Yesterday, the Miami Beach city commission voted unanimously to prohibit land-based shark fishing gear, culminating our months-long campaign in a commanding victory and establishing a model for conservationists across the US to use local law to ban this dangerous and cruel social media trend.

This comes on the heels of a year when critically endangered hammerheads were found dead on beaches across Florida with telltale hook wounds, including one on Miami Beach in April.

It’s already illegal under state law to remove hammerheads from the water, due in part to their exceptionally low post-release survival rates, but fishermen routinely and proudly post blatant violations of these protections online.

This local law prevents these criminal acts by outlawing the tools and techniques used to target sharks, including assisted casting from drones and watercraft.

From the rare hammerhead to the cosmopolitan blacktip, Miami’s beloved sharks can now swim safely down the city’s 12km (7.5m) of coastline, as can its swimmers, free from the threats of massive lines, huge hooks, and shark bait.

We share this achievement with our community, who came together in an incredible and inspiring way to push this first domino in a new wave of shark protections, standing up to those who kill and torture wildlife for vanity.

To help activists around the world protect their beaches from shark fishing, we have released a shark defender toolkit including resources and instructions for replicating our wining strategy.

Fish Defender is a 501(c)3 organization of divers, scientists, and environmentalists dedicated to advocacy for imperiled marine fish species, based in Miami, Florida.