Hammerhead shark fins in Hong Kong market traced to Eastern Pacific

Identifying Shark Fins: Implementing and Enforcing CITES

Researchers have traced the origins of shark fins from the retail market in Hong Kong back to the location where the sharks were first caught. This will allow them to identify “high-risk” supply chains for illegal trade and better enforce international trade regulations. Florida International University's Marine Scientist Demian Chapman led a team based in the United States and Hong Kong—the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China—to conduct DNA analysis on shark fins from scalloped hammerhead sharks, Sphyrna lewini. Scalloped hammerhead sharks are of the most common and valuable species in the trade, and listed on CITES Appendix II since 2013. The species face a risk of overexploitation, and possibly extinction.