CITES‐listed sharks remain among the top species in the contemporary fin trade

Abstract

Trade-driven overexploitation threatens many sharks. Twelve of the world's most vulnerable shark species have been listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to regulate internationally traded products such as meat and dried fins. CITES records indicate that Hong Kong was the world's top legal importer of dried fins from listed sharks in 2015 (N = 8 species at that time), but traded a relatively small volume, with a few partners, in a small number of shipments (16). In contrast two CITES Appendix II listed hammerheads were consistently the fourth and fifth most common species (out of >80) in processed fin trimmings (N = 9,200) collected randomly from the Hong Kong retail dried fin market from February 2014 to December 2016 and were found in 100% of sampling events and in 66% of sampled retail vendors. This difference, and the fact that exporting nations previously known to land these species were not among those to report trade to CITES, suggest that listed species were often imported without CITES documentation in 2015. There are a number of incentives for trade hubs to meet their obligations to this treaty, which they could achieve by scaling up monitoring capacity and increasing inspection efficiency. K E Y W O R D SCarcharhinus falciformis, CITES enforcement, shark conservation, shark fin trade, sphyrna lewini, sphyrna zygaena, wildlife forensics

Small fins, large trade: a snapshot of the species composition of low‐value shark fins in the Hong Kong markets

“…Interestingly, the species composition observed differs markedly from previous assessments of the species composition of the fin trade by Fields et al () and Cardeñosa et al (2018 a ). Both previous studies indicated that > 50% of fin‐trimmings were from pelagic species (e.g.…”

“…Specimens and products from CITES Appendix II species (and others including silky and pelagic threshers, also found in the small fins) must be exported with a set of permits to certify that trade is not detrimental to the survival of the species, it is traceable through the supply chain, and that specimens were legally obtained (Vincent et al ., ). Cardeñosa et al (2018 a ) found that CITES‐listed shark species remain among the top species in the contemporary fin trade, with these hammerhead species representing the fourth and fifth most common species overall. The evidence presented by Cardeñosa et al (2018 a , b ) and this study, suggests that fins from all size classes of these CITES‐listed species are still part of the international trade, and are among the most common in the Hong Kong shark fin retail markets.…”

“…Our preliminary survey revealed the dominance of coastal species of sharks in small fins, a low value but widely traded fin category. We suggest that a random survey of small fins, similar in design to the fin trimmings survey by Fields et al () and Cardeñosa et al (2018 a ) in a wide range of retail markets in Southeast Asia could yield robust estimates of the species composition of the regional trade in these small fins. This would be especially useful because small fins scale to number of individuals whereas trimmings have a less clear relationship with volume or number of individuals traded and are therefore used primarily as an index for global trade (Fields et al ., ; Cardeñosa et al ., 2018 a ).…”

“…We suggest that a random survey of small fins, similar in design to the fin trimmings survey by Fields et al () and Cardeñosa et al (2018 a ) in a wide range of retail markets in Southeast Asia could yield robust estimates of the species composition of the regional trade in these small fins. This would be especially useful because small fins scale to number of individuals whereas trimmings have a less clear relationship with volume or number of individuals traded and are therefore used primarily as an index for global trade (Fields et al ., ; Cardeñosa et al ., 2018 a ). Moreover, we reported four species (creek whaler C. fitzroyensis , stripenose guitarfish A. variegatus , the hooktooth shark C. macrostoma and the sicklefin weasel shark Hemigaleus microstoma ) never found previously in the Hong Kong fin markets despite robust (i.e.…”

Development and application of a novel real‐time polymerase chain reaction assay to detect illegal trade of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla)

“…There is growing evidence that European eels are illegally exported from the EU to East Asia (Musing et al, ; Stein et al, ), and one of the major problems for law enforcement officers is the inability to identify the species of traded live eels or meat, in a timely manner (Musing et al, ). While commonly used wildlife forensics tools (e.g., DNA barcoding) have proven useful to detect illegal wildlife trade (Cardeñosa et al, ; Gonçalves, Oliveira‐Marques, Matsumoto, & Miyaki, ; Stein et al, ), most of these tools require transferring tissue samples to a laboratory away from the port‐of‐entry and going through complex process of DNA barcoding, which can take hours or days. A more portable, faster, and potentially more cost‐effective approach for detection of illegal wildlife trade that can be deployed at the port‐of‐entry is real‐time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR).…”