Around 50 Cuban marine specimens with ecological heritage value were confiscated by specialists from the General Customs of the Republic, thus preventing an attempt at illegal trafficking, official media from the island reported.
The specimens (a hippocampus, eleven sea corals and 34 sea shells) are of great importance for the national marine ecosystem because of their being in danger of extinction, their endemism and their level of representation of the various coastal habitats of the national archipelago.
“All these specimens are protected by Cuban laws, and their illegal export or trade constitutes a violation included in Resolution 160 of 2011 of the CITMA; which presents the control and protection of varieties with a high significance for the biological diversity in the country,” Yudnier Cepero González, director of the Office of Regulation and Environmental Safety (ORSA) belonging to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), commented to the source.
CITMA specialists affirm that various flora and fauna specimens in imminent danger of extinction inhabit the national territory, such as the Cuban crocodile, the jutía conga, the manatee or the zunzún, due to indiscriminate hunting or destruction. of their habitats.
Cepero González added, according to the note published by the state newspaper Juventud Rebelde, that the ORSA donates the seized specimens to various institutions and facilities dedicated to scientific research, in addition to delivering them to the territory’s museums, where various Cuban flora and fauna collections are preserved for their exhibition and study.
