コロンビア、大量のフカヒレ押収　香港への密輸阻止

【ボゴタＡＦＰ＝時事】南米コロンビアの首都ボゴタ当局は、香港向けのフカヒレ３４９４枚と魚の浮袋１１７キロを押収したと発表した。（写真は資料写真）
　フカヒレは体長１～５メートルのサメ９００～１０００頭から取られたもので、２４日に首都ボゴタのエルドラド国際空港から輸出されるところだった。
　サメは違法に漁獲された可能性が高いという。当局は、「コロンビアの海洋生態系に取り返しのつかない打撃を与える」と批判し、警察が捜査を行うと述べた。
　コロンビアは世界に生息するサメおよそ５００種のうち７６種がおり、２０２０年からサメの漁獲は禁止されている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/27-13:34）

Thousands of shark fins were confiscated by Colombian authorities before they could be illegally shipped to Hong Kong, officials said.
Bogota seized 3,493 shark fins and 117 kilos of fish bladders that were en route to Hong Kong, environmental ministry head Carolina Urrutia said.
The haul highlights the continued demand for shark fin, served at wedding banquets in some Chinese communities and falsely believed to have medicinal properties.
The fins, removed from 900 to 1,000 sharks measuring up to five metres, were found on Friday in five boxes in Bogota's busiest airport El Dorado.
Taken more than three species of shark, the fins were likely harvested in illegal fishing, said Urrutia, condemning the irreversible environmental damage to Colombia's marine ecosystem.
National police will handle the investigation, she added.
Shark fishing has been banned in Colombia -- which is home to 76 of the 500 known shark varieties -- since 2020 in an attempt to stem Asia's fin trade.
The sale and consumption of shark fin is not illegal in Hong Kong but must be licensed, and has remained stubbornly popular despite years of campaigning.
Some of the ocean's most vital apex predators, shark populations have been decimated over the last few decades with finning and industrial longline fishing the main culprits.