Four fishermen have been arrested with 223.94 kilograms of illegally harvested thresher shark meat and fins concealed aboard a multi-day fishing vessel at the Suduwella Fisheries Harbour, the Sri Lanka Coast Guard said.
The seizure was made on Wednesday during what the Coast Guard described as a special operation at the harbour, after the consignment was brought ashore from the vessel. The catch was identified as common thresher shark, Alopias vulpinus.
The Coast Guard said the haul was held in violation of Extraordinary Gazette No. 1938/2 of 26 October 2015, the regulation under which the species is protected in Sri Lankan waters.
The four suspects were handed over to the Fisheries Inspector’s Office in Suduwella for legal proceedings, along with the seized shark meat and fins and the fishing vessel itself.
A protected species in a heavily fished region
The thresher’s protected status under the 2015 gazette is what makes the catch an offence. Sri Lanka records roughly 105 species of sharks and rays, but only five of them carry legal protection — a gap highlighted in May when Colombo hosted Sharks International 2026, described as the world’s largest shark and ray conservation conference.
Delegates at that conference heard that nearly one-third of shark and ray species globally face extinction, that sawfishes are considered locally extinct in Sri Lankan waters, and that the wider region is both a biodiversity hotspot and one of the most heavily exploited areas for shark fishing.
Fins command high prices in export markets, and enforcement typically depends on inspections carried out as multi-day vessels return to harbour — the point at which this consignment was found.
Ada Derana was the only verified newsroom to carry the seizure at the time of writing; the account above is otherwise drawn from the Coast Guard’s own statement.
Sources: Ada Derana, Sri Lanka Coast Guard.
