Jim Saxton: “Mr. Speaker, H. Con. Res. 189, authored by my friend the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), expresses the sense…”

“Mr. Speaker, H. Con. Res. 189, authored by my friend the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), expresses the sense of Congress that the practice of shark finning is wasteful and unsportsmanlike. In addition, it calls on the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the State Department to take action to ban the practice in U.S. waters and to work for a global ban on the practice. The issue that we are talking about here, shark finning, may not be one that is familiar to all Members. I would just like to say a word about what this is, because, as the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) so well points out in H. Con. Res. 189, it is a practice which I believe would be tasteless, at best, and perhaps many other things at worst. It is very simply this: Catching, through the process that we generally refer to as long lining, sharks, in this case in the western Pacific Ocean, bringing them alongside the boat and removing with a knife their fins, and then turning them loose to die.”