Washington State.. Shark fin soup off state’s menus

With no fanfare, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday signed legislation that there will be no selling, trading or distributing of shark fins or derivative products in the state of Washington.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-San Juan, is designed to cut into a world-wide trade that kills an estimated 73 million sharks each year — and is endangering the great marine predators.

It is also a brutal trade: Often, fins are sliced off and the shark discarded to drown or bleed to death. The “harvesting” of sharks has been likened to early 20th Century capture of turtles: Boats arriving at New York’s Fulton Street Fish Market carried still-alive turtles whose shells had been punctured. The cruelty prompted one of the nation’s first conservation and cruelty laws.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/05/12/shark-fin-soup-off-states-menus/

Nothing more damaging (or short-sighted) than hunting top-level predators.

I'll be voting for her again, if given the chance.

Wish more states had such laws