New York - The Pacific island state of Palau is planning to introduce the world's first shark sanctuary. President Johnson Toribiong announced the initiative at the United Nations in New York on Friday.
The sanctuary, in which commercial shark fishing will be banned, is due to cover around 600,000 square kilometres or an area roughly the size of France.
The president later told journalists that sharks are often killed just for their fins and that their bodies are then dumped back into the sea.
Shark fin is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries and is typically used to make shark-fin soup.
Up to 100 million sharks are killed each year around the world and some types of shark are on the verge of extinction, the president warned.
He called on the international community to stop the slaughter and said the survival of sharks and the seas was more important than a bowl of soup.
Palau consists of 241 islands, just 11 of them inhabited, covering 508 square kilometres.
