From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

NEW ORLEANS–Responding to findings that the global
population of “apex predator” fish has fallen 90% since 1950, the
63-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas on November 21 agreed to ban killing sharks for their fins in
the Atlantic ocean.
The U.S. banned shark finning in Atlantic territorial waters
in 1993, and in Pacific territorial waters in 2002.
Eighteen days after ratifying the ICCAT agreement, the U.S.
State Department and U.S. Customs moved to strengthen regulations
meant to exclude from the U.S. shrimp and shrimp products caught by
means that kill sea turtles. Six of the seven sea turtle species are
now considered critically endangered. Leatherbacks have declined 95%
since 1980.
The recent regulatory actions were just a start, however,
to the drastic measures that scientists are increasingly often
recommending to save pelagic ecosystems.
“More than 600 scientists from 54 countries have signed a
petition urging the United Natons to impose a moratorium on longline
fishing in the Pacific,” noted Sunday Telegraph environment
correspondent David Harrison, as ICCAT met. “Longline fishing was
expected to reduce unnecessary catches [of non-target species] produced by dragging large nets,” Harrison recalled.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

BANGKOK–Minke whales, Irriwaddy dolphins, and great white
sharks were among the big winners at the 13th meeting of the 166
nations belonging to the United Nations Convention on International
Trade In Endangered Species, held October 2-14 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Black rhinos and crocodiles were among the big losers.
Whether elephants won or lost varied with the perspectives of
the participants. A Kenyan proposal to extend the 1989 global
moratorium on ivory trading failed, but the delegates approved a
resolution committing every African nation with a domestic ivory
trade to either strictly control it or halt it.
“Unregulated domestic markets across Africa are fueling a
significant part of the poaching we are seeing in central Africa,”
explained Tom Milliken, eastern and southern Africa director for the
wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC. “These markets
consume up to 12,000 elephants annually,” Milliken continued, “so
it’s time we close this huge loophole in the global effort to save
elephants.”
Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, and
Nigeria have the most open domestic ivory markets, according to
TRAFFIC.

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