Shark fin black market nets arrests at 10 restaurants, stores in Texas, officials say
Ten restaurants and markets in the Dallas and Houston areas were caught illegally selling shark fins and shark fin products, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife.
The “extensive” investigation found the stores to have sold around 15 tons of shark carcasses, the state agency said. Several hundred pounds were seized, it added.
“Protecting the many shark species residing and migrating through the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the illegally trafficked sharks from around the world, offered for sale in Texas is one of our highest priorities,” Col. Grahame Jones, Law Enforcement Director at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said in a news release.. “Texas Game Wardens will continue to proactively work investigations related to illegal shark fin products and violations against the many species of wildlife found throughout the state.”
Animal welfare advocates tipped off the wildlife officials, leading to the massive bust, according to KHOU.
The restaurants and markets were not named, but KHOU said there are several Houston-area websites listed as shark fin sellers.
Texas is one of 12 states that has banned the sale of shark fins, according to National Geographic.
More than 70 million sharks are killed each year for their fins, according to Animal Welfare Institute.
“Many shark populations have faced steep declines due to years of exploitation for their fins, cartilage, meat, and liver oil.,” the Animal Welfare Institute states. “There is a robust global market for shark fins in particular to meet the demand for shark fin soup.”
Shark fin soup is known as a luxury dish and is “as a status dish in Asian countries,” National Geographic reported.
“Sharks are in crisis,” Andy Cornish, leader of WWF’s Global Shark and Ray Initiative, told CNN last year. “The demand for shark fin in East and Southeast Asia and for shark meat in other parts of the world are the major drivers for the overfishing of sharks. This is, by far, the biggest cause of the shark population decline.”
Selling shark fins in Texas comes with a $2,000 fine or 180 days in jail, the Texas Tribune reported in 2016 when the act became illegal. A marine scientist told the Tribune that Texas accounted “for about half of U.S. shark fin exports in 2015.”
Earlier this week, around 1,400 pounds of shark fins were seized at a Miami port.
Christina Meiser, a spokeswoman for the Fish & Wildlife Service, told the Miami Herald “the commercial value of the fins is $700,000 to $1 million.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Shark fin black market nets arrests at 10 restaurants, stores in Texas, officials say."