Police in Panama have seized more than six tons of shark fins, which are being sold at exorbitant prices in East Asia to make soups infused with virtues through traditional Chinese medicine, authorities said Thursday.
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Five people were arrested in an operation called Shark. The 6.79 tons of shark fins were stored in a 12-meter-long container at a location about 60 kilometers west of the capital, Panamanian police said in a statement.
In the Asian market, centered in Hong Kong, shark fins can sell for as much as $1,000 a kilo. According to popular belief, shark fin soup would delay aging, restore appetite, improve memory, and have aphrodisiac properties.
The Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species, held in Panama in November, made what has been described as a “historic” decision to extend protection to some fifty shark species threatened by this trade.
Requiem sharks and hammerheads are the victims of more than half of the global shark fin trade, worth more than $500 million a year.
A third of shark populations are threatened with extinction. The exploitation of their fins is considered one of the main threats to these species, which play an essential role in the balance of marine ecosystems.
In response to a petition that gathered more than a million signatures across the Union, the European Commission announced in early July that it would study the possibility of banning the trade in shark fins severed from the animal’s body. European (EU ).
The European Union remains one of the top exporters of shark fins, exporting “on average” 2,300 tonnes of frozen shark fins a year, representing a turnover of 170 million euros, almost a third of the world total, according to the Commission.