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Hong Kong needs to step up checks on shark fin trade after Costa Rica shipments slip under radar

Activists say shipments are slipping under the radar and Hong Kong needs to step up enforcement

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On a sunny mid-December day in Costa Rica's capital city San Jose, a 411kg stock of dried shark fins sits inconspicuously in a cargo bay at Juan Santamaria International Airport, ready to be flown across the globe.

The sun-dried, possibly salted fins had just months earlier been attached to the spines of hundreds of hammerhead sharks swimming in the tropical waters off the Central American nation before succumbing to the long-line or gillnet. They were netted finally by Puntarenas-based exporter Inversiones Cruz S.A.

In just a few days and after a stopover in the United States city of Miami, the US$52,857 cargo arrived at the ground floor entrance of Yue Hing Shark's Fin and Marine Products on Des Voeux Road West in Sheung Wan.

The shipment of hammerhead fins to Hong Kong - the world's biggest shark fin trading hub - may have slipped under the radar, but this single shipment has since sparked a furore across Costa Rica, which has long prided itself on its progressive environment and conservation policies.

At least one San Jose-based activist is calling on the Hong Kong government to issue a "formal protest" against the Costa Rican government.

A second shipment destined for Hong Kong weighing 455kg was also given the green light by Costa Rican authorities in February. But this one did not slip under the radar so easily.

The February shipment sparked even greater public outrage that quickly spread on social media as environmentalists slammed the government for "violating the spirit of international agreements aimed at protecting the endangered species", according to the San Jose-based .

The two shipments and the controversy they stoked have once again highlighted the link between Asia's insatiable appetite for shark fin and the shady business of finning in developing countries such as Costa Rica. And Hong Kong, as a transshipment point, is at the centre of this long-running conservation battle.

Advances have been made to protect sharks on endangered lists from finning, and the hammerhead is among them.

In 2013, it was the Costa Rican government that voiced support for including the hammerhead under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The inclusion finally came into effect last September and means trade is forbidden unless a scientific authority of the exporting state can prove the trade in a species will not affect its population.

Under the regulations, each country is to complete a Non-Detriment Finding report before it permits the export of Appendix II sharks. But according to some reports, Costa Rica did not have the official NDF paperwork to grant the export permits for the two shipments.

The outrage culminated in the environment ministry imposing a six-month suspension last month on the issuance of hammerhead shark fin export permits until the proper NDF reports were produced.

However, the fight against dubious shipments has many fronts, not least is tackling the continuing, unabated demand for them and the suppliers willing to meet it.

Randall Arauz, president of marine conservation group Pretoma, is making an appeal for the Hong Kong government to demand a genuine approval letter, or the NDF stamp, from Costa Rica, and issue a "formal protest" against the Costa Rican government once it finds that the two shipments did not have one.

"Costa Ricans like to speculate the country has sold out to China and Hong Kong, which is why we decided to violate CITES," says Arauz.

"A letter of complaint from Hong Kong would show the world that Hong Kong and China are sincere about shark conservation and that [they] are concerned that Costa Rica - the country that promoted hammerhead sharks in Appendix II in March 2013, is now the first country to violate the convention."

This is echoed by Hong Kong-based conservationist Alex Hofford of conservation group WildAid Hong Kong.

"Thanks to neglect, or bureaucratic bungling, the governments of Hong Kong and Costa Rica are both complicit in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of endangered hammerhead sharks over time," he says.

Hofford says the city's government should "go beyond minimum requirements set down by CITES" and check that all NDFs are genuine.

The city's reputation as the world's shark fin trade capital is no secret. It has one of the largest consumptions per capita in the world and accounts for half of global trade, according to green group WWF. Each year over 73 million sharks pay the price.

Data from the Census and Statistics Department show 342,000kg of dried and salted fins worth HK$54 million entered the city from Costa Rica in 2010.

It fell to about 250,000kg the year after and was down to 42,770kg last year. The country is usually within the city's top 10 to 20 sourcing destinations for both dried and salted fins, competing with other Latin American finning powers including Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Chile.

Ricky Leung Lak-kee, chairman of the Hong Kong Marine Products Association, says it is entirely legal to import hammerhead shark fins as long as the importer obtains approval from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

Hammerhead sharks were only listed under Appendix II of CITES last autumn and it was entirely possible some vendors may not have known about it, he says.

Hong Kong trade statistics do not identify the species of shark a fin comes from. But Leung adds: "Hammerhead sharks do not make up a large fraction of the market. The blue shark makes up about 70 to 80 per cent of the local shark fin market and this is not an endangered species."

Leung says a kilogram of blue shark fins costs about US$20 to US$30 compared to the US$100 or more for the same amount from a hammerhead.

A spokeswoman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said two legitimate shipments of scalloped hammerhead shark and smooth hammerhead shark were imported from Costa Rica between December and February.

"These shipments were accompanied by the required CITES export permits issued by the Costa Rican authority upon importation," she says. The department made no mention of whether the correct NDF documents were provided.

The spokeswoman says the department has no data on the amount of shark fin from the two species in the local market.

While conservation officials may aim to follow the rules of CITES and impose strict regulations to control the trade in more than 35,000 CITES-listed endangered species, such incidents expose inherent weaknesses in the city's commitment to enforcement, activists say.

Hofford proposes a more straightforward solution.

"The easiest way to avoid this from happening again would be for the Hong Kong government to simply ban the shark fin trade outright."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Shark fin trade leaves murky trail
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