Kali­fa Clyne

Cab­i­net yes­ter­day ap­proved a note on the im­ple­men­ta­tion of a na­tion­al ban on shark-finning, fol­low­ing a re­port that T&T ranks sixth world­wide in terms of the vol­ume of shark fins sup­plied to Japan.Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj said this raised flags on an in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el and ques­tioned the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the coun­try's fish­ing in­dus­try if this was oc­cur­ring.Al­though T&T is well-known for its own del­i­ca­cy of bake and shark, in that case, the en­tire fish is used.

But, speak­ing at the post-Cab­i­net press brief­ing at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, St Clair, yes­ter­day, Ma­haraj said, "Al­though shark-finning has not been specif­i­cal­ly re­port­ed or ob­served for ar­ti­sanal or in­dus­tri­al rea­sons in T&T, the prac­tice may al­ready oc­cur."

Ma­haraj not­ed that T&T was a sig­na­to­ry to many in­ter­na­tion­al­ly bind­ing agree­ments on con­ser­va­tion and trade of bio­di­ver­si­ty and in light of the de­struc­tive ef­fects of shark-finning to pop­u­la­tions and the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of sharks to over-ex­ploita­tion, it was im­per­a­tive for this prac­tice to be banned.T&T is the first coun­try in the Caribbean to put such a ban in place.

The polic­ing and ac­tu­al im­ple­men­ta­tion of the ban re­mained vague, how­ev­er, as Ma­haraj said At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan need­ed to look at the nec­es­sary reg­u­la­tions to give it ef­fect. He said the AG and the min­istry will dis­cuss the is­sues with lo­cal stake­hold­ers and fish­eries di­vi­sion.Asked about the re­cent Petrotrin oil spill and its ef­fect on fish­eries, Ma­haraj said that would be de­ter­mined by the Min­istry of En­er­gy.