I wandered into the forest around my family cottage when I was around 3, and the family dog followed me and stayed with me for the 4 hours or so that I was lost. She was a golden retriever, same breed as the one in this story I think . We don't deserve golden retrievers, they're so good.

You're welcome. I'm a marine biologist who has done a lot of work with sharks, so I know a lot about the topic, I'm passionate about it, and I care deeply about educating people on it. I don't think we should turn a blind eye to the intricacies of a bill like this because in the end that's more harmful for conservation. If we think we're doing more than we're actually doing, we'll be happy to pat ourselves on the back and assume mission accomplished when that's far from the case.

The real good news for sharks came out of CITES a few weeks ago, they imposed restrictions on the international trade of 90 or so shark species. This TRIPLES the number of shark species under CITES protection and accounts for approximately 90% of of the fin trade. It's a massive, unprecedented, historic win for shark conservation.

Shark finning has already been banned in the US for a while, and they don't go after finning boats in international waters.

CITES recently restricted international trade on roughly 90% of shark fins, so there's already going to be international cooperation on seizing shark fins from protected species in the ports of approximately 170 countries. There's no reason for the US to take things into their own hands in international waters when it will already be dealt with by border agents both in the country of the fins' origin and in the importing country.

Just giving an honest answer to the commenter asking about the impact this will have.

I'm not shitting on it. It's nice that a world leader country is taking this stance. However, in terms of actual conservation numbers for shark populations, considering the fact that this primarily affects fisheries that have already been certified as sustainable, it doesn't actually do much for protecting any species from extinction or overexploitation.

The USA accounts for I believe 1% of the shark fin trade. They're also one of the leading countries in actual sustainable shark fisheries. This ban is nice, but it's more symbolic than anything.