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<DIV>In a June 21, 1999 letter to the Chairman of the Western Pacific Council,
Mr. Terry Garcia directs the Council to "take immediate action to ban the
practice of shark finning". In the letter, Mr. Garcia points out that the
US has been a leading proponent of international shark conservation measures at
the United Nations FAO meetings this year. He goes on to say that "The US
position during development of the International Plan of Action for the
Conservation and Management of Sharks was that the FAO should affirmatively
address this issue, even to the extent of putting in place a global ban on shark
finning".</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Mr. Garcia's letter concludes by saying that "The Council should amend the
Western Pacific Pelagic Fishery Management Plan to require full utilization of
all sharks harvested in this fishery".</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now that both NMFS and NOAA has instructed the Council to act immediately
to prohibit shark finning and implement measures for full utilization, since
it's clearly a waste issue, we hope that the US Congress, the Hawaii
Congressional delegation and the Governor of the State of Hawaii will all
support the call for immediate action or ask the Secretary of Commerce to
pre-empt the Council. See pre-emption request at <A
href="http://www.westpacfisheries.net/actionalert.html">http://www.westpacfisheries.net/actionalert.html</A></DIV></BODY></HTML>