2010/04/21
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian prosecutors on Tuesday seized a ton of shark fins destined for the Japanese market, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) said.
The shipment of frozen shark fins, uncovered by prosecutors from IBAMA’s Fish and Wildlife Division in a container ready for shipment to Japan, has an estimated value of 17,000 dollars.
“All the illegal cargo will be destroyed,” the state body said.
The owner of the export company was fined 52,000 reales (29,700 US dollars) and the boats responsible for catching the sharks were also expected to receive penalties, prosecutors said.
Rita Barreto, an environmental analyst at the IBAMA office in Para state where the shipment was uncovered, said “careful monitoring” was needed to
“ensure that commercial fishing is not threatening shark species off the Brazilian coast, some of which are endangered.” -- AFP
A "ton" of shark fins is a lot of shark fins, considering how little space they take up. No wonder some of Brazil's sharks are endangered, and of course they aren't the only ones.
I wouldn't be so annoyed with "shark fin soup" if the rest of the shark was also used as food, but it isn't. These "fishermen" catch a shark, cut off its fins, and then throw it back into the ocean to die, because of course a shark can't swim without its fins and if it can't swim, it will die. So there must be millions and millions of shark corpses littering the ocean bottom. Of course they are eaten by things like lobsters and crabs that live on the ocean floor...which perhaps would be proliferating except they too are being hunted to extinction.
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