The Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences UI has joined in ‘CITES Technical Guidance for Sharks and Rays: Species Identification Techniques for Trade and Traceability’, presented by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Directorate General of Marine Affairs Management, the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on November 27th – 29th, 2018 is located in Muara Baru, North Jakarta.
Since February 2003, Sharks and Rays have been included in CITES Appendix II. Species included in Appendix II are not always threatened with extinction, but trade in them is controlled to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. As of October 2016, twelve species of sharks and all mantas and the devil’s rays (which belong to the same Elasmobranchii subclass) are included in Appendix II, and none in Appendix I. However, all swordfish species (which also belong to the Elasmobranchii subclass) are in Appendix I (Source: CITES).
The workshop was aimed to raise the capability for people who work in government who directly involve in the chain of sharks and rays trade to implement CITES regulation. Another stakeholder came from a research institution and the university also informed to know about visual morphology and DNA technique identification. Dr. Rima Jabado (The Gulf Elasmo Project), Diego Cardenosa M. Sc. (Stony Brook University), Adeline Seah, Ph. D (WCS), Daniel Fernando (Linnaeus University) were the experts who gave information on how to identify sharks and rays based on their expertise. Stan Shea from Bloom Association Hong Kong also participated as one of the interviewees who explained about how is the shark trade especially because almost all the shark trade traceability is export to Hong Kong.
As part of the training, the participants went to the export company warehouse in Muara Baru, Jakarta. They were shown of thousand pieces of shark fins and chunks as the products in the warehouse which ready to export abroad like Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and Thailand. As the title of the workshop was about identification with DNA Technique, Diego and Adeline were showed the participants how to identify the product by taking the DNA sample in the warehouse. They showed the simple methods as everyone could do in the field, meanwhile, Rima also showed how to identify based on the visual of the fins and the chunk, which almost all of it already headless.
From this training, the participants are expected could do identify the sharks and rays visually or molecularly. There could be also some researches between the institutions from the participants to do implement the regulation of the trade and conservation to keep sustainable.
