Alibaba.com-Selling sharks fin 5000 kilos a week

Last month online sharks fin trader Alibaba.com and parent company Taobao.com put out a press release stating "Taobao.com announced to its 400 million online members that all shark fin products will be banned from trade on Taobao.com starting 1, January 2009."

Full release here.

This release was heralded by the conservation community as an exciting development. Net the fact Yahoo! was still heavily invested in Alibaba.com and had never disavowed the rampant sale of sharks fin via a web portal they had invested billions in. In many cases sellers were producing and selling 5000-10,000 kilos of sharks fin per week-1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds.

While we are cautiously optimistic about this announcement we decided to run with the old adage "trust but verify". Unfortunately over the past 7 days of verification we have come across a 98% continuing sales rate of sharks fin at Alibaba.com.

The problem is "window dressing". While Alibaba.com has stopped all overt sales of sharks fin via web searches, they have not stopped buyers from asking the sellers of sea products directly for sharks fin. Over the past 7 days we have posed as three different buyers asking for 5000 kilos a week (11,000 pounds) of product from various sellers.

We posed this question to eleven sellers. Nine answered positively, we did not get a response from two others. The aggregate total of sharks fin we were able to source in just 7 days from Alibaba.com, was a staggering 40,000 kilo or 88,000 lbs.

Here is one example from just one inquiry:

From:Mr XXX XXX
Date:Mon, Jan 05 2009 01:14:24 (GMT)

Dear Mr. XXX XXX,

Thank you very much for your message.

As per your requirement we can supply you good quality product Shark Fin's from XXX at reasonable price.

Kindly mail us.

Yours sincerely,
XXX XXX

XXX,
XXX, Bangladesh.
Mobile :XXX
Fax: XXX
E-mail: XXX
MSN: XXX

Message IP Address:123.xx.xx.*
Message Origin:Bangladesh

Alibaba.com aims to provide you with accurate Sender Details, we are not able to fully guarantee the accuracy of every Sender's IP information.

Note: The final legal wording on this email "Alibaba.com is neither responsible nor liable for any of the above information."

Shark Fin Du Jour-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc

Our weekly feature on Underwater Thrills:Swimming With Sharks is the "Shark Fin Du Jour".

It's a weekly look at Alibaba.com the NYSE of Shark Fin Products and sales on the Internet-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc.

We will take you to the individual sellers listed on that site and introduce the top companies, what species they sell, and how many thousands of pounds of shark fins they have for sale on the global market.

Today our Shark Fin Du Jour is UMS Enterprises who can source a staggering 500 kilograms of sharks fin per week:

Place of origin:	Pakistan
Model No:	SF 1173
Fob Price:	US$ 30~180 Karachi (Air/Port)
Port:	Karachi (Air/Port)
Payment Terms:	L/C
Minimum Order Quantity:	500 Kilogram
Supply Ability:	500 Kilogram per Week
Package:	15kg - 30kg Polypropylene Bags
Delivery Time:	Minimum 10 Working Days

Shark Fin Du Jour-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc

Our weekly feature at Underwater Thrills:Swimming With Sharks is the "Shark Fin Du Jour".

It's a look at Alibaba.com the NYSE of shark fin products on the Internet-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc.

We will take you into the individual sellers listed on that site and introduce the top companies, what species they sell, and how many thousands of pounds of shark fins they have for sale on the global market.

Today our Shark Fin Du Jour is Stavcorp Australia Pty Ltd who can source a stunning 10 tons of sharks fins a month and who have a minimum order of shark fin via Alibaba.com of 3000 kilograms or 6500 pounds-per order.

To put this into perspective 10 tons of sharks fin equals roughly 11,000 dead sharks-per order.

Yahoo! CEO to Quit-Now's the time to move on Alibaba.com

In a surprise announcement today Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang has announced his departure from the company he helped found.

As we and many others within the shark community have been highlighting it was under Jerry Yangs tenure that Yahoo! invested over one billion dollars in B2B web portal Alibaba.com which quickly became recognised as the New York Stock Exchange for hundreds of tons of dried sharks fin sales on the Internet-daily.

Under Yangs governance Yahoo's investment in shark finning was put aside as "a cultural practices issue". Meanwhile other Fortune 500 companies from Disney to Royal Thai Airlines bowed out of shark fin involvement in any form citing the need for large corporations to "show leadership on animal issues".

Now is the time for the shark community to remind Yahoo! of it's obligations beyond profits and beyond billion dollar agreements with Chinese web portals. Yahoo's incoming CEO will have a crippled company on his hands and there's a good chance Yahoo! will be desperately looking for eligible business partners to shore up mounting losses in revenue.

If there was anytime in Yahoo's history where uncomfortable and public issues such as the live dismemberment of animals for profit would have an impact it is now. The new CEO of Yahoo! will be looking for any way to quickly change the companies fortunes and image and a reversal of this horrific investment shark finning would be a perfect first step.

It's a step our community will have to push Yahoo! into but time, for once, is on our side.

Shark DNA Markers-Hope In FINS

From A Couple Dives Blog this morning good news on the tech front with shark fins and mislabeled shark products.

With testing like this in "field conditions" companies like Alibaba.com and Yahoo! can be held to account for the selling and trafficking of protected shark species:

New technology can provide a way to stop seafood companies from mislabeling shark meat.

Researchers in Spain are reporting that a new DNA identification method could put an end to the false labeling of shark species used in seafood products, such as the expensive Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup. The study is scheduled to be released in the November 26 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The scientists describe the use of a relatively new technique called forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS), in which DNA isolated from unknown biologic samples is compared to a database of DNA markers from known species.

The unfortunate truth is that the consumption of shark meat appears to be on the rise worldwide. And, for now, the only recourse shark conservationists may have would be to regulate the species of sharks that are consumed. Recent reports have shed light on some seafood companies having substituted cheaper shark species for more expensive species and incorrectly labeling their products. EU regulations now require listing the species name on shark products to avoid fraud and to help conserve protected shark species. However, a fast, reliable method for distinguishing between different species of shark remains undiscovered.

In the new study, the scientists collected DNA markers from nine different commercial seafood samples containing shark meat and compared them to known DNA markers from 23 different shark species. The scientists found that two of the nine shark products analyzed had been labeled with incorrect species names, demonstrating the effectiveness for the FINS method.

Shark Fin Du Jour-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc

Our new weekly feature on Underwater Thrills:Swimming With Sharks is the "Shark Fin Du Jour".

It's a weekly look at Alibaba.com the NYSE of Shark Fin Products on the Internet-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc.

We will take you into the individual sellers listed on that site and introduce the top companies, what species they sell and how many thousands of pounds of shark fins they have for sale on the global market.

Today our Shark Fin Du Jour is Horn of Africa Traders based in the U.K. While their commercial website states they are traders in Myrrh and Frankincense dried gum resins. Once they became a member of Alibaba.com they started trading in sharks fin as well:

Horn of Africa Traders first established in North Eastern Somalia and our current head quarter is in United Kingdom. Our company specializes manufacturing and exporting of various products such as dried shark fins salted and unsalted.

Shark Fin Du Jour-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc

Our new weekly feature on Underwater Thrills:Swimming With Sharks is the "Shark Fin Du Jour".

It's a weekly look at Alibaba.com the NYSE of Shark Fin Products on the Internet-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc.

We will take you into the individual sellers listed on that site and introduce the top companies, what species they sell and how many thousands of pounds of shark fins they have for sale on the global market.

Today our Shark Fin Du Jour is Escualia Market Spain who can source a staggering 220,000 pounds of sharks fin per month:

Company Dedicated To The Purchase And Sale Of Frozen Shark Fin's In The Market Spanish (VIGO)

Blue,
Mako
Hammer
Anex
Dogfish

About 100, 000 KG monthly

Shark Fin Du Jour-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc

Our new weekly feature on Underwater Thrills:Swimming With Sharks is the "Shark Fin Du Jour".

It's a weekly look at Alibaba.com the NYSE of Shark Fin Products on the Internet-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc.

We will take you into the individual sellers listed on that site and introduce the top companies, what species they sell and how many thousands of pounds of shark fins they have for sale on the global market.

Today our Shark Fin Du Jour is BTrade International who can source a staggering two tons of sharks fin per month:

Place of origin:	Bangladesh
Model No:	B.T
Fob Price:	FOB Chittagong, Air / Sea USD 1000~100000
Port:	Chittagong, Air / Sea
Payment Terms:	L/C,T/T
Minimum Order Quantity:	1 Ton Fish maws
Supply Ability:	2 Ton per Month 1
Package:	p.p bags
Delivery Time:	As soon Possible
Brand Name:	Shark Fin