Australians I think in general know about shark finning and think it's a horrible war problem it happens elsewhere.
When they find out what's happening on their very doorstep they are shocked
and in such disbelief it's almost as if they don't believe me that it's happening
It's the biggest downfall for our industry is the imported product.
Ashby Island is about 10 k's up-river from Yamba
Sugar cane and commercial fishing are the two main industries on the Clarence and in the Northern Rivers
This actual region here is one of the biggest suppliers of wild-caught seafoods to the Sydney Fish Markets.
The main shark in the Clarence River is the bull shark
and bull shark being the third most dangerous shark of all species.
My name's Allan Bodycote, I'm a professional net-maker, andI also catch sharks for a living.
I've been catching sharks here on the Clarence River for 35 years.
What we're doing here, we're putting out four lines this arvo. Each line's going to have six hooks on it.
In the hope tomorrow morning, it would be great to have 100% hook up
and the sharks I expect to catch tomorrow morning at daylight off these lines
somewhere between a a metre and a half to two and a half metres long.
When I first started fishing for sharks I was just actually selling the barrels
human consumption of fish and chips and stuff like that and I used to just throw the fins away.
and then my father in law said to me said, instead of throwing the shark fins in the river
or in the rubbish, why don't you actually throw them in the fish tub and sell them?
And I thought, I'll give that a go.
I don't exactly know where the fins end up
believe that it goes into shark fin soup
There's the shark fin, and the master stock, and quite often they put in a bit of crab meat in there to add a bit of flavour
This particular one is a real delicacy. Last time I had anything of that standard or quality was in Hong Kong.
I find it really difficult to explain the taste of shark fin soup to anyone
But it's 'cause I've been eating it forever. it's like if I said can you explain the taste of bread
It's like, it's bready, its just shark fin soup.
The master stock goes with it that makes the taste
It's a display of wealth, I think.
So if you can provide a luxurious dish like this, it says, I'm prosperous, I'm wealthy, I'm sharing that with you
So it's quite a treat.
The Chinese are getting more affluent and the more affluent they get the more shark fin they'll consume.
What if you could see how shark fin soup is made: could you still eat it?
Having celebrities in China stand up and make a statement like that
it's at least going to draw attention to it and I doubt the Chinese are gonna stop drinking sharks' fin soup
I remember when I first found out about finning and was appalled at the idea
and I tried really hard to stop eating sharks' fin.
You didn't try too hard...
You made it really difficult Dad!
We'd go to the next family function, Dad would go, family function, special occasion; big bowl of sharks' fin soup
We're estimating up to a hundred million sharks are taken each year worldwide
The number of sharks has been decimated in our own waters
when you look at the decline since the 50s its quite staggering
many people consider that the shark as the ultimate ocean predator
There are over 600 species worldwide and they really have an important role in the ocean ecosystems.
my name's Dave Booth, I'm a professor of marine ecology at UTS here
If shark fin is taken sustainably as part of a well-managed shark fishery and
the rest of shark is used properly I don't have a problem
However it comes unsustainable cruelly from the ocean I don't approve of
and we know a lot of shark fin is imported into Australia from sources that we don't regulate
In the last two years Australia has imported 41 tons of shark fin from countries around the world.
Many of these countries have unregulated fishing industries and actively undertake live finning
Currently, shark fins sell on the Australian market for up to $880 per kilogram.
The great value of the fin compared to the rest of shark means there's a tendency to discard the rest of the shark
It's akin to taking the tusks off an elephant and leaving elephant and in fact that's what we do with shark finning
we take less than 5% of the fish's weight and discard the rest.
You can imagine a large active predator once it has it has its fins sliced off it
and thrown back into the water alive wouldn't face a very pleasant death.
Well the cruelty of live finning - it is it's just out there, it's just wrong
There's a lot of rotten eggs out there from long liners in the ocean coming into our waters illegally
Finning sharks just for the fins. Dead set against it.
It's gotta be stopped, because it makes us look bad.
The legal processes for me as a shark fishermen in the Clarence is that
I cannot take the fins off the shark until the first port of landing, so it has to be onshore before I can cut the fin
If a fishing inspector comes along to me I have to have documentation or have the barrell and the fin together
because we're so heavily regulated we probably can't catch enough shark
or enough fin to supply the local market in Australia
and yet you've got countries overseas who actually aren't regulated and can do whatever they want
and export their products into our country.
Live shark finning is illegal in Australia. In most states sharks have to be landed before the fins are removed.
But there are inconsistencies in state and territory laws which means it's not
always possible to know if the shark fin was obtained legally or ethically in Australian waters.
Fin Free Sydney was founded in 2012 by myself and my sister
we started investigating to see whether shark fin was prevalent in Sydney
to our horror we found out that it was and we thought nothing is really being done about it
we're quite a small organisation and we've only got over a thousand likes on Facebook
there isn't too much public support. When we do public events and we speak to new people
they have no idea that this is going on
I think if the Average Australian knew about this, they would really care
SometimesI find it hard to sleep at night knowing that their limbs are just chopped off
and that they're dying an exceptionally painful death
They're getting finned, they're getting fished and they're getting caught in bycatch to extinction.
I first met Mehreen last year. She contacted me because she wanted some advice on developing a bill
that outlawed the preparation of shark fin in New South Wales.
I was absolutely ecstatic to hear that someone at a parliamentary level was doing something about this issue
There is a growing movement in NSW and I think across the world to stop this terribly cruel and horrible practice
Many jurisdictions around the world like Hawaii, California, Washington State;
have laws in place and it's time for NSW to catch up and become fin-free.
My name's Mehreen Faruqi, I'm a Greens MP in NSW Parliament.
Ideally we'd like to put a ban on importing of shark fin but we can't really do it at the state level
so the amendment that we have to the Food Act will actually ban
the possession and the processing of shark fin in restaurants across New South Wales.
A lot of people think that what we do in Australia is what they do on the long-liners that come into Australia
that's all bullshit. I'm dead set against what they do out there
Cultures and practices change throughout time and now that we have a realization
that this practice has a truly cruel effect on animals as well as the ecosystem
I think we have to create an understanding around that.