It's been banned in Toronto, Mississauga, Pickering and Brantford. Now, the NDP wants to ban shark fins across the country.

NDP Fisheries and Oceans critic Fin Donnelly chose a popular seafood restaurant in Vancouver, on Friday, as a backdrop to launch his petition seeking to end the importation of shark fins to Canada.

"Thousands of signatures would show the federal government that there is support for this issue and that we need to act immediately on it," Donnelly told Yahoo! Canada News.

Harvesting of shark fins is already illegal in Canada and the U.S., but importing the delicacy is not. Many restaurants across the country continue to serve the traditional Chinese shark fin soup, a dish reserved for special occasions such as weddings.

Donnelly says shark populations are plummeting around the world as 73,000,000 sharks are killed for their fins each year.

"We're certainly small players in terms of the demand for shark fins on the global perspective, but we can be a large player in terms of taking a leadership role in marine stewardship and shark conservation," said the Vancouver-area MP.

In addition to the petition, Donnelly has a private member's bill in the works and hopes to introduce it shortly. He says the bill has the support from the Green Party, the Liberals and even some Conservative MPs.

"I don't think [the Tories] have taken an official position yet. I'm trying to work with all parties—this is something if we collaborated on, we could enact right away," said Donnelly.

"I think this is something that will cross party lines."