Customs seize about 360 kilograms of dried shark fins heading to Macau

Customs announced on Friday that they had busted a case on Tuesday seizing 360 kilograms of shark fins from a boat heading to Macau. No arrests have been made so far.

Customs stated that they had received intelligence and began to station patrol ships to track the relevant river trade vessel via surveillance cameras.

As the vessel neared the south-west waters, preparing to leave Hong Kong, the patrol ships began their pursuit.

The boat was intercepted at 2.50 p.m. on April 16 (Tue).

The officers boarded the ship and found eight local crew members along with containers full of various goods packed separately, which were declared to be food, pharmaceutical items and dried shark fins.

The officers found a suspicious white burlap sack hidden among the declared items and discovered that it was full of fins from an endangered species of shark. 

The crew members were not able to provide much information about the dried shark fin and were also not able to provide the export license for the product. The ship was taken back to the Western District Public Cargo Working Area for investigation.

During the operation, a total of 360 kilograms of dried shark fins with a market value of HK$1.8 million were seized.

After preliminary inspection by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, it is suspected that the batch of dried shark fins belongs to an endangered species listed in the "Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance".

Customs will investigate the smuggling of endangered species.

No one has been arrested yet, and it cannot be ruled out that the batch of dried shark fins will eventually be smuggled into the mainland.