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U.S. NEWS Saturday 15 december 2018

Japanese boat owners charged

with helping smuggle shark fins

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLE- charged. supervision of the captain,
HER Last month, 10 Indonesian and at the direction of the
Associated Press fishermen who were work- fishing master and first engi-
HONOLULU (AP) — U.S. ing on the longline tuna- neer,” prosecutors said in a
prosecutors in Hawaii are fishing vessel were arrested news release.
accusing the owners and in Hawaii and charged with A Hamada representative
officers of a Japanese fish- trying to smuggle nearly in Japan said Friday that
ing boat of helping Indo- 1,000 shark fins from the U.S. the Indonesian crew mem-
nesian fishermen smuggle to Indonesia. bers had shark fins without
nearly 1,000 shark fins, Four of the fishermen plead- the captain’s knowledge.
worth about $58,000 on the ed guilty Friday to a lesser, “Our tuna boats are for
black market. misdemeanor charge of catching tuna. They are
It’s against U.S. law to re- knowingly attempting to not to be used to smuggle
move the fins of sharks at export shark fins, court re- shark fins,” said a man who
sea. Prosecutors say the fish- cords show. A judge sen- answered the phone at
ermen harvested fins from tenced them to time they Hamada Suisan in Kagoshi-
some sharks that were still already served in jail. The ma, Japan, who declined
alive, then discarded their other six are expected to to provide his name. “This is
carcasses into the ocean. plead guilty to the same our company’s policy.”
Fins are a pricey delicacy charge and receive the JF Zengyoren, which is
often used in soups same sentence later Friday. known as Japan Fisheries
The boat’s owner, Japa- They were headed home Cooperatives in English,
nese business Hamada via Honolulu when airport said in a statement that it
Suisan Co. Ltd., and JF security workers found declined to comment be-
Zengyoren, a Japanese shark fins in their luggage, cause it hadn’t received a This Nov. 28, 2018 photo provided by the United States Attorney’s
Office and introduced as evidence in court in Honolulu shows
fishing cooperative that according to court docu- copy of the complaint and some of the hundreds of shark fins seized from a Japanese
the vessel belongs to, were ments. was still finding out informa- fishing boat.
charged with aiding and The fishermen harvested tion. Associated Press
abetting the trafficking and fins from hundreds of sharks Prosecutors say they could ened species under the “Shark finning is unlawful
smuggling of 962 shark fins, “in some instances while face fines of up to $5.5 mil- Endangered Species Act, and takes a very real toll on
the U.S. attorney’s office the sharks were stunned lion. prosecutors said. Other fins our precious ocean eco-
in Hawaii said. The boat’s but still alive, and discard- Some of the fins were from were from silky sharks and system,” Kenji Price, U.S. at-
captain, fishing master and ed the finless carcasses into oceanic whitetip sharks, bigeye thresher sharks, torney for Hawaii, said in a
first engineer were also the ocean, all under the which are listed as a threat- which are also protected. statement.q

California mandates 100-percent zero-emission bus fleet

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) free by 2029. Environmental creating demand for thou- powered by hydrogen fuel is something other states
— California moved Friday advocates project that the sands of clean buses will cells. could pursue.
to eliminate fossil fuels from last greenhouse-gas-emit- bring down the price of “Every state could do a Existing state and federal
its fleet of 12,000 transit bus- ting buses will phase out by those buses and eventually strategy like this,” said subsidies are available to
es, enacting a first-in-the- 2040. other heavy-duty vehicles Adrian Martinez, an at- help transit agencies ab-
nation mandate that will While clean buses cost like trucks. torney for Earthjustice, an sorb some of the higher
vastly increase the number more than the diesel and California has 153 zero- environmental legal group costs of carbon-free buses,
of electric buses on the natural gas vehicles they’ll emission buses on the road that supports the rule. “This along with money from
road. replace, advocates of the today with hundreds more is something that California the state’s settlement with
The California Air Resources mandate say they have on order. Most of them are did first because we have Volkswagen over the Ger-
Board voted to require that lower maintenance and electric, though technol- major air quality and pol- man automaker’s emission-
all new buses be carbon- fuel costs. Supporters hope ogy also exists for buses lution problems, but this cheating software.q