“Consumers of shark fin soup really have no idea what they’re getting,” saidDemian Chapman, a biologist with the Institute for Conservation Science at Stony Brook University. So he and collaborators from the Field Museum in Chicago and the Pew Environment Group collected samples of shark fin soup in 14 American cities and used DNA sequencing to try and figure out what species were used.
The researchers were able to match 32 of the 51 shark fin samples they collected from those cities, which included New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. (A ban on the shark fin trade took effect in California on Jan. 1, but existing stocks can be used until July of next year.)
Among the eight shark species identified in the study were blue, shortfin mako and bull sharks. One soup sample from Boston contained scalloped hammerhead DNA. Scalloped hammerheads are listed as endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List. Four other species of sharks found in various soups are listed as vulnerable by the organization. (The I.U.C.N. designations do not have the force of law.)None of the species found in the soups are on the United States Endangered Species List or are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, commonly referred to as CITES. “It’s all perfectly legal,” Dr Chapman said. (The American list does not include any shark species; under the international convention, countries can agree voluntary to refrain from trading in specific species from certain places.)
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15 Aug 2012 @ 12:41AM /
2 notes TAGGED AS: Shark Week shark fin soup shark finning sharks conservation
