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Hong Kong environmental issues
Hong KongHealth & Environment

6.5% of shark fins sold in Hong Kong are protected, higher than reported: study

Study by US, local institutions also reveals volume of critically endangered whitetip shark fins sold in city is 70 times higher than reported

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Fins from critically endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks were discovered among the samples analysed in the study. Photo: Handout
Oscar LiuandLo Hoi-ying

An extensive study of 16,000 shark fin samples taken from Hong Kong retail markets has found that 6.5 per cent of them were from globally protected species, surpassing the figure officially declared by local authorities under an international agreement.

The study, published in Science Advances on Monday, also revealed a disparity: the volume of critically endangered oceanic whitetip shark fins sold in the city was 70 times higher than what officials reported under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
“This translates to over 95 per cent of the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks being illegal,” said Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, which collaborated with Florida International University in the study led by researchers from Mote Marine Laboratory.
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The study aimed to assess the impact of the trade on imperilled shark populations.

The team collected and analysed about 16,000 samples from Hong Kong’s retail markets between 2014 and 2021 by focusing on trimmings – small pieces produced during the processing of fins – to avoid the high cost of whole fins and increase the sample size.

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They achieved precise species identification of processed fragments by using DNA forensic analysis.

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