UN body rejects protection for hammerhead shark

I read this news post from animalgate and elected to also create an article hoping to give even more exposure on the issue of slaughtering sharks for their fins.

UN body rejects protection for hammerhead shark
DOHA (AFP) – The UN body overseeing global trade in threatened species Tuesday rejected a bid to regulate cross-border commerce in the shark most highly prized by Asian gourmets of sharkfin soup.
The 175-nation Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Doha, shot down the US proposal by a very narrow margin, falling short of the two-thirds majority by a handful of votes.
Only decades ago, the scalloped hammerhead was among the most common of the semi-coastal sharks.
But by-catch and intensive fishing for fins has slashed populations by about 80 percent globally, and by up to 90 percent in the Indian and Pacific oceans, experts say.
Between 1.5 and 2.3 million specimens are extracted from the seas every year, most of them tossed back into the water after their precious fins have been removed.
Japan led opposition to the measure, arguing that management of shark populations should be left to regional fisheries groups, not CITES. But conservationists said fishing for sharks is currently unregulated.
"The problem today is not there is serious mismanagement of trade in sharks, as for tuna, but that there is no management at all," said Sue Lieberman of the Pew Environment Group in Washington.