Peru has convicted shark fin traffickers for the first time in its history but more is needed to make a dent in this prolific illegal industry.
On February 9, a court in the western town of Santa sentenced two people to four and a half years in prison for the attempted 2018 sale of a load of 1,800 kilograms of shark fins.
In mid-March 2018, environmental prosecutors stopped a truck traveling from Tumbes, a city on Peru’s northern Pacific coast, to the capital Lima. The truck held 51 bags of wrapped shark fins. A subsequent investigation found the fins were to be illegally sold by Jorge Roldan Angulo Sánchez, deputy manager of a seafood company, to a buyer, identified as Poly Diks Pinto Gonzáles, for the sum of $18,000. The fins were then set to be exported as legal animal product to Hong Kong.
The international organization Oceana, dedicated to the protection of the world’s oceans, identified the seized fins and found that they belonged to six protected species, including hammerhead, pelagic thresher, smooth and silky sharks.
According to Oceana, the illegal shark fin trade in Peru is rampant. Much of the demand comes from China and other Eats Asian countries, where fins can be sold for around $700 a kilogram. In 2020, over 2.3 tons of shark fins were seized in Peru, as well as 28 tons of shark meat.
Many of these shark fins arrive in Peru from Ecuador, where shark fishing is completely prohibited and the sale of fins is only allowed if it can be proven the sharks were accidentally caught in fishing nets.
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https://insightcrime.org/news/what-will-come-of-peru-jailing-shark-fin-traffickers-for-first-time/