LAMONGAN, Indonesia — Sulaiman is so practiced at stripping a zebra shark that he can skin the animal in just a few minutes. He sticks a knife into the meter-long (3-foot) fish and strips the skin away clean from the flesh and cartilage as morning breaks over East Java province. “It’s only a few types [of sharks] that are skinned,” Sulaiman, not his real name, told Mongabay Indonesia at Brondong harbor, one of Indonesia’s largest fishing ports. Once skin and fins are separated from the shark on the dock by knife-wielding fishers like Sulaiman, a network of distributors transport these products from Brondong to storage for up to a month. Most shark meat is processed locally by drying, salting or smoking before being sold on to retailers or restaurants. Finished products join a supply chain that is poorly covered by international oversight. Mongabay has previously reported on the troubles afflicting fishing hubs along the northern Java coast, an area known as Pantura. Fishers along the Pantura are floundering against an incoming tide of thinner fish stocks and a government ban on the purse seine, vast nets with a tight weave that are ruthlessly effective but notorious for high levels of indiscriminate bycatch. The world’s largest archipelago country is recorded as the world’s top shark catcher and a major exporter of shark products, including fins, liver oil, meat and skin. More than 200 of the world’s 1,250 shark species are found patrolling the reef passes and deepwater trenches across Indonesia. While…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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