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Tossing away dogfish shark is not an option when its meat has a ready market in Europe. <\/p>\n
AP Photo\/Stephan Savoia <\/p>\n
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New regulations have restricted the import of shark meat but it still finds its way on to Swiss plates due to mislabelling, poor identification skills and the clandestine trade.\n<\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
December 16, 2025 – 09:00\n<\/p>\n
\n Anand Chandrasekhar <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/anand-chandrasekhar-profileImage-42390447.png\")
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\n I cover food and agribusiness and have a special interest in sustainable supply chains, food safety and quality, as well emerging players and trends in the food industry.
\nA background in forestry and conservation biology led me down the path of environmental advocacy. Journalism and Switzerland made me a neutral observer who holds companies accountable for their actions. <\/p>\n
Sopa de ca\u00e7\u00e3o is a Portuguese delicacy believed to originate in the Alentejo region. It is a rich garlic and coriander broth thickened with flour and seasoned with vinegar, ground paprika and bay leaves. A simple dish that can easily be put together with ingredients sourced from any Swiss supermarket or grocery store except perhaps for one exotic item: slices of dogfish shark, a small bottom-dwelling shark\u202fthat lives along the northern Pacific and Atlantic coasts. It is classified as endangered globally and its trade is regulated, which means Switzerland should not be importing it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But Swissinfo found frozen fillets of dogfish or common smooth-hound shark (Mustelus mustelus) in a grocery store in Geneva that caters to Switzerland\u2019s large Portuguese diaspora.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sopa de cacao \u2013 traditional Portuguese specialty made with slices of dogfish shark. <\/p>\n Dreamstime.com <\/p>\n Shark meat has long been present on grocery shop shelves of European countries, including Switzerland \u2013 sometimes unknowingly to the consumer. But this could end soon. With many sharks on endangered lists, the EU is looking to regulate the trade in shark meat, which is also loaded with heavy metals. In Switzerland, a parliamentary initiative is in the pipeline to ban shark and ray meat in Switzerland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can get one kilo for less than CHF15 ($18.60) in Switzerland. Some people are used to eating shark meat and they will look for it, but others accidentally buy shark meat without knowing it, because it\u2019s not often very transparent on the label or mixed in processed seafood,\u201d says Laurianne Trimoulla of Gallifrey, a Swiss venture philanthropy foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shark meat trade in Europe<\/p>\n Shark meat on European plates is a relatively new phenomenon and took off with Chinese demand for shark fin, a culinary delicacy, from 2000 onwards. This meant fishermen would chop the fin off the shark and then throw the rest of the carcass overboard, decimating the global shark population. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), an average of 13.4% of global shark landings reported from 2000-2008 came from four European countries: Spain, France, Portugal and the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2003, to protect the shark population in European waters, the European Union required fishing vessels to bring any sharks they caught \u2013 bycatch or intentional \u2013 with their fins intact back to port. This meant each shark took up more space in the boat, resulting in fewer sharks caught per trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what to do with the shark carcasses once the valuable fins were extracted? Shark meat was exported but at a very low price: $0.10\/kg (CHF0.08\/kg) between 2012-2019, according to WWF. This led to the development of a shark meat market in Europe with countries like Italy paying as much as $4\/kg. During this period Europe accounted for 22% of global shark and ray meat trade, worth $2.6 billion, which was more than the global trade in shark fins \u2013 $1.5 billion at the time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, certain shark species were regionally decimated by fishing fleets. For example, Norway\u2019s catch of the porbeagle shark declined by 99% between 1936 and 2005; the Northeast Atlantic population is classified as critically endangered. The spurdog or spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), used in fish and chips in the UK and as a smoked meat delicacyExternal link<\/a> in Germany called Schillerlocken, was so overfished that a fishing ban was introduced in 2011 in European Union waters and only lifted in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Misleading labels\u00a0<\/p>\n Shark meat is regularly mislabelled in Switzerland, misleading consumers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSwitzerland imported 609 tonnes of shark and ray \u2013 the elasmobranch family \u2013 products in the last 35 years and still does today. But shark meat is often sold under misleading names, like dogfish, spurdog, rock salmon, huss, nursehound, smooth-hound,\u201d Trimoulla says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Swissinfo found frozen fillets of dog fish or smooth-hound mislabelled as sea dog (chien de mer in French) in the shop. According to the official naming list of the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, the correct name of the smooth-hound shark in French is \u00e9missole lisse, indicating that the Swiss importer of the shark meat from Portugal labelled the shipment incorrectly. Other names used on labels in Switzerland include Schillerlocke in German.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Landlocked Switzerland\u2019s taste for seafood is raising a stink <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Dec 23, 2023 <\/p>\n Around 96% of all fish consumed in Switzerland is imported but it is estimated that only around 40% can be considered sustainable. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Landlocked Switzerland\u2019s taste for seafood is raising a stink Most Europeans are not aware of their countries\u2019 role in the global shark meat trade. A survey of 900 Italians in the Milan area in 2024 showed that 65% of respondents did not believe that shark meat is legally sold in Italy. The majority identified China and Japan as the main consumer of shark meat, with only 4% aware of Italy\u2019s significant role in the shark meat trade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While only about 8% of respondents said they had purchased shark meat, over a quarter said they had consumed shark species unknowingly under another name such as smeriglio (porbeagle) spinarolo (spiny dogfish), palombo (common smooth-hound), mako (shortfin mako), or gattuccio (small-spotted catshark). This suggests that seafood lovers are not aware they are consuming sharks unless the label explicitly mentions the word shark in their language.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n DNA analysis of shark meat sold in the USExternal link<\/a> and BrazilExternal link<\/a> has identified endangered species which were not indicated on the labels.\u00a0<\/p>\n Impact on health<\/p>\n Being at the top of the food chain means that sharks get to eat pretty much anything they want in the ocean. This comes with additional risks to shark meat consumers. The accumulation of heavy metals like mercury up the food chain is one such drawback.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Trimoulla collected shark meat samples from Swiss stores and sent samples to a laboratory in Germany to be tested for heavy metals. In total, 44 samples of blue shark and seven of tope shark meat, bought in various supermarkets and restaurants in Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK and Spain, were analysed for methylmercury. A third of the samples showed alarming rates (1mg\/kg to 4.4mg\/kg), exceeding the WHO, EU and Swiss maximum authorised level in shark species of 1mg\/kg.\u00a0<\/p>\n Swissinfo contacted Europ\u00eache, the association of national organisations of fishing enterprises in the European Union, with the test results. The association responded that consuming fish predators, including sharks, is not dangerous for health. While accepting that predators contain more mercury than other species because they are at the top of the food chain, Europ\u00eache\u2019s position is that mercury levels in sharks have been stable for 50 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat concerns us about mercury bioaccumulation \u2013 a well-known topic, subject of scientific research and regulations \u2013 is the growing pressure, driven not by science but by misinformation and fake news, which is pushing consumers away from seafood, with harmful consequences for diet and health,\u201d said Anne-France Mattlet of Europ\u00eache.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Mattlet, the European fishing fleet applies the regulations on mercury thresholds rigorously. This includes that mercury checks are conducted at various stages of the supply chain \u2013 upon landing for fishing vessels, after processing, and before commercialisation. Any batch of fish exceeding the permitted mercury levels is either blocked or returned, and fishing vessels are fully involved in ensuring compliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe rules for controlling European fisheries are extremely strict, and we welcome that. What we are asking for is that they are applied to all fleets worldwide,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, despite these measures, the scientific committee of the European Food Safety Authority recommends cautionExternal link<\/a> when consuming high-risk species like shark.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen consuming species with a high methylmercury content, only a few numbers of servings (maximum one or two) can be eaten before reaching the TWI [tolerable weekly intake], which may be attained before the DRV [dietary reference value],\u201d the committee said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Citizens\u2019 initiative\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n To address health concerns and the dwindling shark population, three years ago NGOs in Europe collected more than a million signatures needed for a European citizens\u2019 initiative called \u201cStop finning \u2013 Stop the trade\u201d. A European citizens\u2019 initiative requires the European Commission to propose legal action in areas where the Commission has the power to do so, provided it is backed by at least one million citizens from at least seven EU countries. In response to the citizens\u2019 initiative, the Commission opened a public consultation on the issue last year and received almost 3,500 responses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2022, 60 shark species (mostly requiem and hammerhead sharks) were added to Appendix II of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. WWF estimates that this measure has meant 90% of all internationally traded species of sharks and rays can now be traded only if their stocks are not endangered as a result, compared to only 20% before the new rules.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These measures have had a drastic effect on Swiss imports of shark meat: imports of dogfish and other sharks fell from 1,676kg in 2023 to just 4kg in 2024; the frozen equivalent fell from 1,358kg to 11kg. But mislabelling could mean the numbers are under-reported.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the stricter regulations, Swissinfo\u2019s visit to a grocery shop in Geneva seemed to indicate that shark meat, some of which is sold illegally, was still getting through customs undetected. The shop owner told Swissinfo that customs had confiscated five boxes (about 50kg) of shark meat worth about CHF1,500 in June. Nevertheless, the shop was still able to source and sell common smooth-hound shark meat, a fact the owner was aware of.\u00a0<\/p>\n A ban in Switzerland?<\/p>\n
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