The discovery was made at the warehouse of an export company from where they were to have been shipped, without the necessary license, to Asia, the Sunat customs agency said on X.
A report published in the journal Science in January said global shark populations were plummeting despite efforts to curb mass killings for their fins, eaten in soups in some cultures and considered a delicacy.
It is also believed in some countries, including China and Japan, to slow aging, improve appetite, aid memory and stimulate sexual desire.
Harvesting often involves catching sharks, removing their fins, and tossing them back into the ocean to die.
According to the Pew Environment Group, between 63 million and 273 million sharks are killed every year, mainly for their fins and other parts.
S.Africa police arrest 3 foreigners for abalone poaching
Johannesburg (AFP) Sept 16, 2024 - South African police said Monday they had arrested a Chinese national and two Zimbabweans for allegedly poaching hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of abalone, a coveted high-end delicacy smuggled mainly to Asia.
The chewy sea snail with a distinctive salty taste is popular at feasts and wedding banquets in parts of eastern Asia.
A 53-year-old Chinese national was arrested with two Zimbabweans aged 28 and 31 "in what is believed to be one of the biggest abalone busts in this province in recent years," police in the Western Cape province said.
They confiscated "11,485 wet and 15,200 dry abalone as well as equipment with a total estimated value of 10.3 million rand" (over $550,000), a statement said.
The suspects were arrested on Sunday after police received a tip-off and found a "substantial quantity" of abalone being processed in a large building.
Provincial authorities said they were "pulling the net tighter and tighter to eradicate the illegal distribution and depletion of living marine resources".
In a separate incident, also in the Western Cape, police said they found 2,505 abalones at an abandoned site.
Last month, police arrested a South African man who had plastic bags containing more than 13,000 of the molluscs.
They were worth more than one million rand ($55,000), authorities said.
The volume of illegally caught abalone has almost doubled over the past decade, according to wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
Trafficking networks are known to be often run by Chinese criminal syndicates.
Philippines says disputed reef 'not lost' to China despite pullout
Manila (AFP) Sept 16, 2024 -
The Philippines insisted on Monday that it had not given up a South China Sea reef, two days after it pulled out a ship stationed there following a months-long standoff with rival claimant China.
Manila had deployed the coast guard flagship BRP Teresa Magbanua to Sabina Shoal in April to stop Beijing from building an artificial island there, as it has atop several other disputed spots in the strategic waterway.
But the ship was abruptly called back to the western Philippine island of Palawan, with Manila citing damage from an earlier clash with Chinese ships, ailing crew members, dwindling food and bad weather.
"We have not lost anything. We did not abandon anything. Escoda Shoal is still part of our exclusive economic zone," Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela told a news conference Monday, using the Filipino name for Sabina Shoal.
Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, including Sabina Shoal, despite an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no merit.
It has acted aggressively towards Philippine government vessels at Sabina and other disputed areas in recent months, ramming, blocking, water-cannoning and even boarding them, causing damage and injuries.
The confrontations have sparked concern that the United States, a military ally of Manila, could be drawn into armed conflict with China.
Chinese vessels were harassing resupply missions, and Tarriela said the BRP Teresa Magbanua's water desalinator broke down, forcing the crew to rely on rainwater for drinking "for more than one month now".
He said the crew were also reduced to "eating porridge for three weeks", which "obviously is not nutritious".
- 'Indisputable sovereignty' -
Following the ship's pullout, China's coast guard insisted on Sunday that Beijing "has indisputable sovereignty" over Sabina.
It warned the Philippines to "stop inciting propaganda and risking infringements", adding Beijing would "continue to carry out rights protection and law enforcement activities" there.
But Tarriela on Monday maintained the withdrawal from Sabina was "not a defeat", rejecting comparisons to the Scarborough Shoal, which Manila lost to Beijing after a similar months-long standoff in 2012.
He said it would be "impossible" for China to totally stop the Philippines from sending its ships around the 137-square-kilometre (53-square-mile) Sabina Shoal.
"The coast guard can carry out whatever it takes for us to make sure that China will not be able to occupy and even reclaim Escoda Shoal," he said.
"We have other coast guard vessels that, as we speak right now, may have been or may already be proceeding to Escoda Shoal," Tarriela said without providing details, citing operational security considerations.
The United States said Monday it continued to support its ally Manila, while slamming the "dangerous ways" Beijing tries to enforce its claim.
"It is up to the Philippines to decide how they operate their vessels in areas where it enjoys the freedom of navigation in the high seas under international law," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Sabina is located 140 kilometres (86 miles) west of Palawan and about 1,200 kilometres from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese landmass.
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