Scientists trace shark fins to their geographic origin for first time using DNA tools
Millions of shark fins are sold at market each year to satisfy the demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy, but it has been impossible to pinpoint which sharks from which regions are most threatened by this trade. Now, groundbreaking new DNA research has, for the first time, traced scalloped hammerhead shark fins from the burgeoning Hong Kong market all the way back to the sharks' geographic origin. In some cases the fins were found to come from endangered populations thousands of miles away. Published online today in the journal Endangered Species Research, the findings highlight the need to better protect these sharks from international trade, a move which will be considered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at its March 2010 meeting in Qatar. The work was led by the Guy Harvey Research Institute and the Save Our Seas Shark Center at Nova Southeastern...