The information was presented this Wednesday to the Lusa agency by the director of the Institute of Biodiversity and Conservation Area, an agency assigned to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment of Angola.
Albertina Nzuzi said she learned of the situation last week, through a public denunciation made by the environmental project EcoAngola, about the extermination of sharks, in quantities still to be discovered, in the provinces of Luanda and Benguela, on the southern coast of the country.
According to Albertina Nzuzi, investigation and monitoring teams are on the ground to catch the offenders in the act.
"We have people on the ground in the areas indicated, there in Benguela we have the men in the field, we are working with the Criminal Investigation Service as well and at any moment we will introduce these people," she said.
EcoAngola, in its denunciation, shared on social networks, accompanied by photographs, which show several dead sharks already without their fins in the Mundial beach, Fishermen's District, in the municipality of Cacuaco, in Luanda, and a video, with more than 20 dead animals, in Benguela, says that the fishermen are being paid by Chinese citizens to fish this species, just to take advantage of their fins.
The head of the Institute for Biodiversity and Conservation Area pointed out that it was the first time they had received complaints like this, but said that seizures are usually made at the airport in cases "of people who had large boxes and bags of shark fins but claimed they were catching them on the beach.
"We contacted the Ministry of Fisheries to find out if they were licensed to do so, but they didn't have much control either and we couldn't get a satisfactory response," he said.
"Meanwhile, we knew that there was involvement of some Asian citizens, mainly Chinese, that this complaint, at this time, confirmed what we were predicting," he added.
