The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that could make it illegal to buy or sell shark fin in Texas. Filed by State Representative Eddie Lucio III, House Bill 1579 would prohibit the sale, trade, purchase and transportation of shark fin in Texas.

Lucio had proposed a similar bill in 2013, but was unsuccessful at that time. This second try proved successful, and the bill is now on its way to the Senate for deliberation. If this bill becomes law, Texas would be the first red state to ban the trade.

“This bill is aimed at stopping poachers from profiting at the expense of our ecosystem. […] Shark-finning is an inhumane act banned on the Federal level, but we have to make sure Texas is not encouraging that illegal act by restricting what can be done with those fins,” said Lucio.

Currently, nine US states – California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, New York and Massachusetts – have banned the trade in shark fin, and this has led to a 240 percent increase of trade in the Texan market since 2010. Texas is currently responsible for about 50 percent of the remaining U.S. trade in shark fin.

According to Amanda Keledjian, a marine scientist at Oceana, “right now, about half of the remaining shark fin trade in the U.S. comes in and out of Texas.”

Shark fin – although tasteless and lacking in nutritional value – is predominantly used in shark fin soup. Some restaurants in Texas serve the soup for about US$10, but most fins are shipped to China, where a bowl can potentially fetch up to US$100.