Al Jazeera has reported that Taiwan plans to ban the practice of shark finning from the beginning of 2012. The country, which has the fourth largest shark-fishing industry in the world, has passed a new law outlawing the practice of cutting off the fins and throwing the bodies back into the sea in favor of forcing fishermen to land whole shark carcasses. They are the first country in Asia to contemplate such a ban.

The ban has been welcomed by conservationists but they say it does not go far enough.