Brazilian authorities said they have seized 28.7 metric tons of illegally obtained shark fins. The fins, which were destined for export to Asia, were estimated to represent the death of some 10,000 sharks.

Brazil’s environment protection agency, Ibama, said the consignment was the largest illegal shark fin shipment ever seized at the source with the fins found in two separate locations: 27.6 metric tonnes in the southern state of Santa Catarina and the remainder at Sao Paulo International Airport.

“These apprehensions on an integrated basis represent the largest recorded in the world, especially considering it is a seizure at the source where the sharks are caught,” Ibama said in a statement posted on Reuters.

“These apprehensions on an integrated basis represent the largest recorded in the world, especially considering it is a seizure at the source where the sharks are caught.”

Ibama said the sharks were likely caught using illegal methods, such as longlining and gillnetting – both methods are indiscriminate and often catch a wide variety of marine life, including sharks, dolphins, and turtles.

The blue shark and the shortfin mako shark, two of the species whose fins were seized, are both listed as endangered in Brazil – their loss attributed to overfishing, habitat loss, and bycatch.

According to Reuters, Ibama’s operation targeted two different companies, and there are others still under investigation, said the agency’s head of environmental protection Jair Schmitt.

“This practice is already recurrent in Brazil. We had some years ago the finding of about seven or eight metric tons of shark, seized in Para state, with a similar method of finning,” Schmitt said referring to a method of slicing fins off sharks and dumping the rest of the body into the sea.