Texas Senate kills ban on the Shark fin trade....

[signal_4]

Apparently some senator from Horseshoe Bay is enjoying his kickbacks....and whats most interesting is Horseshoe Bay is no where the Gulf Coast..... Sad Day

http://www.thedorsalfin.com/shark-ne...hark-fin-bill/

http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/...lls-in-senate/

http://www.kens5.com/news/Ban-on-sha...208169621.html

here is the bill....

By: Lucio III, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Hinojosa) H.B. No. 852
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 6, 2013;
May 7, 2013, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural
Resources; May 17, 2013, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 7, Nays 1; May 17, 2013, sent to printer.)

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the sale and purchase of shark fins or products derived
from shark fins; creating an offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 66.216, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 66.216. POSSESSION OF HEADED OR TAILED FISH. (a) No
person may possess a finfish of any species taken from coastal
water, except broadbill swordfish, shark, or king mackerel,
that has the head removed unless the fish has been finally
processed and delivered to the final destination or to a certified
wholesale or retail dealer.
(b) No person may possess a finfish of any species taken
from coastal water, except broadbill swordfish or king mackerel,
that has the tail removed unless the fish has been finally processed
and delivered to the final destination or to a certified wholesale
or retail dealer.
SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 66, Parks and Wildlife
Code, is amended by adding Section 66.2161 to read as follows:
Sec. 66.2161. SALE OR PURCHASE OF SHARK FINS. (a) In this
section:
(1) "Shark" means any species of the subclass
Elasmobranchii.
(2) "Shark fin" means the fresh and uncooked, or
cooked, frozen, dried, or otherwise processed, fin or tail of a
shark.
(b) A person may not buy or offer to buy, sell or offer to
sell, possess for the purpose of sale, transport, or ship for the
purpose of sale, barter, or exchange a shark fin.
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), this section
applies to:
(1) the possession or transportation of any shark fin
with the intent to sell the fin regardless of where the shark was
taken or caught; and
(2) the sale or purchase of any shark fin regardless of
where the shark was taken or caught.
(d) This section does not apply to the possession or
transportation in this state of a shark fin taken or caught outside
this state and transported from a point outside this state by common
carrier without being unloaded in this state to a point of delivery
outside this state.
(e) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), the department may
issue a permit for the possession, transport, sale, or purchase of
shark fins for a bona fide scientific research purpose.
(f) When a person is charged with violating this section,
the warden or other peace officer shall seize and hold the shark fin
as evidence. Notwithstanding Section 12.109, on a final court
ruling, the department shall destroy the shark fin.
SECTION 3. Section 66.218, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended by adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read as follows:
(c) A person who violates Section 66.2161 or a proclamation
adopted under that section commits an offense that is a Class B
Parks and Wildlife Code misdemeanor.
(d) If it is shown at the trial for a violation of Section
66.2161 or a proclamation adopted under that section that the
defendant has been convicted within five years before the trial
date of a violation of that section, on conviction the defendant
shall be punished for a Class A Parks and Wildlife Code misdemeanor.
SECTION 4. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect July 1, 2014.

[rrasco]

FTA:

Republican Sen. Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay said the bill would unfairly target only smugglers who work within the state.

Unfairly target smugglers? Is that even a thing?

[alton]

I never realized finning was a problem in Texas, I think the practice is stupid. Why waste the whole fish and just keep the fin?

[Zack]

When I used to live in Galveston, we would go shark fishing about five times a semester and my roomate would practice catch and release on sharks, but we would see people finning when they caught, pretty sad.

[signal_4]

The practice of shark fining is already illegal under federal law, however the profit outweighs the cost of the fines. To stop the practice you need to kill the demand first. That's what this bill was trying to accomplish. By making the sale or purchase of shark fins arrestable, restaurants will no longer be able to sell the soup....Major cities like Houston will no longer be able to import (or maybe export) shark fins for business to sell.

Its well known that sharks and other marine life are being constantly poached of Texas waters by Mexican fisherman....weve seen this as finned sharks have washed up on PINS as well as the long liner floats on both Corpus and PINS beaches.

Imagine that the fins (which were illegally caught in our waters) are being processed in Mexico and then transported through the border check points to major cities in Texas for sale. Making this illegal would give the check point agents the tool to seize and make arrests.

Now my question is why is a senator from Horseshoe Bay which is up around Austin ( No where near the Gulf Coast) have such an opposition to the conservation law ? The only thing I can think of is political or monetary gains. It appears that a group of Charter Boat Captains up around Houston/Galveston got together and threw a big hissy fit and probably this senator seeing a opportunity for these gains vouched for them. The captains stated that this bill would be tragic to their business and their clients. Again the way I read this bill it dose not affect charter boats from legally catching and keeping sharks.... They just have to clean them at the docks when they land....what it does affect is that their clients can no longer take the fins and sell them into the market.

It dosent make any sense as to why someone would be against such a law unless there is profit for them in the practice of selling shark fins.

Yes Texas still has a very healthy shark population, for instance Scalloped Hammerheads are often caught off Bob Hall. But did you know that in 2008 the Scalloped Hammerhead was listed as globally endangered ? But as long as the demand and high profit for shark fins is there, these people will continue to poach our waters and you have senator Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay and his buddies to thank for it.