DLNR chief: Shark laws need updating

Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Richard Seman said yesterday that the CNMI’s anti-shark harvesting laws need updating, describing his thoughts after a regional shark protection workshop held in Pohnpei last week.

That workshop, as part of the Micronesian Regional Shark Sanctuary, gathered heads of island fisheries and jurisdiction attorneys from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall, the Republic of Palau, Guam, Kosrae, and the CNMI, among others, to discuss the issues affecting enforcement of shark laws in order to determine a “unified way” to effectively enforce shark laws, Seman said.

While Seman said that every island jurisdiction has promulgated and enacted their own legislation prohibiting certain shark harvesting, he also acknowledged areas that they would like to “fine tune” and come to an agreement—most likely through a Micronesia Chief Executive Summit meeting—to “uniformly enforce this anti-shark harvest.”

“They are working toward that,” Seman told reporters outside the Office of the Governor building yesterday morning.

Palau, for its part, has declared its entire ocean as a sanctuary, whereas the CNMI and Guam ban the finning of sharks.

Marshalls is similar to Palau that they have their entire exclusive economic zone as a shark sanctuary.

Seman said the CNMI is currently under the regional sanctuary under the approval of the late governor Eloy S. Inos through an earlier Micronesia Chief Executive Summit, an official body and meeting of regional leaders.

“Anybody caught with shark in these waters will be enforced upon and prosecuted,” he said.

Still, when asked if the CNMI laws need updating, Seman said, “Definitely.”

CNMI laws only prohibit the actual finning and “not the whole shark byproduct,” Seman said.

Finning law takes care of the “shark soup,” Seman said, but added that some of the concerns of citizens is there are byproduct of sharks, such as nutritional supplements, that are still coming into some of the CNMI’s high-end stores.

“Some of them felt that we should prohibit that as well. But under our current law it doesn’t really focus on that.”

If there was such a law, it needs to be “very specific,” he said, “that says exactly that.”

Seman acknowledged that one could kill a shark but just as long as they don’t fin it.

“Right now, under personal consumption, nothing can stop you. You can bring in any shark and eat it for yourself. But you are not allowed to commercialize it, or you are not allowed to sell it.”

“As far as the prohibition is concerned on the commercial activity, the current law only focuses on the fin,” he said.