The Seafood Exporters Association of India has urged the Centre to lift the ban on export of shark fins, calling it "illogical" because there is no ban on shark fishing in the country.

A.J. Tharakan, President of the association, told BusinessLine that shark fin constituted only a small portion of seafood exports and that there was no focused fishing of sharks for export of fins. Shark was a "by-catch" of other valuable fish such as tuna and king fish. The ban on shark fin export was counter-productive and it affected the livelihoods of the marine fishing communities, Tharakan said.

The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry prohibited the export of fins of all species of shark, by way of a notification on February 6 inserting a new entry in ‘Chapter 3 of Schedule 2 of ITC (HS) Classification of Export and Import Items.’ The new entry (31 A) resulted in the ban on export of all shark fins.

Global campaign

Tharakan said that the ban was the result of a global campaign against shark fin consumption to conserve shark populations. In many countries, shark fishing was carried out only for fins and after chopping off the fins, fishermen dumped the shark back in the sea alive, leaving it a slow and agonizing death.

However, the shark fishing scene is entirely different in India where shark meat was widely consumed by the coastal communities as well as others. It was a low-cost protein supplement for the poor. Shark fin is a by-product and by selling the fins at a high price for export to Hong Kong and China, fishermen are able to sell the rest of the shark meat cheap to the poor.

Shark meat was also salted and dried to increase its shelf life and to be sold to consumers later. The liver is used for making oil, used by the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Even shark cartilage and intestines are in demand. “For the Indian fishing community, the value of the shark lies in the shark meat and the fin is only a bye-product that fetches them a little extra income.”

“The value the fishing communities derive from the shark catch is a critical price component to make fishing more viable,” Tharakan said.

Contending that there has been no depletion of shark populations in Indian waters over the past two decades, he said the negligible export of fins do not pose any threat. “There is no logic in banning the export when shark fishing is not banned,” he said. “And, it is not possible to ban shark fishing as it would be as good as asking fishermen not to go fishing at all.”

The ban on export would only encourage smuggling of fins and a loss of income to the fishing community, Tharakan warned.

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