Damien O’CONNOR
Fisheries Spokesperson
10 November  2013    MEDIA STATEMENT  

Ban on shark finning welcomed

The Labour Party has welcomed an announcement by the Government to ban shark finning in New Zealand waters.

“It has been a long time coming but New Zealand has finally caught up with many of the other world’s nations in banning shark finning.” says Labour’s Fisheries spokesperson Damien O’Connor.

“It is a sad fact that Australia, The United States and the European Union have already moved to stop this ghastly and wasteful  trade that sees millions of sharks killed around the world. New Zealand has been tardy in getting a ban .

“In New Zealand, conservation groups estimate 24,000 tonnes of sharks are caught in our waters. Most of the worlds sharks that are caught are thrown back with only 2 per cent of the shark being used.

Damien O’Connor said todays ban was a significant move to save the stocks of the world’s sharks which in many cases are now considered endangered .”This is great news for a creature that has been in the world’s oceans for 400 million years.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media