Shark fin importers in Lapu-Lapu City have expressed their opposition to a proposed ordinance that would ban their businesses.
Importing shark meat and fins, they said, should be exempted from the proposed ordinance that would prohibit the catching, processing and trading of sharks in the city.
Daniel Walker, owner of H.A. Marine International in barangay Suba-Basbas said all their raw materials are legally imported and their products re-exported to the country of origin. “It is only the processing that is being done here,” he said.
“We understand what the city of Lapu-Lapu is doing to protect the marine resources within its waters, but we are not taking our raw materials from Philippine waters,” he added.
Walker’s firm owns the “Gummy Shark meat” weighing around 1.6 ton that was apprehended by the city government’s Task Force Kalikasan last July. No case was filed after they presented valid importation documents.
Another shark trader whose business Shell Haven Fashion International was closed by City Hall for violation of Mayor’s Permit, Andrew Wee pleaded for exemption of imported shark in the proposed ban.
Capitol’s Anti-illegal Fishing Task Force seized five tons of dried shark fin from Wee’s firm for export to Hong Kong last August, but the shipment was eventually released after the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources certified the products to come from none endangered shark and covered by valid importation permits.
Walker and Wee also assured the city in-charge for the inspection they would inform whenever a shipment arrives and would show to them all the documents of the shipment.
Councilor Alexander Gestopa, proponent of the proposed ordinance would take the matter again to the council for next week’s session and further discussion.
Conservation groups like Greenpeace wants to include shark importation in the ban, saying that weak regulations would make the exemption prone to abuse.
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