A shipment of almost 2.5 tons of shark fins in a dry state, destined for the city of Shanghai, China, was seized by inspectors from the Federal Attorney's Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) in the port of Ensenada, Baja California in northwestern Mexico, on June 5, 2025.
This seizure showed that regulations against shark fin in Mexico are well below international standards and that it is necessary to implement new strategies to combat it, says Alejandro Olivera, representative in Mexico of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization that advocates, among other things, the preservation of the oceans.
Mexico is one of the main countries dedicated to catching and exporting sharks, but it does not require that the fins remain attached to the body until disembarkation, nor does it prohibit the purchase, sale or possession of the fins.
For this reason, the Center submitted a formal request to the United States National Marine Fisheries Service for Mexico to be identified in accordance with the Offshore Driftnets Moratorium Protection Act, and thus pressure the Mexican government to reform NOM-029-PESC-2006, requiring that the fins remain attached to the body when arriving at ports and when being marketed.
Eradicate flapping to prevent shark extinction
The fins are the part of the sharks with the highest price in the market, which is why there is flapping, which consists of cutting off the fins and throwing the rest of the shark's body into the sea so that the species may bleed to death.
“Ships' holds have limited storage capacity, so they fill them with fins that are the most valuable thing. It's an economic and space-saving practicality, but it's also a very cruel practice,” Olivera points out.
The problem with flapping is that arriving with only the fins, an underreporting of shark fishing is generated, since the fins represent 3 to 5% of the total weight of the shark, and it is not possible to know exactly how many species were affected.
“In and of themselves, fishing statistics are not up to date, these practices contribute to us not knowing how many sharks they are catching and it is a way of hiding information that affects the population and statistics,” Olivera points out.
Some of the shark species that are subject to flapping are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and within the framework of this convention, it is necessary to know the real volume of capture of shark species to prevent overexploitation leading to extinction.
Amendment to NOM-029
In Mexico, the exclusive use of the fins of any shark is prohibited by NOM-029, but according to Olivera, this is insufficient to eradicate this practice, since it only says that “in no case can shark fins whose bodies are not on board be arrived”. But since it doesn't require that they arrive with their fins attached to their bodies, so anglers arrive with more fins than bodies.
“In Mexico, flapping is prohibited, however, given the lack of vigilance there is, the only way to guarantee that flapping is not done is to require fishermen to arrive with their fins attached to their bodies and in this way all the fins will correspond to the number of shark bodies,” Olivera points out.
The request submitted by the Center in June of this year suggests that, if the United States identifies it, the Mexican government has a period of two years to remedy the problem of flapping, and if it does not, commercial sanctions would be imposed on its fishing exports to the United States.
To avoid a sanction, the Mexican government should emulate the Law for the Suppression of the Sale of Sharks implemented by the United States in 2022, which abolishes the exclusive sale of shark fins. A reform to NOM-029 is enough, as recommended by Olivera.
“It could be a reform to NOM-029 where an article is added that stipulates the prohibition of reaching port with sharks without their fins naturally attached to the body, which solves the problem,” Olivera points out.
In 2020, a reform to the General Law on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture was proposed in the Chamber of Deputies to make it mandatory for all sharks with their fins naturally attached to their bodies to arrive and unload in ports. The same happened in 2021 in the Senate of the Republic, where an initiative sought to eliminate flapping and commercialization, and also to sanction this practice. However, neither of them prospered.
Other measures in Latin America
Although flapping is prohibited in most Latin American countries, the problem is still present and each country has undertaken different strategies to combat it, according to Carlos Polo, director of Sharky Management and Consulting, an organization specialized in shark conservation and management in Latin America.
For example, in Colombia, Ecuador and Panama they have laws that require sharks to have their fins partially attached when they arrive at the port, otherwise they cannot be exported.
“If the animal arrives without fins, that animal is seized, and it cannot be marketed. So it's in their interest to continue complying with the regulations as they should be,” Polo points out.
Since 2012, Colombia has banned the targeted capture of sharks at an industrial level; since 2021, all exports of sharks and sea rays have been banned. They are currently working to establish quotas to regulate and reduce shark bycatch, which for Polo, is the main cause of overexploitation of sharks.
“What is not prohibited is allowed. There are countries that have no bycatch quota and it's completely legal for 80% of their bycatch to be sharks. So, we have to look for mechanisms to be able to stop or control this incident, which if not done, ends up causing much more damage than what targeted fishing actually does,” Polo points out.
In Mexico, there are no established quotas for incidental shark fishing, only for other species caught incidentally in the spirit of catching sharks. According to Olivera, the former should be regulated in NOM-029, where incidental fishing quotas are established for crustaceans, flake fish, among others, or in the General Law on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture.
There are other cases such as Ecuador and Panama where it is forbidden to export sharks and rays that are on the CITES list until there are studies that evaluate the population status of the species and there is a report on measures to improve the control of shark species.
In addition, in Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica, there have been great advances in the identification of captured shark species.
“These are countries that created a system of continuous training for personnel responsible for carrying out inspections, surveillance and observers. Ecuador has a program of observers and inspectors exclusively to reach the port and identify sharks and rays,” Polo points out.
In general, the consultant advocates banning the commercialization of species that are in danger of extinction globally, while in the rest, each country must have its management measures appropriate to its context.
“Depending on the species and the region, countries should propose measures to control this capture. If trade is allowed, control it with global catch quotas, a permissible catch size and traceability, that is, where the final product of that catch goes. That would be ideal,” Polo points out.
In the case of Mexico, the protection of this species could begin with the reform of NOM-029 to eradicate finning, but it could later be extended by implementing some of these other measures to have better control of the shark fishery, or to prohibit that of species that are in extinction.
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