California’s ban on shark fins went into effect July 1st, reports the

California’s ban on shark fins went into effect July 1st, reports the Los Angeles Times. The ban on the fins, which are considered a delicacy among some in the Asian-American community, comes amid growing concern about a dwindling shark population.

California is one of six states that has moved to preserve the population of targeted sharks found mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, increasingly at risk by a growing global middle class eager to purchase what was once was an expensive item out of reach to most. While apparently tasteless, the fins are valued for their texture. But the process of obtaining the fins, which leave the animals disabled and soon dead, is estimated to kill 73 million sharks every year.

“This is an important milestone in the global campaign to end shark finning,” said a spokesman for California’s famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Others find little to celebrate, and think the ban unfairly targets an ethnic minority, even if that’s not its intent. In fact a lawsuit was filed in San Francisco last year claiming that such a ban amounted to discrimination against Chinese-Americans.

“Why single out Chinese people in California when shark fins are legal in many other states?” complained Emily Gian, a grocer in LA’s Chinatown.

But the trend in favor of ending the global shark fin trade appears irreversible at this point. China, e.g., has agreed to end the use of shark fins in official functions within three years, according to the US Humane Society.

Via the LA Times and Phys.org, and CBS.