An hourlong flight east of Hong Kong in the Chinese port city of Shantou, traders cater to affluent businessmen quietly looking to drop up to $30,000 dollars on a single fish bladder.

While these transactions are punishable by large fines and even time behind bars, a covert investigation by a nonprofit advocacy group has found that weak, perhaps corrupt, law enforcement allows fishermen, import-export companies and perhaps drug cartels to profit in an international supply chain that stretches from Asia back to Southern California and Mexico.

Chinese culture has believed for centuries that the organ — known locally as gold coin fish maw — has lifesaving properties. While science has yet to prove the health benefits, the dried bladder is often kept for emergencies — for use as part of a medicinal soup. It’s also gifted and displayed in homes as a status symbol.

“In Shantou, gold coin fish maw is usually treated as the priceless treasure of a shop, so they are not labeled a price and not on sale (openly),” a local trader in March told an undercover investigator with the Los Angeles-based Elephant Action League, a recently established organization that gathers intelligence on wildlife crimes.


This week, the nonprofit issued its report exposing the illegal fish-bladder trade in China and its consequences thousands of miles away. The league said it intends to expand its watchdog work on this issue in the coming months.

By the mid-20th century, Chinese demand for certain fish bladders had eviscerated stocks of the giant yellow croaker, which once thrived off China’s coast. If a person is lucky enough to catch one of these rare fish today, it can fetch as much as half a million dollars on the black market.

Enthusiasm for fish bladders went unnoticed for decades by many in the West. However, in recent years that has changed as desire for the illicit product has led to the near extinction of the vaquita porpoise, which lives in Baja California and is the most endangered marine mammal on the planet.

The totoaba, a 120-pound fish found in the Upper Gulf of Mexico, has a bladder that resembles that of the croaker’s — making it a prime target of poaching. It’s suspected that drug cartels pay local fishermen in the region to catch the fish and deliver the prized organ.


While the six-foot-long totoabas are then dumped back into the sea, their dried bladders are shipped to Asia. At retail pricing, each bladder can fetch from $6,700 to more than $30,000 depending on its weight and other characteristics.

A gold coin fish maw at a store in the Chinese port city of Shantou, (photo courtesy of Elephant Action League)

In the process, the nylon gillnets used to catch totoabas in the murky waters off of the fishing village of San Felipe in Baja California also ensnare and suffocate a number of other wildlife species, including whales, sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, rays — and those imperiled vaquitas.

Scientists with international conservation groups estimate that fewer than 30 vaquitas remain today, down from about 567 two decades ago. The totoaba is also considered by international treaty to be endangered. It’s unknown exactly how many are left.


The Elephant Action League’s undercover team, which includes retired law-enforcement officers from around the globe, visited more than two dozen shops in Shantou, China and the surrounding region in March. The area is believed to be a main trading hub for the bladders.

“They pretend to be buyers or traders,” said Andrea Crosta, executive director and co-founder of the league, which employs a handful of full-time staff members and a network of about a couple dozen contractors around the world. “They wear undercover cameras. We come back with audio and video that back up our words,” he said.

Many shop owners at first hesitated to speak with the league’s investigators, but eventually opened up and displayed their priciest fish maws. After the Chinese government began paying more attention to the illicit trade in recent years, many merchants responded by selling only to trusted customers and behind closed doors.

However, this level of caution wasn’t universal.


“Chinese laws on illegal wildlife trafficking are very harsh, but the problem is the implementation,” Crosta said. “It’s not enough to just have the laws. They have to be enforced.”

China’s government launched a campaign last fall to educate merchants on Chinese and Mexican laws banning totoaba fishing and bladder sales. Still, none of shop owners interviewed by the league could recall any seizures by law enforcement in their region.

Because (when) the government comes to check, they call and inform us earlier, and we will hide them when they come. merchant from Nan’ao Island selling totoaba bladders

On Nan’ao Island, a historical trading hub for fish maws just off the coast of Shantou, an investigator probed a dealer for information.


“If it’s illegal, why do you put them on display?” the investigator asked.

“Because (when) the government comes to check, they call and inform us earlier, and we will hide them when they come,” the merchant explained.

Several shop owners advised the investigators to purchase only the most expensive gold coin fish maw to use as an important business gift or to bribe a government official for an especially lucrative contract.

Investigators found a steady flow of totoaba bladders coming from Mexico into China, and many traders said that’s because they’re betting on a collapse of the species. The merchants frequently said people buy the gold coin fish maws as investments, speculating that demand will eventually outpace supply and dramatically drive up market values.


A primary smuggling route for totoaba bladders is believed to be from Mexico into the U.S. and then to Hong Kong and China, according to the new report. Thailand, which critics said also suffers from lax enforcement, is thought to be another key stopover for some shipments.

Shop owners in Shantou said most of the fish bladders were coming from a port on the U.S.-Mexico border, transported in shipping containers alongside legal products such as codfish bladders.

Mexican and U.S. officials have called the totoaba bladder “aquatic cocaine.” In fact, it’s often more expensive, with about two pounds of dried bladder routinely selling for as much as three and a half pounds of the powder drug.

Wildlife trafficking in general is big business, with an estimated annual value of $2 billion in the U.S. and up to $23 billion globally, according to a 2015 report from the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C. It is routinely ranked among the top illicit trades worldwide.


Moving illegal animal and plant products has drawn the attention of organized crime. In Baja California, drug cartels have been blamed for paying local fishermen to poach the totoaba bladders and then smuggling the contraband.

The value of totoaba bladders in Mexico is approximately $1,500 apiece, according to some law-enforcement agencies. The pricing surges to about $5,000 per bladder after the organ is smuggled into the U.S.

It’s thought that trafficking of totoaba bladders attracts a lot of opportunists because it’s lucrative and relatively low-risk. Even people on the front lines moving the product rarely face consequences in China, Mexico or the U.S., judging by the scant number of prosecutions in those countries.

“The number of cases have (recently) decreased,” said Michelle Zetwo of San Diego, a special agent with the law-enforcement division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “That either tells me that the demand is down in China or they’re beating us coming across the border somehow. Or they’re shipping it directly from Mexico to China.”


The most high-profile totoaba case involved the prosecution of a man, Song Shen Zhen, caught crossing the border from Calexico into the U.S. with several of the bladders. After he was let go, Border Patrol agents trailed him to a house where they discovered more than 200 other dried bladders, estimated to have a total street value in China of more than $3.6 million.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of California announced in 2014 that Shen Zhen was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay the Mexican government $120,500 in restitution. Under the law, he could have received up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In another case, Los Angeles-based furniture dealer Kam Wing Chan received probation and was ordered to pay $55,000 in restitution for, among other things, possession of several dozen swim bladders.

1 / 35 Sea Shepherd crew members Kate Parker, from the U.K., and Brandon Abitbol from Canada worked cut loose the corpse of a dolphin that had died after becoming entangled in a “long line” fishing rig, evidence of the fierce struggle that took it’s life after not being able to swim. The long lines are a thick line with very large baited hooks spaced out along it’s length and an go for as long a several miles. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 35 The corpse of a dolphin floated on the surface with it’s body wrapped in a “long line” fishing rig, evidence of the firerce struggle that took it’s life after not being able to swim. The long lines are a thick line with very large baited hooks spaced out along it’s length and an go for as long a several miles. The Sea Shepherd untangled the remains then removed the abandoned fishing system from the sea. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 35 Sea Shepherd crew member Brandon Abitbol worked to cut the body of an entangled dolphin from an abandoned long line fishing rig in the Vaquita preserve area. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 35 The former Japanese whaling boat, now known as the M/V Sam Simon, is one of three Sea Shepherd ships working in the Upper Gulf of California to protect the endangered vaquita. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 35 Pia Klemp, the second officer on the San Simon, looked at the radar while on patrol in the Upper Gulf. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 35 The Sea Shepherd boat Sam Simon sailed past San Felipe en-route to the restricted fishing areas of the Upper Gulf of California. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 35 Fishing boats sat at the dock in San Felipe. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 35 A fishing boat sat idle at the port in San Felipe. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 35 A small boat left the harbor at San Felipe before sunrise. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 35 Drone pilots Jack Hutton, front, and Rodolphe Villevieille, rear, flew the ship’s drones in the area where pangas were dragging hooks looking for abandoned nets. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 35 Mexican fishermen left the harbor at San Felipe to go out and search for abandoned nets and fishing gear that trap marine life and kills it at an alarming rate. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 35 The carcass of a dead vaquita was discovered by a Sea Shepherd boat while patrolling the upper gulf. They called the Mexican Navy who came to retrieve the carcass for analysis. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 13 / 35 Crew members on a Mexican Navy patrol boat recovered the carcass of a dead vaquita discovered by a Sea Shepherd boat while patrolling the upper gulf. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 14 / 35 Crew member Karolina Hojnowska, from Poland, removed a dead Spanish mackerel from a gill net that the crew had recovered from a beach in the Upper Gulf of California frequented by crews fishing illegally in the area. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 35 Crew member Caroline Scholl-Poensgen, from Germany, bagged up the dismantled components from illegal fishing gear that they had removed from the water. It will all be recycled into consumer items. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 16 / 35 Crew member Karolina Hojnowska, from Poland, front, and Rodrigo Gil, rear, worked to cut up an illegal net used to catch totoaba that the crew found the night before and removed after chasing of the crew that was deploying it. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 17 / 35 Rodrigo Gil, from Mexico, worked to cut up an illegal net used to catch totoaba that the crew found the night before and removed after chasing of the crew that was deploying it. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 18 / 35 Crew members Kate Parker, from the U.K., and Tom Zack, an ex-pat American who lives in Thailand, dismantled an illegal totoaba net they recovered at night after the ship’s drone scared the fishermen away. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 19 / 35 The radar of the ship shows many panga boats out fishing illegally at night in the Upper Gulf of California (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 20 / 35 Quartermaster Carlotta Zanlari, from Italy, used the ships radar to track fishing boats using nets at night in the Upper Gulf of California where they are illegal. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 21 / 35 The remains of a dolphin, not a vaquita, floated free after being removed from an abandoned long line fishing rig that had claimed the life of the mammal. Sea Shepherd’s ship, the M/V Sam Shepherd is in the background. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 22 / 35 Sea Shepherd drone pilot Jack Hutton readied a drone to launch after a suspected poaching boat was spotted. Minutes later the drone was above the poachers who heard the craft, panicked, and threw their nets in the water and sped away. The Sea Shepherd crew then moved in to the area with their ship the Sam Simon and recovered the net. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 23 / 35 An image being transmitted from one of the ship’s night vision drones showed a fishing boat in the closed area at night. (Sea Shepherd / ) 24 / 35 Fishermen fishing illegally in the northern Upper Gulf of California were photographed with Sea Shepherd drones in March of this year. One of the crew members in the front of the boat was trying down the drone by throwing things at it. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 25 / 35 Fishermen fishing illegally in the Upper Gulf of California were photographed with Sea Shepherd drones. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 26 / 35 Fishermen fishing illegally in the Upper Gulf of California were photographed with Sea Shepherd drones. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 27 / 35 A boat full of totoaba, a protected fish that is highly valued on the black market, and it’s crew sped to shore while being photographed with a Sea Shepherd drone. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 28 / 35 Fishermen pulled up a large totoaba, a protected fish that is highly valued on the black market, while fishing illegally in the northern gulf. These images were taken from video provided to the Union-Tribune by Sea Shepherd. (Sea Shepherd / ) 29 / 35 Rodrigo Gil, from Mexico, worked to cut up an illegal net used to catch totoaba that the crew found the night before and removed after chasing of the crew that was deploying it. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 30 / 35 Sunshine Rodriguez is head of the larger of two fishing cooperatives that work in the area. He has taken a more confrontational approach to the two-year fishing ban and has demanded that the Sea Shepherd ships leave. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 31 / 35 Ramon Franco Diaz head of one of the two fishing federations in San Felipe, says that it is imperative that the Mexican government gives them vaquita safe fishing equipment so they can return to fishing. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 32 / 35 The extreme tidal movement visible in the upper gulf at San Felipe is evidence of the high volume of water movement that contributes to the richness of this region of the Sea of Cortez. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 33 / 35 A cyclist rides past a mural of a mother and baby vaquita painted on a building in San Felipe. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 34 / 35 Fisherman Javier Valverde steps off of a panga boat after returning from a day of dragging hooks behind the boat looking for abandoned nets in the vaquita preserve. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) 35 / 35 A panga fishing boat crossed the harbor at San Felipe before sunrise. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune)


Fishermen in Baja California who catch totoaba largely have escaped serious fines and incarceration.

“Most of the illegal fishermen are not motivated by a little fine. It’s so lucrative,” said Oona Layolle, who heads an advocacy operation in the Upper Gulf of Mexico for the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. She oversees two boats that patrol the area, pull up banned gillnets and call in potential poaches to the Mexican navy.

“Every night we see 20 (illegal) fishermen around our ship on the radar, and I know they only arrested seven people in the last two years,” she added.

Mexico’s law-enforcement leaders are promising to step up efforts again the unsanctioned fishing and smuggling. Last month, its Congress voted to make such poaching a felony, and a boat with three or more people found catching totoaba can face charges of organized crime.


So far, these measures haven’t seemed to slow down fishermen in the upper Gulf, who sell totoaba bladders to middlemen in and around the town of San Felipe, said Sean Bogle, an investigative filmmaker with the nonprofit Wild Lens.

“A fisherman will go out and fish for totoaba, and they’re usually removing the bladder in the boat,” he said. “When they hit shore, there is an individual waiting for them, someone involved in an organized syndicate of sorts.”

Bogle recently directed the documentary “Souls of the Vermilion Sea,” which chronicles the impact of totoaba poaching on the dwindling vaquita population. In the process, he interviewed anglers and government officials close to the supply chain.

“From what I understand, going through the U.S. is the most common (smuggling) route,” Bogle said. “There’s definitely reports of it going out of San Diego, particularly on container ships.”


Twitter: @jemersmith


Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com