Shark Fin from Asian market in Vancouver, British Columbia, Tuesday July 10, 2012. (QMI Agency/CARMINE MARINELLI)

DNA results from the University of Guelph, Ont., shows that 76% of shark fin samples from four Metro Vancouver shops come from endangered or vulnerable species.

Dr. Dirk Steinke, director of education and outreach at the university’s Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, reviewed 59 viable samples collected by the Vancouver Animal Defense League (VADL) from stores in Vancouver’s Chinatown and Richmond’s No. 3 Road.

“When we got the samples, there was the suspicion that a couple of them would certainly be endangered or vulnerable,” Steinke said, “but I would never have thought that basically three-quarters of them are.”