Antony Dickson / AFP - Getty Images

Shark fins drying in the sun cover the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.

Paul Hilton / EPA

Approximately 18 thousand shark fins are left out to dry on top of an industrial building in Hong Kong's Kennedy Town district on Jan. 2, 2013.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Shark fins, which cost between HK$2,880 ($369) and HK$3,580 ($459) per Chinese catty (1 pound), are seen on display inside a dried seafood store in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.

Shark fin traders in Hong Kong have taken to drying freshly sliced fins on rooftops since a public outcry over them drying the fins on public sidewalks forced them to move the trade out of sight. 

Activists have raised concerns that the over-harvesting of fins is causing an environmental calamity. Although sales have fallen in recent years Hong Kong remains one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make soup that is an expensive staple at Chinese banquets.  

-- European Pressphoto Agency, Agence France-Presse, Reuters

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Thousands of pieces of shark fin are dried on the rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. The fins were shipped from an unknown location and unloaded at a nearby pier to be dried on the rooftop.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Workers lay out pieces of shark fin to dry on a rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. Local sales of the luxurious gourmet food have fallen in recent years due to its controversial nature, but activists demand a total shark fin ban in the city, labelled by some as the shark fin capital of the world.

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Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

Some 120 shark dorsal fins seized to fishermen by the navy in the Caribbean Sea are incinerated in Tegucigalpa, on Thursday. Honduras created the first shark sanctuary one year ago.

Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

Some 120 shark dorsal fins seized from fishermen by the navy before their incineration in Tegucigalpa.

The Tico Times reports that environment officials from Costa Rica and Honduras proposed protections for hammerhead sharks:

Scalloped hammerheads are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are in high demand for shark fin soup and account for about 4 percent of all shark fins in international trade.

Government delegates from the 175 CITES member countries will vote on the hammerhead and other possible shark protection proposals at next year’s meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which will take place March 3-15 in Thailand.

See images of sharks in PhotoBlog.

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