Wildlife advocates cheered over the winter holidays after Congress passed and President Biden signed into law two pieces of wildlife legislation that have been in the works for years. Attached to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, the two bills advance protections for imperiled species not just in the United States but around the world.  

The first is the Eliminate, Neutralize and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act, originally proposed in 2016 by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, to curtail poaching and wildlife trafficking. Globally, the illegal trade in wildlife includes the sale of exotic pets, bushmeat, animal parts with supposedly medicinal purposes, and even trophies of animals that have been hunted and then preserved through taxidermy. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimates that sales from these activities net between $7.8 billion and $10 billion per year, with most of that money funding other illicit activities such as the drug trade and human trafficking.

The new bill reauthorizes the activities of the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, an assemblage of federal agencies charged with crafting a national strategy to combat the illicit trade in wildlife and wildlife poaching. President Obama created the task force in 2013 to identify countries where trafficking is most prevalent; list species that are threatened by the illegal trade; and to report its findings to Congress. The task force was set to expire at the end of 2022. With the new authorization, it will be able to continue its work until 2028. 

The new law directs the Department of Defense, the secretary of state, the secretary of the interior, and the attorney general to continue their partnerships with other agencies, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and private institutions to examine and halt the international wildlife trade. Federal officials are also directed to expand the use of technology that could help prevent and track poaching and the illegal sale of wildlife—including increased online surveillance and DNA tracing.

“Wildlife trafficking is related to international security. That's because a big player in wildlife trafficking is international criminal networks,” said Jocelyn Ziemian, a senior legislative specialist at the Humane Society Legislative Fund. “These are the same networks that often engage in crimes like corruption, and money laundering in countries where they operate, weakening governance and rule of law. Many of these criminal networks also traffic in other things, like drugs, weapons, and human beings. Some of them are also involved in terrorism.”

The second piece of legislation that was included in the defense bill is the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act. In the last 50 years, the abundance of sharks and stingrays has declined by over 70 percent. A leading cause of the decline is the demand for shark fin, which is considered a culinary delicacy in parts of Asia. At least half the world’s shark species are now classified as threatened or endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

Introduced by Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, the new law makes possessing, buying, and selling shark fin illegal, with fines up to $100,000. The bill garnered widespread support that crossed the political aisle in both the Senate, where it had 46 cosponsors, and the House, where it had 251 cosponsors.

The practice of finning sharks, which involves fishermen stripping sharks of their fins while they’re still alive, has come to be seen as inhumane and cruel. After having their fins cut off, the sharks are thrown back into the ocean, where they drown or are eaten by other animals. While US residents are not primary consumers of shark fins, American activities play a role in the global sale of shark fins. 

“The US is a major transit hub for shark fin shipments, usually between Latin America and Asia,” Ziemian said. “By facilitating that trade, we are kind of playing a role and helping fuel bad shark fishing practices in countries that don't have protections like ours.”

The two new laws come not long after the most recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora meeting in November. The convention is a United Nations treaty meant to curb the international flow of wildlife trafficking. At the conclusion of the fall meeting, countries around the world agreed to increase protections for 97 species of sharks and guitarfish.

“The USA facilitates the global decline of sharks through consumption and import/export of unsustainably harvested shark fins,” wrote David McGuire, the director of Shark Stewards, on the organization’s website. “This law sets an example to China and the rest of the world by demonstrating that sharks are important to ocean health, and not as a luxury item that leads to overfishing these predators.”