Toronto City councillors have voted to adopt a city-wide shark fin ban, becoming the largest city in Canada to prohibit the sale of shark fin.
Shark fin bill - a historic moment for Canada
Passage of the legislation, initially proposed by city councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam, John Parker, and Glenn De Baeremaeker, marks a huge win for Shark Truth, a Vancouver-based non-profit that promotes shark education and conservation. The organization recruited nearly 10,000 people to join a campaign on change urging Toronto’s city councillors to vote in favor of the city-wide shark fin ban. "For a city the size and influence of Toronto to pass a shark fin bill is a historic moment for Canada,” said Claudia Li, founder of Shark Truth. “Councillors are setting an example of how we can protect sharks from the wasteful practice of finning." Toronto is now the fourth city in Ontario to enact a shark fin ban, joining Brandtford, Oakville, and Mississauga. The US state of California enacted a state-wide shark fin ban earlier this month, on October 7th. Shark finning is a process by which fishermen catch sharks, slice off their fins and tails, then throw the fish back into the water to die. Up to 73 million sharks are killed through finning every year to meet the demand for shark fin soup, leading some shark populations to decline by as much as 90 per cent in recent years. Learn more: www.fairfish.ch
