Texas Game Warden Kevin Winters and his partner Kathleen Kathleen Stuman display the shark fins and meat confiscated as evidence from a San Antonio seafood restaurant. Their K-9 assistant Bailey helped identify the contraband. Credit: Facebook / Texas Game Wardens

Texas Game Wardens say they discovered 381 shark fins at a San Antonio seafood restaurant Wednesday during an inspection.

In a Facebook post, wardens said they seized the fins along with 29.2 pounds of frozen shark fin meat, all of which were found inside the business’ commercial freezer. A spokeswoman for the Texas Game Wardens declined to identify the restaurant, saying it’s now part of a criminal investigation, although no arrests have been made.

Game Warden Kevin Winters, who led the investigation, told the Current the bust is the first he’s aware of in San Antonio, although he’s been involved similar cases in Houston. Shark fins, illegal under Texas law, can demand prices of $450  to $650 per pound on the black market.

“This goes to show it’s not just in our coastal cities, it’s everywhere,” Winters said.

Winters declined to say what specifically drew wardens to investigate the restaurant, only adding “it was an open source that was available to the public that we followed up on.” After Winters and his partner, Kathleen Stuman, found the shark fins, they called in a K-9 named Bailey, who is trained to identify shark fin by scent.

Winters said he hopes to submit the case to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in the next few weeks.

A 2015 Texas law made it a Class B misdemeanor to sell, buy or transport shark fins. Breaking the law is punishable with up to 180 days in jail and up to a $2,000 fine.

A federal law passed in 2000 made shark finning — the process of severing a shark’s fin and dumping the creature back into the water — illegal in U.S. waters.

“At this point, it’s just a state case, unless we discover they transported them across state lines, at which point, it becomes federal,” Winters said of the San Antonio bust.

Conservation groups sought a ban the trade because it leads to a slow death for the sharks, who drown or starve without their fins.  As one of the ocean’s apex predators, sharks help maintain a natural balance of underwater ecosystems, Winters said.

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This article appears in Apr 6-19, 2022.

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...