December 27, 2018 — In Peru, ceviche is not just the national dish but also a way of life.
The country may be best known for its Inca heritage but it is also a fishing superpower while its acclaimed culinary renaissance is arguably a greater source of local pride than Machu Picchu.
Even high in the Andes, residents are accustomed to lunching on the marinated seafood salad made with fresh fish trucked straight up from the Pacific Coast.
But what may shock Peruvians is learning that due to mislabeling they are unwittingly consuming endangered shark species. According to Juan Carlos Riveros, science director for the Peruvian arm of the international marine conservation nonprofit Oceana, 8 in 10 customers here fall for the misleading practice.
A recent DNA study by nonprofits Oceana and ProDelphinius found that 43 percent of the 450 samples taken from fish in Peruvian restaurants, supermarkets and fishing terminals were mislabeled. The reason for that is simple, conservationists say; the number of fish in Peru’s heavily exploited waters is dwindling. Sometimes inadvertent and sometimes deliberate, mislabeling a catch is always ecologically damaging given the dramatic and unsustainable fall in shark populations around the world.