Conservationists hail US plan to ban shark fin trade

As the UN meets in Montreal to discuss saving biodiversity without the US, whose representatives are joining only as observers, conservationists are hailing one American step in the right direction: a likely ban on the trade of shark fins.

Even the possession of fins caught abroad will become illegal.

Shark species have declined by 71% since the 1970s, due mainly to overfishing.

The ruling extended trade restrictions to more than 90 shark species that are increasingly being hunted not only for their fins, but also their meat, some of which ends up in pet food.

But it is shark fins that remain the most lucrative part of the shark. Much of the dried fins make their way in undeclared shipments to various parts of Asia, where shark fin soup is a delicacy.

Canada has already banned the shark fin trade.