MICHAEL L. MacDONALD
Canadians have just enjoyed another round of Shark Week. People are becoming more informed about the importance of these apex predators to our marine ecosystems, of the desperate circumstances sharks face due to massive exploitation over the past few decades, and events like Shark Week help to raise everyone’s awareness. The great problem, of course, is the practice of shark finning.
Approximately 70 million sharks are killed each year to satisfy the global demand for shark fin soup. Most of these sharks have their fins cut off at sea by a hot serrated blade, then are thrown overboard to drown or bleed to death. It is an ecological disaster in full progress — 98 per cent of the animal is wasted in the process, but more critically, we are witnessing the oceanwide destruction of sharks, arguably one of the world’s most important species.
In the previous Parliament, MP Fin Donnelly introduced a bill to put an end to the importation of shark fins into Canada, which was narrowly defeated in the House of Commons. I thought that bill was worth supporting, and introduced similar legislation in the Senate in 2017. In spite of initial reluctance from the government to support my bill, S-238, it was incorporated into the new federal Fisheries Act and passed into law this June. Canada became the first G-20 country to institute such a ban, and it was rightly heralded as a significant step forward in the shared global effort to reverse the massive decline in shark populations.
But now the Trudeau government is squandering an opportunity to provide leadership at the upcoming meeting in Switzerland later this month concerning the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). A proposal, co-sponsored by 28 countries, including the EU, is to list mako sharks on “Appendix II” of CITES, which provides for increased protection.
The mako shark is now listed as globally “endangered.” Listed as merely “near threatened” as recently as 2007, they have been thrice reclassified in just over a decade. The fastest of all sharks, the mako spans the oceans throughout the temperate and tropical zones, spending most of its life in deep water away from shore. But now the mako shark is in big trouble and fighting for its survival.
Yet the government of Canada has decided not to support this badly needed proposal. In a post on the government website, it states, “Canada opposes this proposal to include Shortfin mako in Appendix II.”
The federal government believes it has practices in place to ensure the sustainability of a species like mako sharks in our waters. This argument is pure folly. This is an international problem which requires a collective solution. Even if mako sharks are ostensibly managed sustainably in one area, it does not mean they are fished sustainably in another. Sharks swim, and mako sharks in particular are highly migratory.
The federal government’s claim that mako sharks do not meet the threshold for protection is ill-considered, and reveals a remarkable lack of judgment, even for this government. Mako sharks already meet or exceed both the biological and trade criteria for listing, although only one criterion must be met to qualify.
The federal Liberals love to trumpet their environmental rhetoric at every opportunity. It is a perpetual exercise in virtue-signalling. But saving the mako shark requires action now, and the Trudeau government chooses to do nothing.
Michael L. MacDonald is a Conservative senator for Nova Scotia (Cape Breton) and deputy chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources.