On January 17, 2022, Hang Hing Herbal Medicine Ltd. was sentenced to pay a $75,000 fine after earlier pleading guilty in the Provincial Court of British Columbia in Vancouver to a charge of unlawfully importing a protected shark species without a permit. Importing a CITES-listed species without a permit obtained from the country of export is a contravention of subsection 6(2) of the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA).
The fine will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund to support projects that benefit our natural environment. In addition to the fine, the court ordered that the entire shipment of processed shark fins, 20,196 fins weighing approximately 550 kg, be forfeited to the Crown. Forfeiture removes the specimens from trade.
On September 25, 2017, Hang Hing Herbal Medicine Ltd. imported a shipment containing 22 bags of processed shark fins, declared as fish bone, into Richmond, BC. The Canada Border Services Agency noted that the shipment contained wildlife products and referred it to ECCC Enforcement. Wildlife enforcement officers inspected the shipment and concluded that the products, declared as fish bone, were in fact shark fins.
Read more:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/british-columbia-based-trading-company-200000153.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJm13rckrw0lrf84ZhcDjvLwI9DTE3IZhD0eCdeyfSDqHEuFdUsuNR0XK-gD9owpQ3HqN6rM9HlNjoif2RksDu-3kzLvmNLHhNdiy5k7pSpCjsDeUCse9qo3jQMmZBDy3jjtnidnaJ41hDEWC-_1ibg8wkYT5rv91mzylvTBIhG8