2026 Edition

The hunting and trade of shark fins represent one of the main threats to marine biodiversity and the balance of ocean ecosystems. In Brazil, although the export of fins from the blue shark (Prionace glauca) is legally permitted, enforcement authorities have revealed a recurring pattern of fraud, with shipments repeatedly containing protected and critically endangered species, as confirmed through genetic analyses and highlighted by resolutions of the National Environmental Council (CONAMA). The existence of this legal export framework facilitates the continuation of illegal trafficking, given the difficulty of continuously monitoring the species involved. In 2023, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) carried out the largest shark fin seizure ever recorded in the country, 28.7 tonnes, equivalent to the death of at least ten thousand sharks. Additional confiscations followed in 2024 under the same enforcement context. As biological materials, shark fins are required to be incinerated after official processing. This photograph records the incineration of shark fins carried out in São Paulo in 2025, under IBAMA supervision. It was not an isolated event, but the moment when most of the shark fins confiscated at Guarulhos International Airport over recent years were destroyed together, including fins seized in 2023 and 2024. The act closes a cycle that exposes the contradiction between the marine origin of these animals and the fate imposed by human exploitation, symbolizing both the enforcement of environmental law and the urgent need for public policies capable of breaking the logic of a trade that turns apex predators, essential to the health of the oceans, into waste consigned to flames.

70 mm f/2.8 Lens - 1/200 sec at f/9 ISO 400