280 kilos of stingray meat seized in Cebu City

CEBU, Philippines —  Seven boxes of stingray meat weighing 280 kilos were confiscated on Carlock Street in Barangay San Nicolas, Cebu City yesterday morning.

Personnel of Bantay Dagat, Cebu City’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF), and Maritime hatched the operation.

The stingrays were shipped by BSQ Boxes from Zamboanga City in Mindanao and were supposed to be delivered to Pasil Fish Market in Barangay Suba, said DVMF officer-in-charge Maria Merlyn Mirallo.

“The driver kept mum on who’s the owner of the seized stingray meat and on other details. But based on the document of the shipment, BSQ Boxes owned the meat from Zamboanga,” she said.

BSQ Boxes was summoned to DVMF office to answer the allegation.

Pasil market, which is the largest fish market in Cebu City, is the main “bagsakan” or dropping off point for fish and seafood, including stingrays, in Cebu.

The stingrays have a market value of P80 to P100 per kilo. Stingrays are batoids or flat sharks, which belong to sub-class Elasmobranchii.

But the consumption of stingray meat is prohibited by law.

Mirallo said the owner of the stingray meat has violated City Ordinance (CO) 2496 (Special Protection for Sharks, Rays and Chimaeras).

The ordinance prohibits the selling and buying of stingrays, which was passed by the Cebu City Council in 2018.

Those who violate the ordinance will be slapped with a fine of P5,000 and an imprisonment of one year.

Also, Provincial Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ordinance disallowed the possession of body parts of a shark like fins, tails, jaws, bladder, liver, other organs and its derivatives.

In June last year, inspectors from Cebu City’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) confiscated an estimated 40 kilograms of stingray meat from Zamboanga, which was being sold at the Carbon Public Market.  KQD (FREEMAN)