Taiwan denies fishing trawler was smuggling shark fins

Why so double-standard! They ban the harvest and sale of whale sharks but they don't care about the other shark species? They are all equally important to the ocean ecosystem you know.

Taiwan denies fishing trawler was smuggling shark fins
2009-03-16 01:16 AM , Taiwan News

Authorities in Capetown impounded the Kaohsiung-registered Chien Jui 102 after they found it had unloaded 1.6 tons of shark fins, Taiwanese diplomat Tsai Chien-hua said. Regulations stipulate that shark fins on any one vessel should not exceed 5 percent of the amount of shark also present on board. Under those terms, the Chien Jui 102 should have been carrying a maximum of 32 tons of shark, but only 4 tons were found, reports said. Crew members reportedly explained that some of the shark meat had been processed into fish feed at sea.

The hunt for sharks and for shark fins has come under international criticism as the animal breed comes closer to extinction. Shark finning, which involves the killing of the animals and the dumping of their bodies back into the ocean after cutting off the fins, is mainly driven by the East Asian demand for shark fin soup.