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Hong Kong officials have discovered the largest shipment of shark fins ever to be seized at the port. They identified 7,500 of the fins as belonging to silky sharks and 31,000 to thresher sharks. Both the species are recognised by CITES as vulnerable and they are very slow to reproduce.
The shipment of shark fins weigh 26 tonnes - more than twice the size of all the 31 shipments Hong Kong officials seized last year. The fins arrived from Ecuador and were valued at 8.6 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.1 million).
The officials who seized the shipment said they have seen many similar shipments from Ecuador. So, they became suspicious when they noticed the origin of the container that contained the fins. The customs declaration was also written in Spanish, despite English being the normal language used on official documentation.
Oceana, an NGO, estimates that 70% of all shark fins that enter Hong Kong come from vulnerable or endangered sharks.
The way in which fishermen obtain shark fins is torturous for the sharks. Especially as, after the fins have been severed from the sharks bodies, they are usually thrown back into the ocean. Sharks can’t breath unless they swim and they cannot do so without their fins. Thus, they die a slow, painful death by drowning.