Be careful in the water!

From NBC:

Beachgoers spotted a small shark in the Rockaways Monday. Marcell Elissetche, who shot the video, said the shark came ashore at 116th Street on Rockaway Beach at about 2 p.m. Two other small sharks were caught by a fisherman.

Shark fin soup may soon be a thing of the past

From the Daily News:

The New York state Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to outlaw the shark fin trade.

The bill now heads to the Assembly, which passed the same measure last year, only to have it die in the Senate without a vote.

If the bill is again approved by the Assembly, where it enjoys sponsorship from 43 of the body’s 150 members, it will head to Gov. Cuomo’s desk.

Environmental groups estimate that 73 million sharks are stripped of their fins and dumped back into the ocean, where they sink to the bottom and drown. The fins are then used as the main ingredient in the Chinese delicacy shark fin soup.

Since California and four other states banned the sale, purchase and distribution of shark fins, New York has become the leading hub of trade for the coveted product in the United States.

Shark fin products to be banned in NYS?

From the NY Times:

On Tuesday, legislators in New York State announced a bill that, following the example of Western states, would ban the sale, trading, possession and distribution of shark fins, possibly as of 2013. California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington are enacting similar bans that were passed last year, while Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Virginia have legislation pending.

The bill in New York is sponsored in the Assembly by Alan Maisel, Linda B. Rosenthal and Grace Meng, who represents the heavily Asian district of Flushing, Queens, and is the only Asian-American in the Assembly. Identical bills are expected to be introduced in both houses of the Legislature.

Ms. Meng, the daughter of immigrants who worked in and owned Chinese restaurants, said at a news conference in Manhattan on Tuesday that she “loved shark fin soup.”

“This is going to be a huge adjustment for the community,” she added, “but it’s important to be responsible citizens.”

Resorts World restaurant serves shark fin dishes

The dining menu at Genting Palace at Resorts World includes:

Shark's Fin and Prawn Dumplings in Superior Soup
Superior Shark’s Fin Abalone, Scallop and Fish Maw
Shark’s Fin Soup with Crab Meat

From Huffington Post, re: President Obama's recent visit to San Francisco, where he chowed down on Shark's fin soup:

The big problem with Great Eastern is that it serves shark fin soup, which is the product of what is widely considered one of the cruelest animal treatment practices on earth, shark finning. Shark finning is also doubly illegal in San Francisco; it's banned by both California and federal law. Critics have been quick to note that Obama himself signed the Shark Conservation Act into law last January.

From Stop Shark Finning:

Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark's fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water).

This post is not about Obama (who should have done his homework about where he was visiting, but probably just ate what was handed to him in order to be polite during a photo op). Rather, this post is about the electeds that pushed for the Resorts World project and continue to push for an expansion of the casino and a convention center, built and run by Genting, who apparently supports shark finning.

Do you electeds also support shark finning? Why do you support an entity that does? Why hasn't this practice been banned in New York? Governor Cuomo, are you going to do something about this?

Sharks off Rockaway?