International | Sharks under threat

Predators into soup

Eastern promise is doing away with West Africa’s sharks

|bijagos archipelago

TO THE people of the Bijagos archipelago, the shark is sacred. In initiation ceremonies young men from these islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau must spear a shark and present the liver to their elders. But can this ancient ceremony survive the economic fact that a bowl of shark's fin soup can cost $150 in the Far East?

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Predators into soup”

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