Close the loophole to stop illegal shark finning in our waters. We need laws to have “Fins Naturally Attached"

The Honourable

Peter

Tinley

WA Parliament

Dear Minister

I am disappointed that your government is now the only one left in Australia that has not done all it can to stamp out shark finning. In September, the Queensland Government announced FNA in the east coast fishery, its largest fishery that targets sharks.

I ask that you put a “fins naturally attached” (FNA) rule in all of your fisheries that harvest sharks. FNA is globally acknowledged as a practical step that ends illegal finning and helps prevent endangered sharks entering the market.

Without their fins, sharks are very difficult to identify. If a fisher wanted to, they could cut off and keep the highly prized fins of endangered species like scalloped hammerheads and dump the bodies overboard. So long as the piles of fins and flesh on the boat look like they’re in the right proportions, fisheries officers are none the wiser.

FNA will require fishers to bring sharks back to port in one piece, where the species can be identified. This data is vital to keep track of fishing activity to know if too many of any one species is being caught, and whether endangered species are being killed. This law will greatly improve fisher compliance as the current fins-to-flesh ratio is difficult to enforce.

FNA is world-best practice and your government is not only lagging behind the rest of Australia, but also the United States, European Union, several Mediterranean countries, and India.

Minister, I ask that you ensure FNA is written into law across all WA fisheries. It is the most immediate and practical way to guarantee Australians that our sharks are spared from the barbaric practice of live-finning, and that our fisheries are operating to world’s best practice.

Yours sincerely,

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Yours sincerely,

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