Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The country best known for samba and soybeans has quietly become the world’s largest importer of shark meat. A recent investigation by Mongabay’s Philip Jacobson, Karla Mendes and Kuang Keng Kuek Ser reveals the extent to which this flesh, sold generically as cação, has infiltrated Brazil’s public institutions. Over two decades, at least 5,400 metric tons of shark meat were procured for government facilities including 5,391 schools, more than 1,100 of which cater to infants and toddlers. Other recipients include prisons, hospitals, military bases, and even maternity wards. What’s troubling is not just the volume but the obfuscation. Brazilians consuming cação are rarely informed they’re eating shark, let alone which species. Almost all procurement records lack species-specific labeling. This is more than semantic negligence: It risks fueling the illegal trade in threatened species. With 16 of 31 oceanic shark and ray species classified as threatened, and blue sharks — the trade’s apparent mainstay — listed as near threatened, lax procurement may be hastening ecological collapse. The public health implications are equally severe. Sharks, being apex predators, bioaccumulate heavy metals like mercury and arsenic. Yet, in Brazil, shark meat is regularly served to some of the most vulnerable citizens — young children, the elderly, and pregnant women — without mandatory contaminant testing. A feeding guide from the Ministry of Health even recommends cação for infants under 2, citing its lack of bones, but ignoring…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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