LAMONGAN, Indonesia — Sulaiman is so practiced at stripping a zebra shark that he can skin the animal in just a few minutes. He sticks a knife into the meter-long (3-foot) fish and strips the skin away clean from the flesh and cartilage as morning breaks over East Java province.

“It’s only a few types [of sharks] that are skinned,” Sulaiman, not his real name, told Mongabay Indonesia at Brondong harbor, one of Indonesia’s largest fishing ports.

Once skin and fins are separated from the shark on the dock by knife-wielding fishers like Sulaiman, a network of distributors transport these products from Brondong to storage for up to a month.

Most shark meat is processed locally by drying, salting or smoking before being sold on to retailers or restaurants. Finished products join a supply chain that is poorly covered by international oversight.

Mongabay has previously reported on the troubles afflicting fishing hubs along the northern Java coast, an area known as Pantura. Fishers along the Pantura are floundering against an incoming tide of thinner fish stocks and a government ban on the purse seine, vast nets with a tight weave that are ruthlessly effective but notorious for high levels of indiscriminate bycatch.

The world’s largest archipelago country is recorded as the world’s top shark catcher and a major exporter of shark products, including fins, liver oil, meat and skin. More than 200 of the world’s 1,250 shark species are found patrolling the reef passes and deepwater trenches across Indonesia.

While sharks are important for Indonesian fishers’ incomes, and an important source of protein in coastal communities, the increasingly unsustainable trade in sharks is threatening the survival of the oceans’ top predator, research shows.

A tale of two CITES

The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was a global agreement adopted in 1975 to monitor trade in wildlife to ensure it doesn’t endanger the survival of species like sharks.

Although CITES lists several protected shark species for monitoring, the trade persists largely due to the difficulty of identifying species after processing. The convention doesn’t apply to shark products traded domestically, enabling local markets to operate unfettered unless national governments choose to restrict shark fishing.

A report published in July by TRAFFIC, a U.K.-based conservation nonprofit, in collaboration with the CITES Secretariat and Australia’s Deakin University, highlighted challenges in conserving sharks and rays, with more than 24% of species currently threatened with extinction. The authors emphasized the need for more accurate trade data, noting discrepancies in measurement units and inconsistencies in reporting across different countries and territories.

The study recommended all parties should report trade data by weight rather than by specimen count, in addition to implementing traceability systems and resolving discrepancies in existing databases.

Additionally, clearer guidance on reporting requirements should be developed, and parties must be reminded of their obligation to submit thorough annual reports, it said.

A 2018 regulation by the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries requires fishers to obtain licenses to deal in sharks and establish traceability. However, given the size of Indonesia’s fishing fleet and a headcount of almost 2.5 million fishers, unregistered catch of sharks and rays is widespread.

Until 2023, only the whale shark (Rhincondon typus) was afforded full protection in Indonesia by law. All others were fair game until Indonesia’s fisheries ministry introduced full protection of six species of so-called walking sharks, from the genus Hemiscyllium.

Fin gruel

Shark meat is increasingly being chopped up for soup and stews in prison canteens and school kitchens as a cheaper alternative to protein-rich fish like tuna, a trend seen in countries like Brazil, which is the subject of a yearlong report to be published by Mongabay in the coming weeks.

Okta Tejo Darmono, a researcher at the Fisheries Resource Center of Indonesia (FRCI), a think tank, said the shark trade in Indonesia persists primarily due to myths about its benefits. In China and Hong Kong, the largest markets, shark products are believed to bring health benefits and also serve as a status symbol.

“As long as these superstitions exist, demand will remain high,” Tejo said in an interview in August.

“With demand steady, the supply chain will keep on going from the fishers,” Tejo added.

Weak monitoring and law enforcement have enabled the shark trade to thrive despite worrying declines in fish stocks, he said. Most ports lack observers to verify catches, allowing many unrecorded sharks to enter the black market.

Tejo emphasized the port’s critical role in tracking the shark trade supply chain, as data collection begins there before the sharks reach local or global markets.

“Many still don’t understand the vital role sharks and rays play in marine ecosystems,” he added. “The consequences of their disappearance haven’t been widely communicated.”

Sharks and rays in the open ocean have declined by 71% over the past 50 years amid pressure from overfishing, according to a 2021 study published in Nature.

The Rekam Nusantara Foundation, a nonprofit and the FRCI’s parent organization, estimates that Indonesia’s fisheries account for 13% of the global shark trade. Data from the country’s fisheries ministry showed annual production of 25,000-30,000 metric tons in the three years to 2021.

Trade data from the fisheries ministry showed the Indonesian provinces of Bali, Maluku, Papua, Bangka-Belitung and West Papua were Indonesia’s largest suppliers of shark products.

Sharks are caught by both artisanal fishers and commercial vessels using trawling nets, gill nets, purse seines, as well as longlines and handlines.

However, changing this supply chain on the ground may prove difficult because of the thousands of fishers, middlemen, retailers and exporters who rely on the trade in areas with limited government capacity.

Every morning at Brondong harbor on the Java Sea, Sulaiman hacks away at hundreds of sharks for their fins and skin.

Research and reporting along this coastline show a fishing industry facing a complex crisis amid warming seas and already depleted fish stocks. Sulaiman has stripped sharks in Brondong for decades, but how much longer he will continue to have a job is unclear.

Banner image: Shark and ray remains after their fins have been removed at Brondong Harbor, East Java. Image by A. Asnawi/Mongabay Indonesia.

This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published here on our Indonesian site on Sept. 9, 2024.

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