Legarda pushes for bill vs catching sharks
Senator Loren Legarda on Sunday urged her colleagues in Congress to pass a bill banning the catching, sale and purchase of sharks and rays in the country.
Legarda said the country should immediately enact Senate Bill 2616, which she filed in November 2010, after incidents of shark-finning—or the practice of removing and selling fins from sharks—were reported in the media recently.
“Clearly, the absence of the law forbidding the catching of sharks, gives people the courage to continue the practice, which could eventually lead to the extinction of shark species in the country, especially that they reproduce slowly,” she said in a statement Sunday.
The senator cited data from the international group, Shark Savers, showing that up to 100 million sharks are killed every year, causing their population to decline by as much as 90 percent annually.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), meanwhile, identified pollution, over-fishing and the demand for shark fins – often used to make an expensive Asian soup—as reasons for the decline of the shark population worldwide.
Legarda said sharks are important for ecological balance, especially in a coastal country like the Philippines.
“Being a country with about two-thirds of the known marine species of the Pacific living in its coastal waters, the Philippines plays a crucial role in protecting marine species,” she said.
SB 2616 prescribes imprisonment of up to six years for persons caught catching, selling or buying sharks and rays. The measure also requires the offender to restore or compensate for the restoration to the damage he or she has done.
A similar bill, filed by former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has also been pending with the House committee on natural resources since July 2010. — Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News
Legarda said the country should immediately enact Senate Bill 2616, which she filed in November 2010, after incidents of shark-finning—or the practice of removing and selling fins from sharks—were reported in the media recently.
“Clearly, the absence of the law forbidding the catching of sharks, gives people the courage to continue the practice, which could eventually lead to the extinction of shark species in the country, especially that they reproduce slowly,” she said in a statement Sunday.
The senator cited data from the international group, Shark Savers, showing that up to 100 million sharks are killed every year, causing their population to decline by as much as 90 percent annually.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), meanwhile, identified pollution, over-fishing and the demand for shark fins – often used to make an expensive Asian soup—as reasons for the decline of the shark population worldwide.
Legarda said sharks are important for ecological balance, especially in a coastal country like the Philippines.
“Being a country with about two-thirds of the known marine species of the Pacific living in its coastal waters, the Philippines plays a crucial role in protecting marine species,” she said.
SB 2616 prescribes imprisonment of up to six years for persons caught catching, selling or buying sharks and rays. The measure also requires the offender to restore or compensate for the restoration to the damage he or she has done.
A similar bill, filed by former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has also been pending with the House committee on natural resources since July 2010. — Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News
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