DAKAR (Reuters) - The crew of a Spanish tuna fishing vessel have been arrested off the coast of Gabon for illegally catching sharks without the proper licence and stripping them of their fins, marine conservation group Sea Shepherd said on Monday.
The Senegalese-flagged vessel Vema, which has a license to fish only for tuna, was found on Sept. 22 to be carrying about two tons of sharks and shark fins, mostly of blue sharks - a species classified as "near-threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It was carrying no tuna.