Some of the stingray that were seized from a stall owner at the Mandaue City Public Market. (CDN PHOTO/VICTOR SILVA)
THE Cebu Provincial Anti-Illegal Fishing Task Force (CPAIFTF) confiscated 41 pieces of stingray from the Mandaue City Public Market at 4:20 a.m. yesterday.
Maximiano Hontonosas, CPAIFTF asst. operations chief, said they seized the fish from a stall owned by a certain Tata dela Cruz after receiving a tip from a “concerned citizen.”
“He said he’s been selling this for a long time. He alleged that he didn’t know it’s not allowed to sell stingrays. What he knows is that only those dynamited are banned,” Hontonosas told Cebu Daily News.
The team seized 44 kilograms of stingray from Dela Cruz’s stall which had a total market value of P4,400 with each kilogram sold for P100.
Hontonosas said the biggest stingray they confiscated measured 14 inches wide and 16 inches long from head to tail; the smallest one measuring 12 inches by 11 inches.
He said the task force had come to check for dynamited fish, but they found stingrays instead.
So far, the only outlawed products the team found was the rays from Dela Cruz’s stall.
Yesterday’s market inspection was the second time that the task force seized rays from a market in Mandaue City.
The last time was in December last year when 55 kilograms of stingrays worth P5,500 were confiscated from a stall in a wet market in Barangay Centro.
Dela Cruz allegedly bought the fish from Pasil Market in Cebu City.
Hontonosas said they have yet to determine whether the fish were caught in provincial waters.
The Cebu Provincial Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ordinance protects all species of sharks and rays found in provincial waters and makes it illegal to sell and transport them in parts or as a whole.
Stingrays, Hontonosas said, are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. He said stingrays are also known as “flat sharks.”
Hontonosas said Dela Cruz will be fined P3,000 and P1,000 for each kilogram of confiscated ray.
CPAIFTF personnel buried the seized fish at 10 a.m. yesterday.