Five fishermen have been arrested at the Wellamankaraya fishery harbour after Coast Guard personnel found 35 kilograms of dried shark and 4.5 kilograms of shark fins in their possession, Hiru News reported.
The arrests were made on 1 October during routine arrival formalities at the harbour — the point at which returning vessels are checked, and the stage at which most such consignments are intercepted.
The five suspects were handed over to the Wellamankaraya Fisheries Inspector’s office for further legal action, along with their fishing vessel and the seized shark products.
A recurring enforcement pattern
The seizure is the latest in a steady run of shark-related detentions at Sri Lankan harbours. In August, the Coast Guard arrested four fishermen at Suduwella Fisheries Harbour with 223.94kg of thresher shark meat and fins concealed aboard a multi-day vessel — a haul several times the size of this one.
Sri Lankan waters hold roughly 105 species of sharks and rays, but only five carry legal protection, a gap raised when Colombo hosted Sharks International 2026 in May. Delegates at that conference heard that close to a third of shark and ray species globally face extinction, and that the region is both a biodiversity hotspot and one of the world’s most heavily exploited shark fisheries.
Fins remain the commercially valuable part of the catch in export markets, which is why consignments are typically found as dried meat and separated fins together — the combination seized here.
Hiru News was the only verified newsroom carrying the arrests at the time of writing, and the Coast Guard’s own images of the seizure accompanied the report. The species involved was not identified, and no charges have yet been detailed.
Source: Hiru News.
