National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: Shark-Smuggling Bust Nets $1 Million for Habitat Protection


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Nearly a million U.S. dollars in fines collected from convicted poachers who had been taking leopard shark pups from the San Francisco Bay will be used to start a fund for restoring the animals' habitat, federal prosecutors recently announced.

The sharks, which are at risk because they are often caught unintentionally in fishers' nets, are a prized species in the home aquarium trade. Pups can fetch up to $240 each in a pet store.

Photograph by James Gritz/Getty