Mediterranean Holidays: Beware of Hidden Shark Meat

The environmental protection organisation WWF is warning against hidden shark meat when buying fish on a Mediterranean holiday. The predatory fish are found on the table in the EU surprisingly often – both illegally and legally. Globally, Europe even happens to be the biggest importer of sharks, with Spain, Italy, Portugal and France among the world’s top 10. But undeclared shark meat can also easily be hidden behind other types of fish, such as swordfish. “Shark illegally declared as swordfish often ends up on our plates. Yet shark populations in the Mediterranean are already drastically overfished. More than half of the species are endangered, a third even acutely so”, warns Simone Niedermüller, marine expert at WWF Austria.