QUITO, ECUADOR – Ecuador is, once again, in the hot seat.
Late in 2023, officials from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more commonly known as CITES, gave Ecuador an ultimatum: if the government doesn’t clamp down on illegal shark fishing and the sale of illicit shark fins, CITES will lock the country out of the legal international trade of protected sharks and rays. Ecuador was given 120 days to act on the warning, and the March 28 deadline is rapidly approaching.
Shark fishing is prohibited in Ecuador, but it is legal for fishermen to sell shark parts if the animal is caught as unintentional by-catch. John Vera, president of a fishermen’s association in Manta, Ecuador, that translates to Fifth of March, says that for the country’s artisanal fishermen, these inadvertently caught sharks—as well as other fishes like tuna and mahimahi—make up an important part of the daily diet and income. Most fishermen are already struggling on low incomes, says Vera, while drug smuggling and gang violence are also making coastal communities increasingly dangerous. The attention from CITES has thousands of artisanal fishermen concerned for their futures as they face increasing pressure to leave sharks alone along with potential restrictions on their fishing areas.
But Ecuador didn’t draw CITES’s ire solely because of small-scale artisanal fishing practices. Instead, Ecuador found itself in the crosshairs after CITES staff briefly visited the country in May 2023. They discovered huge gaps in the monitoring and control of the shark trade coming from all forms of fishing on Ecuador’s waters, from small trawlers to industrial fleets.
The vast majority of Ecuador’s shark fins are exported to its neighbor Peru. There, they get mixed up with Peru’s own stock and re-exported to markets abroad, mainly Asia.
Kimberley Michelle Brown 