No Shark Protection for the U.N.

Three out of four delegates in the U.N. rejected the proposal to protect sharks. China and Japan, the world's leading shark eater, opposed the proposal that other international countries should regulate the amount of fish. The main proposal was that certain countries would have to strictly regulate trade in several species of scalloped hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and spiny dogfish sharks.

These species are currently becoming endangered because it is considered tasty in China and Japan. "China, by far the world’s largest consumer of the cartilaginous fish, for sharkfin soup, and Japan, which has battled to keep the convention from being extended to any marine species, led the opposition." This is a sad day for those who fight for marine conservation. However, the committee did win the continuous ban on the trade of ivory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/science/earth/24shark.html?ref=science