Chris Andrews was working the cargo belt at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport last fall when an employee flagged a suspicious package. “An employee said, ‘Hey, this box stinks, Chris,’” Andrews recalled in an interview with the Associated Press. The box was labeled “car parts.” Other stinking boxes followed down the belt. When opened, they contained thousands of shark fins bound for Hong Kong, where they were likely intended for shark fin soup, according to Andrews, a wildlife inspector for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The initial discovery in Anchorage expanded into a broader enforcement operation. Eventually, federal officers confiscated 1,600 pounds of shark fins — taken from nearly 17,000 sharks — in seizures around the country. Andrews called the Anchorage find the critical break: “We wouldn’t have gotten that shipment if it didn’t stink,” he said.
Shark finning — the practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea — is illegal in U.S. waters under the Shark Conservation Act. The international trade in shark fins is regulated under CITES, which covers species including several types of sharks whose fins were among those seized. The shipment’s size, roughly three-quarters of a ton, represents one of the larger shark fin seizures in recent years.
Andrews is part of a team of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors responsible for intercepting trafficked wildlife at ports of entry across Alaska. Their work spans international conservation treaties that protect more than 40,000 species and domestic statutes such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The inspectors screen cargo arriving by air and sea, checking shipments for protected species that may be hidden among legal goods.
The case underscores Alaska’s role as a transit corridor for wildlife trafficking, a global trade estimated by the U.S. State Department to be worth billions of dollars annually. Andrews and his colleagues regularly encounter attempts to smuggle bear gallbladders, walrus ivory, sea otter pelts, and other wildlife products through Anchorage’s cargo terminals.
The Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors play a critical role in intercepting trafficked wildlife at ports of entry, screening cargo arriving by air and sea for protected species hidden among legal goods. The agency declined to comment on whether the investigation into the shark fin shipments remains open or whether any charges have been filed.
The seizure comes amid broader international attention to shark conservation. Several shark species listed under CITES have seen steep population declines due to overfishing and the fin trade. The United States is among the countries that have pushed for stricter trade controls, though enforcement at borders remains uneven.