‘Cruel, wasteful’: Dakar port a hotspot for illegal shark fins

DAKAR - In the high seas off west Africa, a fisherman on a Chinese longline tuna vessel cuts the fins off a live shark before throwing it back in the water to suffocate and drown.Its lucrative appendages will be landed at the port of Dakar before being shipped onward to Asia for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in certain countries, or traditional medicine.Finning, the practice of removing fins and casting the rest of the shark overboard, often alive, is largely prohibited across a variety of regulatory zones, countries and international conventions, even if fishing certain shark species is generally allowed.