Shark finning is a several billion dollar a year black market industry that needs to be illegal nation wide. The practice of finning itself is unbelievably cruel. Sharks are caught on long lines or in nets, hauled onto a vessel, HAVE THEIR FINS CUT OFF, and are dumped back into the ocean. STILL ALIVE! These sharks are dying awful deaths of either drowning or starving to death. Why? Shark fin soup. Shark fin soup is popular in Asian culture and predominantly used to show wealth or class in social gatherings. There are NO scientific health benefits to consuming shark fin. The fins don't even add any flavor to the soup. Yet millions of sharks a year, are murdered for their fins alone. Overfishing and illegal fishing of sharks, is literally decimating the world's shark population. Of over 500 species of sharks, 140 of them are listed somewhere on the endangered species list. Some may think that less sharks makes the ocean safer for humans. This is in fact entirely wrong! If we kill off the oceans sharks, we are essentially killing ourselves. Sharks balance the ecosystems in the oceans. If the sharks die, then invasive fish species become overpopulated and lead to other ocean ecosystems being damaged. If those ecosystems are thrown out of balance, then the oceans start to die and if the oceans die, so do we. The vast majority of the worlds oxygen (upwards of 50%) comes from the oceans. How can we live without a basic human need? The bottom line is, the sale and possession of shark fin needs to be completely banned in the US. Other countries across the world have already done this. Can we please do our part in ending this horrific practice and do our small part in helping the earth!