Commercial Shark Fin Sales and TradeKey.com - Update

Shark fin for sale under another name?

 In 2010 TradeKey.com, an online B2B vendor and the second largest in volume to Alibaba.com, declared that they would stop selling shark fin online.

The move was lauded by the shark conservation community who posted the TradeKey press release and moved on.

Since that time no one has gone back to TradeKey.com to see if they had removed shark fin from their massive B2B listings.

We did, and what we found today after a brief search was shark fin for sale (sourced 10.26.2011) including the image of a dried shark fin from sources in India, Maldives and Mexico.

These sources sell up to 10,000 kgs of shark fin at a time.

But it goes beyond these overt commercial ads on TradeKey. In fact many sellers of "dried fish products" or "fish maw" sell shark fin and TradeKey has no mechanism in place to stop potential buyers from "asking about" dried shark fin from vendors.

In fact TradeKey offers no alerts or internal guidance that we can find at all regarding shark fin, the sales of shark fin, or the trade in shark fin on their site.

As conservationists we cannot be satisfied with partial solutions to the online sales of shark fins, we have to dig deeper and adopt the mindset of the buyers. Shark fin sales are a multimillion dollar global enterprise and the trade does not just vanish because of "a promise and a press release."

It needs to be monitored.

We will say this, TradeKey.com has pulled the vast majority of shark fin ads from their site but that does not make them partners in the war on shark fin sales, more like unwilling conservation participants.

For the dead shark featured in this weeks TradeKey B2B ad from India, that partnership has not fulfilled the promise and TradeKey.com needs to do better.

They can start with the following:

1. Internal guidance for dried ocean product sellers listing the items that cannot be sold on the TradeKey site with a fine or banishment if they are discovered breaking the rules.

2. A "smart search program" that watches internal emails between sellers and buyers for keywords like "shark fin," and an auto email sent to both parties warning them of TradeKey policies.

3. A revocation of all monies for transactions done with shark fin.

4. A public banned list on TradeKey for companies that break TradeKey policies.

The technology and web programming to completely banish shark fin, educate millions of buyers and sellers, and become an online B2B conservation leader exists - and it's cheap.

Additionally TradeKey could consider adopting a top tier conservation partner like Oceana or PEW to develop out long lasting internal shark policies and forward thinking outreach.

TradeKey are not the bad guy here, they just associate with folks that indiscriminately kill sharks for fins. In a global climate where sharks are rapidly becoming protected and even admired, the ongoing sale and trade of shark fin on massive B2B sites is something we all need to pay attention to.

In summation TradeKey has two options, adopt a strong conservation leadership position or continue with their current and "partially effective" effort to stop the sale and trade of shark fin on their site, which as we have seen this week is not meeting up with the press release and conservation hype.

Fiji Shark Fin Hub in the Crosshairs

Thanks to Mike aka Da Shark in Fiji for the heads up and this weeks great news about shark fin hubs.

As it turns out shark fins are harvested all over the Pacific region and transshipped to Fiji for sorting, packing, and shipment to China.

It's big business, to the tune of 100 metric tons a year. As Mike points out "that's a whole lotta sharks".

Naturally PEW and the Coral Alliance are behind this latest effort to curb the shark fin trade.

Kudos.

Home run undercover work on shark fin trade - Greenpeace, Oceana, Shark Alliance, PRETOMA

One of those videos that take your breath away, the shark fin trade exposed via Crime Scene Wild. Sadly this clip is not getting the broader channel exposure it needs because competing shark fin groups are not exactly crossing the line to promote it.

Ahh, shark conservation, amazing isn't it?

We all say we love sharks but when push comes to shove, no matter how impressive the reach and media messaging, if the idea didn't come from your little camp, you're not going to push it.

We will, for one reason only - this is first rate work without the hyperbole.

TradeKey.com Celebrates 5 Million Members Milestone - Sells Sharks Fin

TradeKey.com, the second largest B2B online trading marketplace on the planet is celebrating, and this week we received an invitation to join the online sales of...dried sharks fin.

We have been tracking the online sales of dried and fresh shark fin after Alibaba.com stopped selling all shark fin in 2008.

At the time Alibaba.com was the single largest purveyor of shark fin on the Internet. Moving thousands of tons of shark fin each month.

The results from our tracking are not good, and trade continues unabated on several sites like TradeKey.com and others.

While TradeKey.com celebrates 5 million registered users this week, shark fin traders from around the world have another reason to celebrate as shark fin from Morocco, New Zealand, and Oman make their way to waiting international markets.

Anyone up for round two?

Edward Dorson - Shark and Awe

Want to know the current status of the U.S. Shark Conservation Act sitting in Congress?

Underwater photographer Edward Dorson summarises this bills remarkable voyage through the US Senate and it's sad state of affairs in today's Huff Post.

Edward Dorson - an eloquent and passionate voice for the oceans, and for sharks:

The threat to sharks from finning and to a planet that requires their continued existence isn't half-baked ideology -- it's empirical fact. Studies are consistently revealing that sharks, as apex predators, are essential to regulate species abundance and distribution to maintain healthy oceans. Yet the world's sharks are being slaughtered at an unsustainable rate of 3 per second (estimated at 100 million annually). After capture, shark finners hack off the fins (worth up to $300 a pound) and the less valuable mutilated shark is tossed back to sink and slowly die. This travesty was acted on by our lawmakers a decade ago with the U.S. Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000, a legislative milestone that made it illegal to have fins aboard a U.S. registered vessel without the corresponding shark carcasses.

Complete Post.

Japan International Seafood and Technology Exhibition - Mexico

One of the keys to ending shark finning is to be vigilant and aware of the global shark fin trade including new and emerging markets.

Conservationists who focus on fishermen and not key market trading partners are at a disadvantage when it comes to curbing trade:

Mexican companies who participated in the Japan International Seafood and Technology Exhibition (JIST) this year, managed to market their seafood products for around MXN 11 million (USD 865,300), as reported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA).

The news was announced in a report prepared by the general coordination of Trade and Export Promotion, through MexBest who were present at the show.

For the first time, customers and visitors at JIST had access to marine products from Mexico.

Among the resources exhibited were octopus, sea cucumber, shark fin, different varieties of frozen fish, canned abalone and conch and fresh bluefin tuna.

According to the general coordinator of Trade Promotion, Gabriel Padilla Maya, the reported short-term sales amounted to MXN 3.2 million (USD 251,700) and medium term, MXN 7.5 million (USD 590,000).

Maya stressed that the Japanese fair is important not only for the specific sales but also as it will increase the presence of Mexican products in the Asian market.

During the presence of the Mexican delegation, between 21 and 23 July, business meetings were held with more than 15 Japanese importers. These contacts are expected to help boost the marketing of annual production of nearly 200 tonnes of abalone, 1,300 tonnes of lobster and 200 tonnes of shrimp.

SAGARPA indicated that Mexican exports of seafood to Japan account for between 10 and 12 per cent of their total sales in the Asian market.

The main marine products exported to Japan are: tuna, shrimp, sardine, sea urchin and octopus.

According to the Mexican Agricultural Ministry, in 2009 total agri-food exports amounted to around USD 661 million.

JIST 2010 brought together 600 exhibitors and received around 35,000 visitors, El Universal reported.