A FISHING vessel from Negros Occidental loaded with at least 15 dead thresher sharks with cut fins was intercepted by authorities at the coastal area of Cebu recently.
Personnel of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and Regional Public Safety Battalion, all of Region 7, apprehended F/B Sweet Angel, along with another vessel F/B Rain, for violation of Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
[READ: Dead sharks found in boat]
The law prohibits the killing or destroying of vulnerable species of thresher sharks, Elvie Flores, head of BFAR-7 Fisheries Regulatory and Law Enforcement Division, told Sun.Star Bacolod in a phone interview on Tuesday.
The vessel also violated Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System of 1992, which mainly prohibits possession of any species of animals without permits from the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), Flores said.
F/B Rain violated as well Republic Act 7586, which prohibits the use of motorized equipment without the permission of PAMB, she added.
Apprehending agencies have put on record the incident at the Calatrava Municipal Police Station, a copy of which was obtained by Sun.Star Bacolod.
Police records showed that after apprehending the two fishing vessels on September 21, which were heading towards Ayungon in Negros Oriental, F/B Sweet Angel had experienced a mechanical problem which forced them to temporarily dock at the port of Barangay Lo-ok in Calatrava town.
On board the F/B Sweet Angel were 14 persons, 10 of them residents of Cadiz City, three of Escalante City, and one of Sagay City. Four persons, all of Victorias City, were on board the other vessel.
Corresponding charges were already filed by DENR against them, Flores said.
The dead thresher sharks were already buried, she added.
Earlier, an environment group had raised concern over the sale of juvenile blacktip reef sharks in the public market of Sipalay City.
However, BFAR Region 6 head Carlito Delfin on Tuesday reiterated that unlike in Cebu, there is still no governing ordinances in the province that regulate the catching and selling of sharks, particularly those species not covered by the national law.