British Columbia-based trading company fined $60,000 for illegal import of 434 kg of fins from a threatened shark species.
On May 18, 2021, Kiu Yick Trading Co. Ltd. was sentenced to pay a $60,000 fine after pleading guilty in the BC Provincial Court for unlawfully importing a CITES-listed species without a permit.
CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
In addition to the fine, the court also ordered that 13 boxes of silky shark fins, weighing approximately 434 kg, be forfeited to the Crown.
The charge stemmed from an investigation by Environment and Climate Change Canada, which found that Kiu Yick Trading Co. Ltd. had imported dried shark fins from Hong Kong in 2018.
The company had unlawfully imported several thousand Carcharhinus falciformis (silky shark) fins, a species protected by CITES.
Although they can be imported legally, an export permit from Hong Kong was required for all silky shark fins, but it wasn’t obtained.
Officers inspected the shipment and detained nearly half of the boxes of shark fin to conduct DNA testing to confirm the species, which indicated that more than 65 percent of the shark fins sampled were CITES-protected silky shark.
The lawfully imported fins were returned to the importer while 13 boxes of silky shark fins were detained for investigation.
The amount of fins seized is believed to be the largest forfeiture of shark fins in Canada to date.
The $60,000 fine will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund and will be used to support projects that benefit the natural environment.
