Comment from Shelley Powers

"Neither the SFPA nor the SCA suggest that Congress intended to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act to prohibit the possession or sale of shark fins. Rather, Congress chose to prohibit discarding shark carcasses at sea, and required that fins be naturally attached to the carcass of the corresponding shark. The SCA therefore reflects a balance between addressing the wasteful practice of shark finning and preserving opportunities to land and sell sharks harvested consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Although state shark fin laws are also intended to conserve sharks, they may not unduly interfere with the conservation and management of federal fisheries." Congress did not intend that states could not make a determination for themselves what is, or is not, available for sale within the borders of the state. These state laws are complementary to Magnuson-Stevens in that the federal law ensures against wasteful destruction of sharks solely for their fins within the waters and acts under its dominion, and states take the necessary next step of ensuring that no fins are sold, and therefore shark fins have that much less value.. Sharks continue to be severely threatened, and it will take acts at both the federal and local level to eliminate the barbaric practice of finning. The states are not impinging on federal authority by their control of commerce within their borders. The state laws related to the sale, or not, of shark fins are about commerce, not about fishery management.