No shark found in Pasil, Carbon

NOT one shark was found during a City official’s surprise inspection at the Carbon and Pasil fish markets yesterday dawn.

But City Market Administrator Raquel Arce said they now have the names of ambulant vendors who allegedly sell sharks in Carbon.

Five fish vendors are under surveillance after Arce heard they sell sharks at dawn.

“At 3 a.m. we were already in Carbon and Pasil but we did not see any shark for sale. Obviously, the sale is done discreetly, but we already have the names of the vendors. We are now conducting surveillance,” she told reporters yesterday.

One of the vendors invited for questioning reportedly admitted that they get their supply from a wholesaler at the Pasil fish market.

City Councilor Nida Cabrera, chairperson of the council’s committee on environment, said she was informed that the sharks came from Bohol and Bantayan Island.

Arce said the transport and sale of sharks go unnoticed by the City’s Bantay Dagat Commis- sion, Cebu City Markets Administration and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) because these are placed at the bottom of the barrels holding other kinds of fish, usually just one or two in every barrel.

Online

Arce led the surprise inspection after a photo of sharks sold in Carbon circulated online last Monday.

While a Cebu Provincial Ordinance banning the sale of sharks, rays and other endangered marine species does not cover the chartered cities of Cebu and Mandaue, Councilor Cabre- ra said the same is banned in Cebu City, as provided for in national laws.

She said, though, that she will submit to the City Council next week a proposed ordinance that seeks to prohibit the sale and consumption of all shark species, as well as rays and other endangered marine species.

“In the meantime, our focus will be on market denial. Anyone caught transporting sharks in the city will be asked to produce a permit to transport issued by Bfar and if they don’t have a permit, the fish will be confiscated,” said Cabrera.