Environmental Justice Foundation | Exposing Senegal as a gateway to…

Cut & Run: Exposing Senegal as a gateway for the global shark fin trade

Tuna boats dock in Dakar by day. By night, illegal shark fins are smuggled ashore – and the world’s seafood supply is funding it.

Senegal’s port of Dakar is one of West Africa’s busiest fishing hubs – and, a new EJF investigation reveals, a key gateway for the illegal global shark fin trade. Distant-water tuna longliners, many flagged to China and Taiwan, land their legal catch in daylight. But under cover of night, illegal shark fins are trafficked ashore, hidden among other cargo and, according to crew testimony, moved past inspectors with bribes.

‘Cut & Run’ draws on testimony from 87 Indonesian and Filipino crew members who spoke to EJF anonymously about the scale of the operation: sharks caught and finned on captain’s orders, their bodies dumped at sea, their fins bound for lucrative markets in Asia. Dakar is a designated port under the Port State Measures Agreement, obligating Senegal to screen vessels and block illegal catch – obligations this investigation shows are being routinely evaded.