DRAFT

Your Committee is aware that The United States Government has amended the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act to eliminate the wasteful and unsportsmanlike practice of shark finning. The amendment, Public Law 106-557 of the 106th Congress, prohibits actions “to remove any of the fins of a shark (including the tail) and discard the carcass of the shark at sea.”

Your Committee is aware that the still living and mutilated shark, without its fins, is dumped into the sea in order to save room on the ship for additional fins. The shark suffers a slow and agonizing death. Improvements in navigational electronics and ship design allow shark “harvesting” boats to operate on a world-wide basis so that sharks are ecologically extinct in certain seas.

Your Committee is well aware that wildlife organizations estimate as many as 70 million sharks are used to provide fins each year. Many shark populations have seen a severe drop in population: 89% for hammerheads, 80% for threshers, 79% for Great Whites, 90% for sand bar and 99% for white tip sharks. Some sharks reach maturity over 15 years or longer, have slow reproductive rates with gestation periods of up to 22 months and some produce only one or two pups per year. Sharks are therefore endangered by the finning slaughter practice. More than a quarter of all shark species are now considered endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Your Committee notes that sharks are often top predators and play an integral and important factor in maintenance of healthy marine ecosystems.

Your Committee should be aware that sharks, because of their status at the top of marine food chains and their longevity, have some of the highest mercury burdens of any fish and that in a number of surveys shark fin has been found to contain levels of the neurotoxin methyl mercury in excess of world Health Organization recommended levels and that this is particularly hazardous to pregnant women.

Your Committee is advised that, as the United States Government has prohibited the practice of shark finning, the products of such illegal action should also be prohibited.

Your Committee is further advised that this Local Law will require food service establishments in Westchester County to remove and no longer stock products of shark finning for purchase and/or consumption.

Your Committee is also well aware, pursuant to Chapter of the Laws of Westchester County, that said County has the authority to prohibit products, such a shark fin soup, and to regulate food retail shops and restaurants.

Your Committee is also of the belief that the adoption of the attached Local Law, if enacted, would enable the County to have an impact on the market for such products and in so doing protect a number of species in danger of extinction as well as protect the health of county residents.

LOCAL LAW INTRO. NO. -2008


A Local Law amending the Laws of Westchester County with respect to prohibiting sale and provision of shark fin soup.

BE IT ENACTED by the County Board of the County of Westchester as follows:

Section 1. A new Chapter of the Laws of Westchester County is hereby added to read as follows:

CHAPTER

SHARK FIN PRODUCT PROHIBITION LAW


.01 Short Title
.02 Definitions
.03 Intent
.04 Prohibition
.05 Penalties
.06 Severability
.07 Enactment


Section 1. Short Title

This Local Law shall be know as the Shark Fin Product Prohibition Law of 2008

Section 2.Definitions:

As used in this section the following terms shall have the following meanings:

Finning. The term “finning” shall mean the removal of the fins, including the tail, of a shark and discarding the still living body or carcass of the shark at sea

Product of finning. The term “product of finning” shall mean soup or other product made from the fins (including tail) of a shark.


Section 3. Prohibition:

Notwithstanding the foregoing, after Date ## two thousand and eight no person or establishment shall sell, offer for sale or manufacture shark fin soup or other shark products derived from finning.


Section 4. Penalties

Any person or establishment who violates a provision of this chapter shall be subject to the imposition of a civil penalty by the Department, which shall have the sole jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of this chapter. Every person who violates the provisions of this chapter shall be liable for a civil penalty as prescribed in Section 873.219 of the Westchester County Sanitary Code. The penalty provided for by this chapter may be sued for and recovered by the Department of Health through the County Attorney in the name of the County of Westchester in any court of competent jurisdiction. The penalties imposed herein are the sole penalties to be imposed for a violation of this chapter. No civil penalty shall be imposed as provided for herein unless the alleged violator has received notice of the charge against him and has had an opportunity to be heard as provided for in the Westchester County Sanitary Code.


Section 5. Severability

If any section, subsection, clause, phrase or other portion of this act is, for any reason, declared unconstitutional or invalid, in whole or in part, by any court of competent jurisdiction such portion shall be deemed severable, and such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this act, which remaining portions shall continue in full force and effect.


Section 6. This Local Law shall take effect thirty days following its enactment.


Resolution No. -2005

RESOLVED, that this Board hold a public hearing pursuant to Section &&& of the Laws of Westchester County on Local Law Intro No. -2008 regulating the sales of shark products.

The public hearing will be held at on the day of

2008 I the Chambers of the Board of Legislators, 8th Floor, Michaelian Office Building, White Plains, NY. The Clerk of the Board shall cause notice of the time and date of such hearing to be published at least once in one or more newspapers published I the County of Westchester and selected by the Clerk of the Board for that purpose in the manner and time required by law.