November 19, 2013 — Guinea led in shipping unreported catches of shark fins to Hong Kong, where the fish parts are sold for as much as $700 a kilogram, according to a report by conservation group Oceana.
Hong Kong imported 49.7 metric tons of dried and frozen fins, which are used in shark fin soup, from the west African country last year, the report showed, citing revenue data from the Chinese territory. Mauritania with 28.4 tons and the Philippines with 24.5 tons were the second- and third-biggest shippers of unreported shark fins, Oceana said in yesterday’s report. Hong Kong accounts for half of world demand for shark fins, according to Washington-based Pew Charitable Trusts.
The rankings are for member nations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which are supposed to report their shark catches to the organization, Angela Pauly, a Brussels-based spokeswoman for Oceana, said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday. The commission is meeting in Cape Town this week to consider the first catch quotas for sharks, starting with the shortfin mako, the world’s fastest shark, as the killing of 100 million of the animals a year threatens the survival of some species.
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