WASHINGTON (AP) — To curb the illegal practice of removing shark fins at sea, U.S. officials announced Thursday that all sharks caught in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico must be brought ashore with their fins attached.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also reduced by 85 percent the commercial fishing quota for the sandbar shark, a popular species for the Asian delicacy of shark fin soup. Recreational fishermen also will be banned from catching and keeping sandbar sharks.

The new rules, which also reduce and set quotas for some other sharks, will help rebuild populations, NOAA says. Sharks take years to mature and they produce few offspring, making them vulnerable to overfishing, said Jim Balsiger, an acting assistant administrator.

The rule will take effect July 24.

Ocean conservationists hailed the new rules for closing an enforcement loophole that still enabled fishermen to cut off shark fins and discard the carcasses at sea, despite a law passed by Congress in 2000 banning the practice. But they said the regulation did not go far enough to reduce other threats to coastal sharks, including bycatch, sharks caught incidentally when catching other fish.

A bill under consideration in Congress would ban the landing of sharks without fins attached in all U.S. waters.