Chinese buyer pays CNY 180,000 for endangered fish
By Mark Godfrey-June 30, 2016
While much has been made of the industrial-scale slaughter of elephants, rhinos and tigers for use in Chinese traditional medicine, the plight of the bahaba has received less attention.
The bahaba, a yellow-finned fish that is a protected species in mainland China, has largely disappeared due to poaching and the industrial degradation of its traditional spawning habitats in river estuaries.
The comparatively underdeveloped waters of Myanmar, however, have become a new focus for traders in the fish from China and Hong Kong.
Chaptis Bahaba Fish for Eastern India Ocean
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- Bahaba Fish for Western India Ocean, North-Western India Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean.
How China’s fish bladder investment craze is wiping out species on the other side of the planet
Another asset bubble has burst in China. And it’s not in stocks, metals or real estate. It’s the market for a maize-colored organ carved out of a giant, endangered Mexican fish.
- That fish, the totoaba, uses this organ, its swim bladder, to regulate buoyancy. For centuries, wealthy Chinese have used such bladders, what they often call “fish maws,” to make soups thought to smooth the discomfort of pregnancy and cure joint pain, among other ailments—and sometimes as speculative investments. In 2011, a single totoaba bladder could fetch as much as HK$1,000,000 (then about $137,000) in Hong Kong or Guangzhou, according to Greenpeace Asia, a nonprofit group. But these days, that same bladder is worth a mere HK$200,000.
The story of how the bladder bubble inflated and then burst is a classic tale of globalization—of the intersection between monetary policy, financial markets, luxury goods, international regulation, and transnational crime. It’s also an all-too-familiar and depressing environmental tale, because while the bladder trade has endangered the totoaba, it’s driven the vaquita—a tiny porpoise that’s prone to getting tangled up in totoaba nets—almost to extinction.
Fortunately for both animals, after years of lax enforcement, the Mexican government is finally cracking down on illegal totoaba fishing in waters the vaquita inhabits. There’s a glint of hope that their populations might recover from the spectacular carnage of the last few years. Ultimately, though, the fate of both animals will depend not on the zeal of Mexican authorities but on the whims of wealthy Chinese investors—and whether they start betting on bladders once again.
Bahaba Fish Worth $473,000 Caught, Sold In China
Chinese Bahaba fish For Western Pacific
An endangered fish known in Chinese medicine for its healing properties was caught off the coast of the Fujian province of China last week and fetched a stunning $473,000, Business Insider reports.
The fisherman has not yet been identified, but according to a Fujian news outlet, he is reportedly an older man who had little money and plans to use the profits from the fish to buy a bigger boat.
The fisherman told the news outlet that he saw the bahaba — which weighed 80kg, or about 175 pounds — floating near the surface and was able to simply pick it up. When the man brought his catch back to shore, fishmongers started bidding on it immediately.
The bahaba fish, also known as the giant yellow croaker, is valued for its swim bladder, which is thought to help cure heart and lung ailments. As a result, the fish has been sold for large sums of money throughout the years.
In 2008, a group of anglers caught a nearly 6-foot bahaba and sold it to a local fisherman for about $2,500, Reuters reports. However, they were unaware of how just valuable their fish was. The man they sold the fish to turned around and re-sold it to a seafood restaurant for even more, and that restaurant subsequently sold it for $126,000.
In 2010, a bahaba fish believed to be 50 years old was caught and sold for about $500,000, Scientific American notes.
According to the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, the bahaba fish is close to extinction and is considered critically endangered. The bahaba was discovered by scientists in the 1930s and became a popular target of fishermen by the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Though bahabas are protected in mainland China, there are no regulations in Hong Kong. The bahaba is still fished and sold illegally despite the species’s low numbers because of how valuable it can be.
In 2010, a bahaba fish believed to be 50 years old was caught and sold for about $500,000, Scientific American notes. According to the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, the bahaba fish is close to extinction and is considered critically endangered.Aug 21, 2012
Bahaba Fish Worth $473,000 Caught, Sold In China | HuffPost
Ref:https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/473000-bahaba-fish-caught_n_1818083.html
A rare Chinese bahaba on sale for $140,000
http://luxurylaunches.com/other_stuff/a_rare_chinese_bahaba_on_sale_for_140000.php
A Zhejiang based fisherman netted a rare Chinese bahaba whose air bladder is said to be as expensive as gold in weight. It was last seen almost 50 years back. It is dark brown all over, 1.2-meter long and 15-kg in weight. Even the most experienced fisherman was astonished to see a fish like this.- The Chinese Bahaba found earlier was 3.5 kg and worth 1million USD. Li, who found the fist approached an aquatic research institution expert the next day after fuinding the fish, who uttered the appearance should tell it’s a Chinese bahaba but, still, a dissection is needed to make sure it is not another species similar to Chinese bahaba. Li declined the expert’s suggestion in fear that it would ruin the fish and lower the selling price. He also turned down a fish vendor’s offer of 500,000 for this queer fish, making it clear he would not let it go for less than 1 million.
- In April 2007, a fisherman in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong province, netted a 49-kg Chinese bahaba and sold to a restaurant owner for 580,000 yuan. The restaurant cooked the fish meat but has kept the dried maw since, tagging it at 2 million yuan with words “not for sale”. Now that is surprising!
Chinese fisherman hooks £300,000 fish
- A Chinese fisherman has netted a fortune after catching a critically endangered, but hugely prized, fish worth £300,000.
Chinese appetite for totoaba fish bladder kills off rare porpoise
Cut and dried? Hong Kong conservation authorities seek legal advice on shops selling bladders from endangered fish species.
Hong Kong conservation authorities are taking legal advice on whether to prosecute two dried seafood vendors for the suspected sale of maw from an endangered fish species.
Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Dr Leung Siu-fai said his department had launched inspections and undercover investigations involving about 150 shops following reports this year that totoaba maw was being sold openly in the city.
We have found two cases where has there has been suspected illegal trading activity,” said Leung. “We are consulting the Department of Justice for advice. Once we have sufficient evidence, we will begin prosecutions.”
If found guilty, the business owners could face a HK$5 million fine and two-year prison sentence. Leung said there was no evidence to show Hong Kong was a hub for the illegal totoaba fish trade.
- While maw – fish bladder – is commonly sold in Hong Kong, totoaba bladders are a more highly prized delicacy, and can fetch up to HK$500,000 for 500 grams.
International trade in the totoaba is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But groups such as Greenpeace say totoaba maw is still smuggled effortlessly into the city, due to lax border controls,- and sold over the counter by dried seafood shops.
Greenpeace East Asia programme manager Gloria Chang Wan-ki said government action on totoaba was “very slow” and that the real number of vendors selling the product was likely to be much higher.
The group said their investigations had shown maw was smuggled from Mexico to the United States before being shipped to Hong Kong and exported to the mainland, making the city a key hub.
Between February and last month, Greenpeace checked out 70 dried seafood retailers in Sheung Wan and found at least 13 selling totoaba bladder. Many offered to source maw directly from Mexico, with at least one vendor even offering to help smuggle a specimen to mainland China for an additional fee.
Poaching of the fish has also been helping drive the extinction of a rare species of porpoise, the vaquita, which tends to get stuck in gillnets set for totoaba. Both species inhabit the same waters and are indigenous to Mexico’s Gulf of California.
- Collateral Damage: How illegal trade in totoaba swim bladders is driving the vaquita to extinction
How China’s fish bladder investment craze is wiping out species on the other side of the planet.
Another asset bubble has burst in China. And it’s not in stocks, metals or real estate. It’s the market for a maize-colored organ carved out of a giant, endangered Mexican fish.
That fish, the totoaba, uses this organ, its swim bladder, to regulate buoyancy. For centuries, wealthy Chinese have used such bladders, what they often call “fish maws,” to make soups thought to smooth the discomfort of pregnancy and cure joint pain, among other ailments—and sometimes as speculative investments. In 2011, a single totoaba bladder could fetch as much as HK$1,000,000 (then about $137,000) in Hong Kong or Guangzhou, according to Greenpeace Asia, a nonprofit group. But these days, that same bladder is worth a mere HK$200,000.
The story of how the bladder bubble inflated and then burst is a classic tale of globalization—of the intersection between monetary policy, financial markets, luxury goods, international regulation, and transnational crime. It’s also an all-too-familiar and depressing environmental tale, because while the bladder trade has endangered the totoaba, it’s driven the vaquita—a tiny porpoise that’s prone to getting tangled up in totoaba nets—almost to extinction.
$30K fish bladder fuels poaching, trafficking and wildlife crisis
An hourlong flight east of Hong Kong in the Chinese port city of Shantou, traders cater to affluent businessmen quietly looking to drop up to $30,000 dollars on a single fish bladder.
While these transactions are punishable by large fines and even time behind bars, a covert investigation by a nonprofit advocacy group has found that weak, perhaps corrupt, law enforcement allows fishermen, import-export companies and perhaps drug cartels to profit in an international supply chain that stretches from Asia back to Southern California and Mexico.
Chinese culture has believed for centuries that the organ — known locally as gold coin fish maw — has lifesaving properties. While science has yet to prove the health benefits, the dried bladder is often kept for emergencies — for use as part of a medicinal soup. It’s also gifted and displayed in homes as a status symbol.
“In Shantou, gold coin fish maw is usually treated as the priceless treasure of a shop, so they are not labeled a price and not on sale (openly),” a local trader in March told an undercover investigator with the Los Angeles-based Elephant Action League, a recently established organization that gathers intelligence on wildlife crimes.
This week, the nonprofit issued its report exposing the illegal fish-bladder trade in China and its consequences thousands of miles away. The league said it intends to expand its watchdog work on this issue in the coming months.
By the mid-20th century, Chinese demand for certain fish bladders had eviscerated stocks of the giant yellow croaker, which once thrived off China’s coast. If a person is lucky enough to catch one of these rare fish today, it can fetch as much as half a million dollars on the black market.
Enthusiasm for fish bladders went unnoticed for decades by many in the West. However, in recent years that has changed as desire for the illicit product has led to the near extinction of the vaquita porpoise, which lives in Baja California and is the most endangered marine mammal on the planet.
The totoaba, a 120-pound fish found in the Upper Gulf of Mexico, has a bladder that resembles that of the croaker’s — making it a prime target of poaching. It’s suspected that drug cartels pay local fishermen in the region to catch the fish and deliver the prized organ.
In the process, the nylon gillnets used to catch totoabas in the murky waters off of the fishing village of San Felipe in Baja California also ensnare and suffocate a number of other wildlife species, including whales, sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, rays — and those imperiled vaquitas.
Scientists with international conservation groups estimate that fewer than 30 vaquitas remain today, down from about 567 two decades ago. The totoaba is also considered by international treaty to be endangered. It’s unknown exactly how many are left.
The Elephant Action League’s undercover team, which includes retired law-enforcement officers from around the globe, visited more than two dozen shops in Shantou, China and the surrounding region in March. The area is believed to be a main trading hub for the bladders.
“They pretend to be buyers or traders,” said Andrea Crosta, executive director and co-founder of the league, which employs a handful of full-time staff members and a network of about a couple dozen contractors around the world. “They wear undercover cameras. We come back with audio and video that back up our words,” he said.
Many shop owners at first hesitated to speak with the league’s investigators, but eventually opened up and displayed their priciest fish maws. After the Chinese government began paying more attention to the illicit trade in recent years, many merchants responded by selling only to trusted customers and behind closed doors.
However, this level of caution wasn’t universal.
“Chinese laws on illegal wildlife trafficking are very harsh, but the problem is the implementation,” Crosta said. “It’s not enough to just have the laws. They have to be enforced.”
China’s government launched a campaign last fall to educate merchants on Chinese and Mexican laws banning totoaba fishing and bladder sales. Still, none of shop owners interviewed by the league could recall any seizures by law enforcement in their region.
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