Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada-based importer S L Dried Seafood Co. has been fined CAD 65,000 (USD 52,000, EUR 44,000) for illegally importing shark fins.
SL Dried Seafood was fined CAD 60,000 (USD 48,000, EUR 40,000) while the company’s manager, Wang Cheung, was fined CAD 5,000 (USD 4,000, EUR 3,400) after pleading guilty in the Newmarket, Ontario Court of Justice to unlawfully importing protected shark species without a permit from the country of export.
In addition to the fine, Cheung and the company are now prohibited from importing or exporting any Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)-listed species, Environment and Climate Change Canada said in a press release. They have also been prohibited from applying for any new permit under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act.
The court ordered the company to forfeit the 29 illegally-imported shark fins and approximately 325 kilograms of shark fin cartilage fragments.
The charges stem from May 2018, when ECCC wildlife enforcement officers inspected an incoming shipment of shark products at the Canada Border Services Agency Container Examination Facility in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The inspectors identified a box of 29 shark fins and 13 bags of assorted shark fin cartilage fragments that were being shipped to S L Dried Seafood Co. “Subsequent DNA testing identified a number of different shark species, including fins or fin cartilage from two different CITES-listed shark species: silky shark and scalloped hammerhead shark,” ECCC said.
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