Cosco is the second last of the world’s top 20 container lines to sign up to ban the carriage of shark fins, in an attempt to save a number of sharks on the endangered list.
As of March, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said 16 shipping companies had established bans: Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg Süd, MOL, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), OOCL, APL (now part of CMA CGM), Hanjin Shipping, Yang Ming, NYK Line, UASC, “K” Line, PIL (Pacific International Line), ZIM and Wan Hai Lines. In addition, two shipping companies, CMA CGM and Evergreen Line, restrict all shark fin except those outside the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) list of endangered species.
The only one in the Top 20 without a ban is number 19, the Singapore-based X-Press Feeders Group.