Colombian authorities seized on Friday September 25 more than 3,000 shark fins that were to be illegally shipped to Hong Kong from Bogotá airport.
The services of the Bogotá Environment Secretariat
"seized 3,493 shark fins and 117 kilos of fish swim bladders that were going to be shipped to Hong Kong"
illegally, announced the head of this service, Carolina Urrutia, on Twitter.
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The fins, taken from 900 to 1,000 sharks measuring up to five meters according to the Environment Secretariat, were in five crates at El Dorado airport, the most important air terminal in the country, detailed Ms. Urrutia in a press release. The crates arrived in Bogotá from Roldanillo, a municipality in the Valle del Cauca department, near the Pacific.
The fins, coming from
"more than three species"
of sharks, come "
very probably from illegal fishing methods"
, added Carolina Urrutia, deploring
"an irreparable environmental damage for the aquatic ecosystems of the Colombian territory"
.
Shark fishing, including artisanal, has been banned since 2020 in Colombia, in order to stem the growth of the shark fin trade to the Asian market.
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Shark populations have been decimated in recent decades, mainly by fishing for food and industrial fishing.
Colombia, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, has 76 shark species out of the 500 that have been identified.
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