Greenpeace: Hong Kong’s illegal fish maw trade more lucrative than cocaine

Looking for something to smuggle that’ll make you as much money as cocaine but is far less risky? Fish maw is your man.

According to a study by Greenpeace, totoaba, the dried swim bladder of a critically endangered fish, can go for as much as HKD1 million per kilo.

Silvia Diaz Perez of Greenpeace said, “If you look at the price of swim bladder, it is even more lucrative than cocaine,” reports the SCMP.

The product is basically the same as the standard fish maw you get in soups all over Hong Kong, but it’s banned, despite seemingly being smuggled into the city with ease from North America.

The trade in the fish, which is indigenous to the Gulf of Mexico, was prohibited in 1975, but poaching continues.

This has also lead to a worrying decline in a rare marine porpoise known as the vaquita, which often gets caught in nets laid for totoaba. Greenpeace estimates the vaquita will be extinct by 2018 if urgent action is not taken.

Between February and April, undercover Greenpeace agents (they tucked their dreadlocks into their beanies) visited 70 dried seafood stores in Sheung Wan. Thirteen were selling totoaba, with most showing photos of their stock but at least seven providing onsite samples.

One dude even offered to smuggle the product back to mainland China for an extra HKD2,000. What a peach!

Greenpeace also said they were “waved through without hassle” when carrying the maw through Hong Kong International Airport, and were able to post the bladder internationally.

A spokesperson for Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said checks at shops and the airport would be stepped up.
 
Photo: Alpha via Flickr
 


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