China’s shark finning could lead to US seafood sanctions
China’s shark finning could lead to US seafood sanctions
中国的割鳍行为可能导致美国对华海产品实施制裁
For migrant workers trapped onboard Chinese distant water fishing fleets, cutting the fins off sharks as they writhe violently on rusted decks in the Indian Ocean isn’t accidental. It’s an intentional and lucrative act that marks the start of a bloody half-a-billion-dollar offshore supply chain, tacitly supported by Beijing yet covertly concealed from port inspectors globally. 对于被困在中国远洋渔船上的外籍劳工来说，在印度洋生锈的甲板上，看着鲨鱼在剧烈挣扎时割下它们的鱼鳍，绝非偶然。这是一种蓄意且利润丰厚的行为，标志着一条价值五亿美元的血腥离岸供应链的开端；该行为虽得到北京方面的默许，却在世界各地的港口检查中被隐秘地掩盖。
The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit focused on the protection of endangered species, filed a formal petition this month requesting the U.S. government potentially sanction China for failing to meet American shark conservation standards. Shark populations have declined by more than 70 percent since 1970, with more than one-third of all shark and ray species now threatened with extinction. Yet each year, Chinese-flagged vessels catch, brutally fin, and discard thousands. 致力于保护濒危物种的非营利组织“生物多样性中心”（Center for Biological Diversity）本月提交了一份正式请愿书，要求美国政府对中国实施潜在制裁，理由是中国未能达到美国的鲨鱼保护标准。自1970年以来，鲨鱼种群数量下降了超过70%，目前超过三分之一的鲨鱼和鳐鱼物种面临灭绝威胁。然而，每年仍有悬挂中国国旗的船只捕获数以千计的鲨鱼，残忍地割鳍后将其丢弃。
Should the National Marine Fisheries Service identify China as having violated the US Moratorium Protection Act, then President Trump could be expected to ban the import of all $1.5 billion of Chinese seafood. “Losing sharks wouldn’t just be an ecological disaster; it would be a profound moral failure,” Alex Olivera, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email. “Sharks have survived for hundreds of millions of years, and it would be a tragedy if they disappeared in a few decades because governments failed to enforce basic conservation rules.” 如果美国国家海洋渔业局（National Marine Fisheries Service）认定中国违反了《美国暂停捕捞保护法》（US Moratorium Protection Act），那么特朗普总统可能会禁止进口总值15亿美元的中国海产品。“失去鲨鱼不仅是一场生态灾难，更是一次深刻的道德失败，”生物多样性中心的高级科学家亚历克斯·奥利维拉（Alex Olivera）在一封电子邮件中表示，“鲨鱼已经生存了数亿年，如果它们因为政府未能执行基本的保护规则而在几十年内消失，那将是一场悲剧。”
Sharks are vulnerable to overexploitation because they grow slowly, mature late, and have few offspring. Each year, however, an estimated 80 million are caught and killed either intentionally or as bycatch. Finning—which has been outlawed in the US since 2000—sees sharks dumped back in the ocean without their fins, “leading to a slow and agonizing death,” according to the petition. While botched sharks sink slowly to their deaths, the rate of shark finning has increased in recent decades. 鲨鱼因生长缓慢、成熟较晚且后代稀少，极易受到过度捕捞的影响。然而，据估计每年仍有8000万条鲨鱼被有意捕杀或作为兼捕物被杀。请愿书指出，割鳍行为（自2000年起在美国已被取缔）是指将鲨鱼割鳍后丢回海中，“导致它们在缓慢而痛苦中死去”。尽管残缺的鲨鱼会缓慢下沉直至死亡，但近几十年来，鲨鱼割鳍的发生率却在不断上升。
Demand is largely driven by a growing demand for shark fin soup and traditional medicinal cures in East and Southeast Asia. Official Chinese data shows that in 2023, more than 10,000 blue sharks and nearly 1,700 shortfin mako sharks were discarded by crews in the western and central Pacific region alone. While the US and over 90 other jurisdictions require fishers to land whole sharks with their fins naturally attached—a standard widely recognized as the only way to prevent finning—China does not. 这种需求主要源于东亚和东南亚地区对鱼翅汤和传统药物日益增长的需求。中国官方数据显示，仅在2023年，中西太平洋地区的船员就丢弃了超过1万条大青鲨和近1700条短鳍尖吻鲭鲨。虽然美国和其他90多个司法管辖区要求渔民必须将带有天然鱼鳍的完整鲨鱼运回港口（这一标准被广泛认为是防止割鳍的唯一途径），但中国并未执行此规定。
Although the nation has technically banned the practice, it still allows many of its fisheries to remove fins so long as they do not exceed a certain percentage—usually 5 percent—of the shark’s total bodyweight upon landing. Conservationists highlight that these ratio-based regulations are ineffective, ignore biological differences between species, and are difficult to enforce accurately. “Once the fins are separated from the bodies, inspectors have a nightmare of a time figuring out which fin belongs to which shark, whether protected species are mixed in, or if bodies were just dumped overboard,” Olivera said. “It turns real enforcement into a math game rather than a secure chain of custody.” 尽管中国在名义上禁止了这种做法，但仍允许许多渔场在鱼鳍重量不超过鲨鱼登陆时总重量的一定比例（通常为5%）的情况下进行切割。环保人士强调，这种基于比例的法规是无效的，它忽视了物种间的生物学差异，且难以准确执行。“一旦鱼鳍与身体分离，检查人员就很难判断哪片鱼鳍属于哪条鲨鱼，是否混入了受保护物种，或者鱼身是否已被丢弃，”奥利维拉说，“这使得真正的执法变成了一场数学游戏，而非安全的监管链。”
The petition argues that without a “fins naturally attached” landing policy, the Chinese fleet—the largest in the world—fails to meet America’s conservation standards, and therefore fails to meet the requirements of the Moratorium Protection Act. When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington told Inside Climate News that “China is deeply committed to science-based conservation and sustainable use of international fisheries resources.” The spokesperson said China is following international law, rigorous vessel monitoring and membership requirements of regional fisheries management organizations. 请愿书认为，如果没有“鱼鳍自然附着”的登陆政策，中国这一全球最大的船队就无法达到美国的保护标准，从而不符合《暂停捕捞保护法》的要求。当被要求置评时，中国驻华盛顿大使馆的一位发言人告诉《内幕气候新闻》（Inside Climate News）：“中国坚定致力于基于科学的保护和国际渔业资源的可持续利用。”该发言人表示，中国遵守国际法、严格的船舶监控以及区域渔业管理组织的成员要求。
However, the spokesperson said the government was “not familiar with the specific situation” regarding the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition, and did not reference sharks, finning or the threat of seafood sanctions. Heidy Martínez, a shark scientist and science communicator, said that shark finning “really shows how much we view these ancient, majestic animals as a commodity, as animals that are simply there to benefit us. “It highlights many of the cruel, unsustainable and wasteful practices within the fishing industry,” she said. 然而，该发言人表示政府对生物多样性中心的请愿书“不了解具体情况”，并未提及鲨鱼、割鳍行为或海产品制裁的威胁。鲨鱼科学家兼科学传播者海蒂·马丁内斯（Heidy Martínez）表示，割鳍行为“确实反映了我们多么将这些古老而雄伟的动物视为商品，视为仅仅为了造福我们而存在的动物。”她说：“这凸显了渔业内部许多残酷、不可持续和浪费的行为。”
While shark finning often receives the greatest attention for its shock factor, it’s important to note that the biggest threats sharks face are from overfishing and bycatch, Martínez said. One hundred percent of shark species are impacted by overfishing and for 67 percent of shark and ray species, overfishing is the only recorded threat, according to the Shark Trust. Bycatch refers to fish and other marine animals accidentally ensnared by fishermen using huge nets or long lines baited with thousands of hooks. 马丁内斯指出，虽然割鳍行为因其冲击力而受到最多关注，但必须注意，鲨鱼面临的最大威胁来自过度捕捞和兼捕。据“鲨鱼信托基金”（Shark Trust）称，100%的鲨鱼物种受到过度捕捞的影响，对于67%的鲨鱼和鲐鱼物种而言，过度捕捞是唯一记录在案的威胁。兼捕是指渔民使用巨型渔网或挂有数千个鱼钩的延绳钓时，意外捕获的鱼类和其他海洋动物。
Interviews by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) in 2024 and 2026, however, exposed the widespread and devastating nature of China’s shark finning industry. Among crew working on board Chinese distant-water vessels in the Southwest Indian Ocean, 80 percent of those interviewed reported engaging in shark finning. Sixty percent of crew onboard Chinese squid jiggers in the Southeast Pacific Ocean said they witnessed sharks returned to the ocean without a key means of their survival. Crews identified blue sharks, tiger sharks, pelagic threshers, and at least half a dozen other intentionally targeted species. 然而，环境正义基金会（EJF）在2024年和2026年的采访揭露了中国鲨鱼割鳍产业的广泛性和破坏性。在西南印度洋中国远洋渔船上工作的船员中，80%的受访者表示参与过割鳍行为。在东南太平洋中国鱿鱼钓船上的船员中，60%的人表示曾目睹鲨鱼在失去生存关键部位后被扔回大海。船员们指认出的物种包括大青鲨、虎鲨、长尾鲨，以及至少六种其他被蓄意捕捞的物种。
“When sharks got entangled, they were lifted, and the fins were cut off,” said one Indonesian fisher working on a Chinese squid vessel in July 2022. “Most of [the Chinese] swallowed the bone marrow right away, while the fins were sundried.” Another crew member described the act of throwing back blood-strewn but alive sharks as “sadistic,” while others spoke of the cat-and-mouse game of avoiding. “当鲨鱼被缠住时，它们会被吊起来，然后鱼鳍被割掉，”一名2022年7月在中国鱿鱼船上工作的印尼渔民说，“大多数（中国人）会直接吞下骨髓，而鱼鳍则被晒干。”另一名船员将把血淋淋但还活着的鲨鱼扔回海里的行为描述为“虐待狂”，而其他人则谈到了躲避检查的猫鼠游戏。