak conservationist and founder of Blue Religion, an organisation whose mission is to protect, educate and explore the underwater world. She has collected a lot of data on shark finning industry and works with other organisations with an aim to protect sharks and whales from a negative human impact. Visit Bluereligion.org or find them at Instagram.com/bluereligion_org.

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