Bath Avenue Seafood Trader Pays Fine For Shark Fin Trafficking

A Bath Beach seafood dealer has been slapped with a $10,000 fine in the first successful prosecution of shark fin trafficking since New York State passed a law restricting the practice a year ago.

Long Quan Seafood Corporation (1759 Bath Avenue) pleaded guilty to “felony commercialization of wildlife” on June 22 in Brooklyn Criminal Court, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Acting Commissioner Marc Gerstman announced last week.

“Not only is the practice of finning a shark inhumane, but it negatively impacts the natural balance of the oceanic ecosystem,” said Gerstman. “We will not tolerate shark fin trafficking in New York State.”

The DEC was tipped off by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in October 2014, who alerted them that a large shipment of dried shark fins was headed from JFK Airport to a business in Brooklyn. Officers determined that the shipment included several protected species of shark fins, including hammerhead, grey sharpnose, broadfin, and blacktip reef sharks, according to the DEC. Though the shipment originated in Hong Kong, the company claimed the fins were from South Africa — despite the fact that some of the shark species identified are not present in South African water.

DEC police and USFWS agents tracked the shipment to Long Quan Seafood which accepted the shipment. Officials secured a warrant, searched the premises, and confiscated the illegal product. They also searched the company’s business records and secured documents related to the illegal shark fin trafficking.

The DEC offered a grim description of the shark fin industry in a press release:

Shark fins are tempting targets for fishermen because they have high monetary and cultural value. The fins are used in a popular dish called shark fin soup. One way the fins are obtained is by the practice of shark finning, which is the process of slicing off a shark’s fin and returning the shark to open waters. A finned shark, unable to swim or pass water across its gills, dies from suffocation or blood loss. An estimated 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply the growing global demand for their fins.

We reached out to Long Quan Seafood today and a woman who answered the phone said that the company does not currently sell shark fin and declined to comment on the charges.