'Cruel, wasteful': Dakar port a hotspot for illegal shark fins
A report by the Environmental Justice Foundation identifies the port of Dakar as a major hub for illegal shark finning by Chinese and Taiwanese fishing vessels. The practice, which involves removing fins from live sharks, is contributing to a 71% decline in shark and ray populations since 1970.
Why it matters
Illegal shark finning threatens marine biodiversity and is often linked to broader human rights abuses and unregulated industrial fishing practices.
In the high seas off west Africa, a fisherman on a Chinese longline tuna vessel cuts the fins off a live shark before throwing it back in the water to suffocate and drown.
Its lucrative appendages will be landed at the port of Dakar before being shipped onward to Asia for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in certain countries, or traditional medicine.
Finning, the practice of removing fins and casting the rest of the shark overboard, often alive, is largely prohibited across a variety of regulatory zones, countries and international conventions, even if fishing certain shark species is generally allowed.
Yet in recent years, illegal shark fins have been repeatedly landed in Dakar, one of Africa's busiest fishing ports, by dozens of Chinese and Taiwanese longline tuna vessels, according to a report released Thursday by the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation NGO.
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