WASHINGTON, DC, February 11, 2002 (ENS) - The federal ban on shark finning has been extended to the Pacific Ocean by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Finning - the practice of cutting off the fins and throwing the remainder of the shark overboard - is prohibited under state regulations on the West Coast, in a number of Atlantic states and Hawaii and has been prohibited in federal waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea since 1993.

In 2000, Congress enacted the Shark Finning Prohibition Act out of concern about the status of shark populations and the effects of heavy shark fishing. The slow growth, late sexual maturity and low birth rate of sharks make them vulnerable to overfishing.

The new regulations, effective March 13, 2002, make it illegal for any federally regulated fishing vessel to carry or land shark fins without the entire shark carcass.

The ban on shark finning in the Pacific Ocean will prohibit foreign vessels from landing fins in U.S. ports without the entire shark carcasses.

"Today's action is another indicator of this Administration's commitment to the conservation of marine resources," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Jr., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. "Wasteful fishing practices can lead to devastation of vital living marine resources and economic hardship for the fishermen and communities that rely on the long term, sustained use of these resources."

The U.S. ban is consistent with international agreements to better manage shark populations, including the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Plan of Action for Sharks, and the United Nation's Agreement on Straddling Stocks and Highly Migratory Species, Lautenbacher noted.

The Shark Finning Prohibition Act aims to eliminate the wasteful practice of killing sharks only for their fins. Shark fins comprise only between one percent and five percent of the weight of a shark, and finning results in a 95 to 99 percent waste by weight.

In 1991, the percentage of sharks killed by U.S. longline fisheries in the Pacific Ocean for finning was about three percent. By 1998, that percentage had grown to 60 percent.

Between 1991 and 1998, the number of sharks retained by the Hawaii based swordfish and tuna longline fishery had increased from 2,289 to 60,857 a year, and by 1998, an estimated 98 percent of these sharks were killed for their fins.