The area is home to about 80 percent of Sabah’s shark population, he said, according to Star Online.

The three parks are Tun Sakaran marine park in Semporna; Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park here; and the proposed Tun Mustapha marine park in Kudat.

Masidi launched a campaign to reduce shark fin consumption and promote sustainable seafood today. He said the announcement of the sanctuaries would coincide with the declaration of the Tun Mustapha marine park in the middle of the year.

He said the state had no choice but to use state laws to protect Sabah’s shark population after the federal government rejected a request to amend the Fisheries Act

“We only asked for shark hunting and shark finning to be banned in Sabah, not in other states,” Masidi was quoted as saying.

Last September federal agriculture minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek had described the Sabah request as unnecessary. He said sharks, unlike tuna, were accidentally caught by fishermen in Malaysian waters, indicating that shark hunting and a finning industry did not exist in Malaysia, the report said.