While in many places around the world shark catching regulations are being tightened or shark fins are simply banned, the EU finning ban is still one of the weakest in the world. Giant loopholes in the legislation result in European fisheries still being able to "fin" sharks, as they are allowed to remove fins from sharks at sea and sell the fins and carcasses in different harbours. This also means that monitoring whether the fishing quota were not exceeded or that no protected species of shark were fished, is virtually impossible.


This lack of decent legislation has a massive impact on sharks! Several countries in Europe are among the top 20 shark fin exporters in the world:

Shark catching drives species to extinction - CNN.com

and the EU is responsible for roughly one third of global shark catches! Make no mistake, European fisheries have huge fleets that fish for sharks in all oceans, even the Pacific.


Last year, a Written Declaration to strengthen the finning ban and shark catching regulations in the EU was accepted after being signed by 423 MEP's. Therefore, later this year, a legal proposal will be initiated concerning the subject.


Shark-Alliance is campaigning for a fins attached policy, with no exeptions! In preparation they have drafted a .pdf petition in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Polisch.



You can do your part by asking your friends and family to sign the petition:

Send a short e-mail to katrien.vandevelde@pandora.be
and tell me in which language you would like to have the petition. I'll send it to you in a reply.

You do NOT have to be a European citizen to sign the petition! Just make sure that people also fill in their country of residence as it is important.


When you have the signatures, you can either mail the file to the address mentioned at the bottom of the petition paper, or scan and e-mail the petition to me. I'll make sure it arrives at the right destination.
Please send in the papers by the end of October.


Thanks in advance to everyone willing to step up for sharks!

Sharks need us, to work together!