A proposal from the European Union and Palau to protect porbeagle sharks squeaked by with a vote of 86 to 42, with 8 abstentions — a winning margin of a single vote. All of the votes were by secret ballot.

Image An Ivorian fisherman carried a hammerhead shark to a market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Credit... Kambou Sia/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“We will continue to pursue our efforts to protect sharks from eradication by the decadent and cruel process of shark-finning,” Stuart Beck, Palau’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement. “I am sure that, properly prepared, bald eagle is delicious. But, as civilized people, we simply do not eat it.”

China, by far the world’s largest consumer of the cartilaginous fish, for sharkfin soup, and Japan, which has battled to keep the convention from being extended to any marine species, led the opposition.

“This is not about trade issues, but fisheries enforcement,” Masanori Miyahara, Japan’s top fisheries negotiator, was quoted by The Associated Press as telling delegates. “Poaching is a big problem.”

Juan Carlos Vásquez, a spokesman for the United Nations convention, said that the votes on the hammerhead and the porbeagle — a close relative of the great white shark that is prized for its meat — could be reopened on Thursday and possibly overturned at the final session of the conference because the margin of passage was so narrow.