US Targeting Shark Fin Trade With Investigations, Criminal Complaints

The U.S. has filed a slew of criminal indictments aimed at U.S. companies engaged in the trade of shark fins to show how they take advantage of federal and state laws to engage in the practice, The Associated Press reported. For instance, a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida accuses Elite Sky International -- a Florida-based exporter -- of falsely labeling around 5,666 pounds of shark fins meant for China as live Florida spiny lobsters.

Another Florida company, Aifa Seafood, is under investigation for similar violations, according to two people close to the matter, AP reported. Aifa is managed by a Chinese-American woman who pleaded guilty in 2016 to exporting over a half-ton of live Florida lobsters to China without a license.

The AP said the increased litigation and scrutiny into the shark fin trade comes amid talks in Congress over imposing a federal ban making it illegal "to possess, buy, sell, or transport shark fins or any product containing shark fins, except for certain dogfish fins." The current law, passed in 2000, says it is illegal to cut the fins off sharks and discard their bodies back into the ocean, though individual states have more discretion over whether to allow businesses to harvest fins from dead sharks at docks or import them from overseas.

Elite is part of an effort to lobby against the bill, the AP said. While the district court complaint doesn't make it clear where Elite gets its fins, the U.S. accuses the company of sourcing lobster from Nicaragua and Belize, falsely stating that they were caught in Florida. The company is accused of violating the Lacey Act, making it a crime to submit false information for any exported wildlife.