State assembly members Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) announced new legislation Monday that would bring an end of shark fin soup.
Shark fins are used in a luxury soup at Chinese restaurants. It is often compared to caviar and can sell for as much as $80 a bowl.
The lawmakers want to ban shark finning all together. Finning is when fisherman catch sharks and then remove their fins and tails before throwing the remainder of the fish back into the ocean.
Huffman noted that Sharks are the top predators in ocean ecosystems. "Removing them by this senseless act of finning can seriously destabilize the food chain. To save them from extinction, our bill targets the demand for these shark fins by banning their sale and possession here in California," Huffman said.
Sen. Leland Yee is not a supporter of the bill. He gathered with ten restaurant owners Monday and they all called the ban an overreach. "This is just one of the many examples where there's been this
effort to take away our heritage and culture,'' Lee said.
