Over 300 Dead Sharks Found On Fishing Boat Inside Galapagos National Park

You may not think a dead shark, much less 300 of them is a big deal.  However, it is a really big deal when the fishing vessel they were found on was 20 miles inside a National Park.  It is illegal to fish National Park waters, therefore the 30 fisherman on the boat have been arrested and face criminal charges.National Parks are used to conserve wildlife, so when a fishing boat with 30 fishermen was found 20 miles inside the Galapagos National Park with over 300 dead sharks on board they were quickly detained by park rangers.

This is said to be the largest shark seizure in the parks over 50 year history.

The illegal shark fishing in Ecuador is used to supply fins for fin soup in Asia,  a highly demanded dish.  In the 1990's sea cucumber fisheries collapsed and shark fishing became very popular.  So popular in fact that it is depleting the shark population.  The sharks are usually only used for their fins, the rest of the shark is discarded.

In this particular case however, the sharks had been gutted but the fins were still intact and the sharks were otherwise whole.  It is not know yet what was to be done with the sharks.

The fisherman are in jail and face criminal charges.

To learn more about the Galapagos Islands see Galapagos National Park (English/Spanish) or Galapagos Online.