Shark and Awe in the U.S. Senate

"Shark and Awe in the U.S. Senate" is a Huffington Post piece on the legislative mauling of the U.S. Shark Conservation Act of 2010. With this article, I sought action to stop political maneuvering from killing this vitally needed law.

These excerpts from the opening and closing paragraphs serve as a brief description of this travesty and what I asked people to do:

"The U.S. Shark Conservation Act, a bill that offered a critical lifeline for sharks, has recently been blocked by a dysfunctional U.S. Senate. Sharks are being decimated primarily to supply shark fin soup as an expensive status symbol delicacy to the burgeoning middle class of Asia, mainly in China. If not rapidly passed, the Act will have no purpose once sharks hit their impending point of no return. Resurrecting this legislation is necessary for both the preservation of sharks and our nation's fading conservation ethos."

"The U.S. Shark Conservation Act of 2010 is urgently needed, but corruption, ignorance, and political maneuvering has now precluded wise action by our Senate. People don't have to remain idle while the Senate stagnates. Citizens should write or fax their senators and demand they reintroduce and pass the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 (S. 850) at the next session of Congress along with rejecting the arcane filibuster and "hold" procedures that are strangling it. We mustn't bow to any destructive tradition, be it for soup or senators."

Thousands of personalized protests were sent in to keep this bill alive. The U.S. Shark Conservation Act was finally passed on 12/22/10, the last day of the lame duck session of the 111th Congress. This marked a substantial victory for the oceans, for ourselves, and for future generations.