A shark lobby group says the sharks found without fins in the Hauraki Gulf would have experienced excruciating pain before they died.
Around 200 sharks were discovered mutilated on Waiheke Island, but the Ministry of Fisheries says the practice is not illegal and they won't be investigating.
The director of the Anti-Shark Finning Alliance, Mick Dowers, is appalled and says the people responsible for the killings are in it just for one thing:
"There's no animal welfare concerns that these people take on board," he says. "They simply see sharks as a meal ticket, as big money, and they'll do whatever they can to get the fins off the sharks and onto the market."
Mr Dowers says dried shark fin can be worth up to a $1000 a kilogram.
Greg Keys from the Ministry of Fisheries says there is nothing illegal about the situation.
“The shark was identified as the rig or what we commonly call the dog fish and this dog fish is a species under the quota management system. The fish is processed at sea, a process that is commonly called ‘trunking’.”
Mr Keys says the dogfish are each about 30 centimetres long.
3 News / RadioLIVE
source: newshub archive
