The practice will be completely banned by 2016, media reports say

Jan 9, 2014 19:16 GMT  ·  By

Not to point the finger and nod in disapproval or anything, but it appears that, whereas Australia plans to kill quite a lot of sharks over the following few months, New Zealand is trying to offer these ocean dwellers some much needed protection.

Thus, high officials in New Zealand have recently announced that, by the year 2016, the country is to institute a complete ban on shark finning.

For those unaware, this practice boils down to catching sharks, pulling them on board, chopping off their fins and then release the animals back into the water.

The finning of live sharks was banned back in 2009, but fishermen are still allowed to butcher dead animals and then throw whatever body parts they are not interested in back into the ocean.

According to the New Zealand Herald, the country's plan to protect sharks by issuing a ban on finning was shared with the public by Conservation Minister Nick Smith earlier today.

Under this initiative, dubbed the National Plan for Action for Sharks, a first series of shark species will be protected from finning in this year's October.

A ban concerning several other species except blue sharks will come into effect in October 2015. One year later, the ban will also take blue sharks into consideration.

Interestingly enough, it appears that New Zealand's high officials decided to ban shark finning after the general public voiced its complaints against this practice, and demanded that it be put an end to.

“Sharks may not be as cute and cuddly as our kiwi and our kakapo but we have 113 species of shark in our waters, a significant number of them are endangered and this additional protection will ensure their survival,” Conservation Minister Nick Smith commented on this initiative.

“This measure of phasing in a ban on shark finning is also very important for New Zealand's clean, green reputation,” he added.