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CITES halts Ecuador’s shark trade; trafficking persists amid lack of transparency

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Illegal trafficking of shark fins and bodies from Ecuador to Peru has gone on for years. On Feb. 6, Ecuador announced measures to restrict fishing of these animals. The announcement came in response to an ultimatum given in November 2023 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) demanding the country take measures to guarantee sustainable shark fishing. This followed CITES’ findings of a series of irregularities in shark trading, primarily discrepancies in the import and export numbers of fins reported by Ecuador and Peru. Ecuador had until the end of March to respond satisfactorily to the requirements imposed by CITES, otherwise the exportation of sharks and rays would be suspended. But since CITES’ ultimatum, there were at least three seizures of exports on the border with Peru. On March 11, after this story was originally published on Mongabay Latam on Feb. 21, CITES made good on its threat and suspended commercial trade in sharks and rays from Ecuador. According to experts consulted by Mongabay Latam, a lack of transparency has made it difficult to stem this criminal trade. A need to establish fishing quotas Peru is a transit country for shark fins en route to Asia. But it’s a destination country for shark meat, sold as tollo, after coming in through the Peruvian cities of Tumbes or Piura. The market figures are different in Peru and Ecuador because shark fishing lies on the fringes of the law. In 2021, for example, CITES…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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