A hammerhead shark off Cocos Island in Costa Rica. (Photo: Barry Peters via Flickr)
The Costa Rican government has issued permits allowing the export of the fins of hammerhead sharks, an internationally protected species.
One of these permits was issued to “Smalley Development S.A.”, which will export the fins to Hong Kong, reports The Costa Rica News. From there they will most likely end up in soup bowls across Asia.
Costa Rican environmental NGOs Pertoma and Marviva say that the first shipment of 411 kilograms of shark fins left Costa Rica in December, and that a second shipment with 1,200 kilogrammes of fins – equivalent to 2,000 sharks – is ready to go.
Hammerhead sharks are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES), to which both Costa Rica and China are signatories.
The Costa Rican government, which perhaps does not understand the concepts of “irony” or “hypocrisy”, actually fought for the inclusion of hammerhead sharks under CITES.
But there is a loophole through which CITES-protected animal products can be exported if the originating country can provide scientific proof that the trade won’t threaten the animals’ population, according to the Costa Rica News.
The government argues that Costa Rican fishermen will benefit from the income made through the exports.
The former president of Costa Rica, Jose Maria Figueres, tweeted to the current president pleading him to cancel the permits (because Twitter is the preferred form of communication even for heads of state):
In 2013, 5,412.2 tonnes of shark’s fin was imported into Hong Kong, down from 8,285.1 tonnes in 2012, according to the World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong.
Related stories:
Souper! Shark fin consumption in Hong Kong restaurants falls by almost 50 percent
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