Study shows fin trade still trafficking in threatened sharks

Genetic analysis of 9,200 shark fin by-products in Hong Kong reveals that several threatened shark species are still common in the fin trade after being listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Hong Kong is one of the world’s largest importers of shark fins, which are used to make the delicacy shark fin soup. The study, published in Conservation Letters , is the first assessment of the species composition of the fin trade after CITES regulations were put in place for commercially important shark species. The paper’s lead author is Diego Cardeñosa, a Ph.D. student in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University.