Taiwan implicated in illegal shark fin trade
A report by the Environmental Justice Foundation implicates Chinese and Taiwanese fishing fleets in the illegal shark fin trade off the coast of West Africa. The practice, which involves finning live sharks, is linked to broader issues of human rights abuses and illegal fishing.
Why it matters
This highlights the environmental and ethical crises in global industrial fishing, specifically the depletion of shark populations and the exploitation of migrant labor.
Add TT as Preferred Source 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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