NGO Alliance Looks for Compensation Above R $60 Million for the Illegal Capture of Sharks

Good work IBAMA. Too late for the 36 thousand sharks but maybe it will set the poachers back a bit. But as long as there is the demand there will be someone, somewhere, getting the supply, even if it means doing it illegally like these people are.

NGO Alliance Looks for Compensation Above R $60 Million for the Illegal Capture of Sharks
Monday, May 11, 2009, Sea Shepherd

Sea Shepherd Brazil, Instituto Environmental Justice (Insitutot Justiça Ambiental), and the South Coast Institute (Instituto Litoral Sul) filed on Thursday, May 7th, a public civil action in the Federal Court of Rio Grande, Brazil. The NGO's mobilization began on June 19th, 2008, when the Environmental Police of the Military Brigade and IBAMA raided the fishing company Dom Matos Comércio de Pescados e Resíduos Ltda, and found 3.3 tons of shark fins. IBAMA is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's enforcement agency. The shark fins belonged to species threatened of extinction, including angel sharks. For the amount of fins found, it was estimated that over 36 thousand sharks had been killed.

Illegally obtained shark fins from the 3.3 tons confiscated by IBAMA
Photos Credit: Gerson Pataleao

"It is a coherent and important regulation that seeks to avoid the uncontrolled capture of sharks. The regulation was ignored, since only shark fins were found at the premises without any carcass," explains Cristiano Pacheco, executive director for Institute Environmental Justice. "We have enough elements for an exemplary pecuniary condemnation."

The shark fin industry has ramifications in almost all the coastal countries of the world, including the Galápagos Islands, which is today perhaps the 'Latin capital' of the shark finning industry. In Brazil there are ramifications from Pará to Rio Grande do Sul.