The rising global trade in these ocean predators
Brazil Government Served Shark Meat to Public Institutions
Last week, during our family vacation on a Malaysian island, my 9-year-old son and I spotted a whitetip reef shark while snorkeling. It was a special moment for me as I whispered to him that his dad managed to save some sharks, not with fins in the water, but with journalism supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Working with Philip Jacobson and Karla Mendes from Mongabay, we used data to prove that the Brazilian government has sought to purchase shark meat to serve in thousands of public institutions. This was an urgent issue because sharks are being overfished globally and their meat contains high levels of heavy metals like mercury and arsenic that can be harmful for young children, pregnant and nursing mothers, and other vulnerable groups. The reporting project sparked a public debate and triggered immediate actions: Several government agencies said they will stop buying threatened shark meat, and a Brazilian lawmaker said he will call for a parliamentary hearing on the matter.
Very few investigations that I worked on brought such immediate real-world impacts. It took us a year to uncover that more than 1,000 shark meat tenders issued by the government since 2004, and at least 5,900 public institutions—preschools, homeless shelters, maternity wards, military bases, elderly care facilities, governor’s residences, and more—across 10 Brazilian states potentially received shark meat.
When we first looked into this issue, we came across isolated cases of government agencies feeding shark meat to schoolchildren and heard from experts that such a phenomenon was widespread. But there was no study on its full extent: How much shark meat was purchased? Which agencies bought it and whom did they feed it to?
Then we learned that such information might be available in public online databases where Brazilian government agencies are legally required to publish their procurement records. We spent the next few months combing through dozens of databases, using both manual searches and automated tools, to identify and compile data of procurement involving shark meat. This was followed by months of data cleaning and analysis to identify the recipients.
This is one of the many investigations supported by the Data and Research team at the Pulitzer Center. We also publish our investigation methodologies, including this story’s, on our Resources page.
Best,
Impact
Covering Climate Now has announced the winners of its 2025 awards, selected from more than 1,200 entries by journalists in nearly 50 countries. Recognizing excellent reporting on critical dimensions of the climate crisis, this year’s honors include three Pulitzer Center-supported projects:
- Herders at the Edge, by 2024 Reporting Fellow Delgerzaya Delgerjargal, received an award in the “Climate in Every Beat” category. The documentary tells the story of a racehorse trainer and a young jockey in Mongolia and how climate change threatens their cultural livelihood.
- Grantees Carlyle Calhoun and Halle Parker won in the “Fossil Fuels” category for their project All Gassed Up. The three-episode Louisiana radio series dives into the liquefied natural gas (LNG) boom and what it means locally and globally.
- Unmasking Climate Change Misinformation in Argentina, by grantees Florencia Ballarino and Lucía Gardel, was honored in the “Disinformation” category. The series debunks false climate change narratives across Latin America, investigates the actors behind them, and prepares readers to fact-check climate information themselves.
See the full list of winners here.
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This message first appeared in the September 26, 2025, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.
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