Endangered angelshark is still traded in Brazil despite import ban

Vendors at Porto Alegre's public market openly sold peixe anjo, or angelshark, weeks after Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA closed the import loophole that had let endangered angelshark meat enter the country from Argentina. Three Squatina species are banned from domestic fishing, but Federal Revenue data show 242.6 metric tons were legally imported between 2021 and September 2026 before being mixed, per an IBAMA enforcement officer, with illegally caught Brazilian shark and laundered through import paperwork.

Despite the April 3 ban, vendors told Mongabay they still import frozen angelshark from Argentina and doubted the rule was real, given how much product keeps arriving. IBAMA's enforcement coordinator said all new purchase contracts for the fish became automatically illegal in April, yet Mongabay found four recent government bid solicitations for angelshark, including a completed purchase of nearly a ton for a Porto Alegre psychiatric hospital.

Rio Grande do Sul's state government said in 2025 it would instruct agencies to drop angelshark from procurement notices, then issued another solicitation for it in August 2026. The state now says it is again revising the process and reinforcing guidelines.

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