ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A shipment flagged in Anchorage last fall led federal wildlife inspectors to a wider trafficking case that ended with the seizure of roughly 50,000 dried shark fins moving through U.S. ports, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The agency said inspectors first discovered one of the shipments in Anchorage in October 2025. That find helped uncover 19 more shipments moving through Anchorage, Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, while in transit from Mexico to Hong Kong.
Altogether, the shipments contained more than 1,600 pounds of dried shark fins valued at more than $1 million, the agency said. The shipments had been disguised as car parts and were linked to what the Fish and Wildlife Service described as a larger trafficking network.
Federal officials said the fins were predominantly from silky sharks and bigeye thresher sharks, both of which are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. CITES says international trade in silky and thresher sharks is regulated through Appendix II protections, which require documentation and oversight for lawful cross-border trade…