Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016”.
Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016
A BILL
To prohibit sale of shark fins, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Prohibition on sale of shark fins
Prohibition— Except as provided in section 3, no person shall possess, trade, distribute, ship, transport, offer for sale, sell, purchase, import, or export shark fins or products containing shark fins.
Penalty— For purposes of section 308(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1858(a)), a violation of this section shall be treated as an act prohibited by section 307 of that Act (16 U.S.C. 1857).
Sec. 3 Exceptions
A person may possess a shark fin that was taken lawfully under a State, territorial, or Federal license or permit to take or land sharks, if the shark fin is separated from the shark in a manner consistent with the license or permit and is—
destroyed or discarded;
retained by the license or permit holder for a noncommercial purpose;
used for noncommercial subsistence purposes in accordance with State or territorial law; or
used solely for display or research purposes by a museum, college, or university, or other person under a State or Federal permit to conduct noncommercial scientific research.
Sec. 4 Definitions
In this Act:
Import— The term “import” has the same meaning that term has under section 3 of the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1802).
Shark— The term “shark”—
except as provided in subparagraph (B), means any species of the subclass Elasmobranchii; and
does not include—
any stock of the species Mustelus canis (smooth dogfish) or Squalus acanthias (spiny dogfish) which is managed pursuant to a fishery management plan prepared under section 303 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1853); or
any species in the superorder Batoidea that is managed pursuant to a fishery management plan prepared under section 303 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1853).
Shark fin— The term “shark fin” means the raw, dried, or otherwise processed detached fin of a shark, or the raw, dried, or otherwise processed detached tail of a shark.
Sec. 5 State authority
Nothing in this Act may be construed to preclude, deny, or limit any right of a State or territory to adopt or enforce any regulation or standard that is more stringent than a regulation or standard in effect under this Act.