The company would then allegedly illegally export the Fins by wrongly declaring them as Ray Skins.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) which is probing the case wherein 8,000 kilogramme of Shark Fins were seized from the godowns of a Sewri-based company, has identified at least seven hunters or poachers who would hunt Sharks, cut their fins and sell it to the arrested people of the company. The company would then allegedly illegally export the Fins by wrongly declaring them as Ray Skins.
The agency had recently arrested Sharafat Ali, proprietor of Global Impex Trading Company, his brother, Hameed Sultan, an MBA graduate, manager R Ahmed Asik and go-down in-charge R Shivaraman.
According to the DRI, they had received an information which indicated that a few exporters are indulging in exports of Shark fins of various species of Sharks, which are prohibited for export. Acting on this information, DRI on September 01, seized around 8000 kilograms of Shark fins which was meant for illicit export by mis-declaring them as Dried Ray Skins, Dried Marine Products, Fish Maw, etc to avoid detection and circumvent prohibition. In all, 3,000 kg of Shark fins were seized from a godown at Sewri and 5000 kg were seized from a godown in Veraval, Gujarat.
"We are trying to trace hunters/poachers and fishermen who used to hunt Sharks and sell it to Global Impex Trading Company. At least seven hunters have been identified from Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Colaba and Harnia in Gujarat. We have got their numbers also. 60 percent of the Shark Fining used to be done in West Coast," said a DRI official.
Explaining how Shark Finning is done, an official said, "It is an act of removing fins from sharks, often while the shark is alive. Fishermen choose to keep just the shark fins only one to five percent of a sharks weight and throw the rest of the shark away rather than have the less valuable parts take up space on the boat. These sharks without their fins are still alive when they are discarded back into the ocean, without the fins they are unable to swim; due to which, they sink to the bottom of the sea / ocean and they often, die of suffocation or are eaten by other predators. The carcass often gets washed up the shores."
Meanwhile, DRI has recalled a container which was exported on August 28, from Chennai to Malaysia by Global Impex Trading Company. "We are recalling the container as we suspect it had at least four to five tonnes of Shark Fins," the official said.
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