No (shark fin) soup for you

This Valentine’s Day, California legislators Paul Fong and Jared Huffman showed their love for sharks. The two Democratic assemblymen from the Bay Area introduced Assembly Bill 376, which “by creating a new crime, would impose a state-mandated local program … [which] would make it unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin.” If passed, the Chinese delicacy shark fin soup would be made illegal, which could reduce market demand and the practice of finning sharks. As the bill’s authors explained, sharks are “critical to the health of the ocean ecosystem.”