Ospesca Agreement on Shark Finning

Panama City.– Agriculture Ministers of Central America and the Dominican Republic, agreed to ban the capture of sharks for their fins and to encourage intra-regional commodity trade, among other issues discussed in Panama.

There was consensus in the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) to approve the regional regulation of the Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector of the Central American Isthmus (Ospesca) to avoid shark “finning” practice in the countries from Central American Integration System (SICA).

Minister Salvador Jiménez extended Dominican Republic’s application to join Ospesca regional agreements.

Mario Gonzalez Recinos, Ospesca regional director, said that “from Belize to Panama, finning practice in the sea will be punished and governments will take steps to establish sanctions.”

Over 100 million sharks are slaughtered annually, at a rate of over 270, 000 per day, in an inhumane practice that implies throwing the animals back into the sea to die. This all to fuel the shark fin trade market for shark fin soup, which is a delicacy in some Asian cultures.

The soup can fetch up to several hundred U.S. dollars per bowl, and some fins can fetch thousands of dollars depending on the rarity of the shark species as well as fin age and type.

Source: Dominican Today