Monthly Archives

May 2015

Ecuador Seizes 200,000 Shark Fins

By Sharks

Yesterday, the Ministry of Interior of Ecuador released a video showing Vice Minister Diego Fuentes explaining that 200,000 shark fins (which corresponds to roughly 40,000 sharks) had been seized in a series of operations. The Ecuador government arrested three people and confiscated several fire arms.

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Volunteers on the Lookout for Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Nests

By Gulf Education & Outreach, Sea Turtles

It’s not likely Bridget Dix will see the official sea turtle of Texas, the endangered Kemp’s ridley, but that doesn’t stop her from making a five-mile walk down a Galveston beach.

Searching the dunes and checking the sand for tracks, Dix walks one of the six stretches of beach that volunteers with the Turtle Island Restoration Network patrol. Dix is one of about 120 volunteers who will be walking almost 27 miles of beach a day looking for Kemp’s ridleys as they make their way up the beach to nest.

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Marin County Releases Supplemental Environmental Impact Report

By Resources for the Media, Sea Turtles

On May 1, Marin County released the long-delayed draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) for the 2007 Countywide Plan Update. The preparation of this new study on the effects of new development on endangered salmon and their habitat was ordered by the Marin Superior Court over two years ago as necessary to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.

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Fracas over Costa Rican shark-fin exports leads American Airlines to stop shipping fins

By Cocos Island Research Expedition, Sharks

On December 24, an American Airlines plane carried 411 kilos (904 pounds) of dried hammerhead shark fins from Alajuela, Costa Rica, to Hong Kong, touching down partway through the journey in Miami. The shipment, valued at nearly $53,000, contained fins from around 411 animals, more than seven times the number on its export permit from the Costa Rican government. The fins came from two species of shark: smooth hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena), which are classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, and scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini), which are classified as Endangered by the IUCN and under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

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