A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Alan Maisel and State Senator (and former casino patron) Mark Grisanti would ban the sale, possession, trade and distribution of shark fins in New York. “Action to ban the barbaric practice of shark fining is long overdue,” Maisel said in a statement. “Sharks occupy the top of the marine food chain and are a critical part of the ocean ecosystem." New York would join California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington as states where you can't improve your virility with shark-fin soup.
The world's shark population is down 90% as nearly 73 million are killed every year. New York is one of the top markets for shark fin in the country, but its popularity has declined in recent years. “New York should not be a haven for the cruel, wasteful and unsustainable trade in shark fin," Patrick Kwan, the state director for the Humane Society said in a statement.
But 95% of the world's shark fins are consumed in China, and though anti-finning legislation has been proposed before, it usually dies a quick death. You can still find shark fin soup at around 20 restaurants around the city. When we asked a manager at Congee Village in the Lower East Side how a shark fin ban would affect them, he told us, "It wouldn't be a big deal, we'd just follow the law."
