Editorial: Shark fin trade rears ugly head

It has been more than eight years since Hawaii became the first state to ban the possession or distribution of shark fins.

So it was discouraging to learn this week that the heinous practice is back in the headlines. On Tuesday, the owners and officers of a Japanese-flagged fishing vessel, the M.V. Kyoshin Maru No. 20, were charged with trafficking and smuggling of at least 962 shark fins into and out of Hawaii.

This comes at a time when the cachet of dining on shark fins appears, thankfully, to be on the wane. Besides Hawaii, 11 other states and three U.S. territories now have prohibitions on the shark fin trade. Shark finning has been banned in waters of the United States since 2000, although trade in fins taken from legally caught sharks continues. China has reportedly reduced shark fin consumption by 80 percent in the past decade, although in other parts of Asia, consumption has seen an increase.

Bringing the nearly tasteless delicacy to your soup bowl usually involves catching a shark, slicing off its fins and dumping it back into the water, sometimes still alive. Several shark species are being driven to extinction by irresponsible harvesting.

It’s beyond cruel. The health of the ocean’s ecosystem depends on its top predators, who weed out the weakest of their prey, helping strengthen the vigor and gene pool of other fish stocks.

Congress is considering legislation that would effectively shut the U.S. market to shark fin imports and exports. That would be a step — one more of many needed — to reduce or eliminate the harm caused by shark finning.