The Global Shark Finning Crisis

Imagine a fishing line that stretches for miles, with thousands of baited hooks drifting along with it. This process, known as longline fishing, is responsible for the indiscriminate killing of many species of fish and shark, sea turtles, seabirds, and even marine mammals such as dolphin.

A sea turtle killed by a longline. (Photo credit: The Sea Turtle Restoration Project)

Imagine now hundreds of sharks being hooked by this line, and being reeled in one by one. As each shark is hauled aboard the boat, a fisherman takes a large knife and slices off the dorsal and pectoral fins of the still living shark, only to throw it back into the water to die a long and painful death by blood loss, suffocation due to not being able to swim and pass oxygen through the gills, or being eaten in its weak state. The boat fills with fins, and a shark population is systematically eliminated.

Iconic image of a Scalloped Hammerheard Shark, recently finned and thrown back.

This gruesome practice is indiscriminate. Any shark species, regardless of size, sex, age, or endangered classification is subject to the brutal slaughter. The fins of larger endangered species, such as the whale shark or basking shark, are especially prized. A single whale shark fin can be sold for an extremely high price to chinese restaurants in particular, who will display it in their shop window to advertise that they sell shark fin soup.

The fin of a whale shark, the world's largest fish and highly endangered, in a shop window to advertise shark fin soup. (Photo credit: whalesharkproject.org)

Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in Chinese culture. What was once considered a dish consumed only by the elite, is now produced and consumed by a large middle class as a status symbol. Estimates currently show that between 26 to 73 million sharks are killed annually exclusively for their fins.

Spain is the number one exporter of shark fins, while the United States is in the top 10 offenders.

Countries that export shark fins to Hong Kong. (Credit: Oceana.org)

The export of shark fins to Asian countries is not the only concern. In the United States, shark fin soup is common in chinese restaurants. In Florida, a restaurant called Landshark’s Pizza, which prides itself on being the “home of the shark pizza,” serves the vulnerable-to-extinction Mako shark on one of its “specialty” pizzas (information on contacting this establishment to demand the removal of shark pizza at the end of this entry).

Several dead sharks that have been thrown back into the ocean once their fins were removed. (Credit: stopsharkfinning.net)

Many people have asked me why shark finning is such a big problem. “They’re only sharks,” some have said. Regardless of how you feel about sharks, if you are terrified of them, believe they are a nuisance to swimmers (see my earlier entry on misconceptions about sharks), or are simply indifferent to them, their existence has a direct impact on the health of our planet and the health of the human race.

As the top predators of the ocean, sharks maintain a healthy balance in the ecosystem. As their populations dwindle at a staggering and alarming rate, overpopulation of smaller organisms occur, leading to the decimation of micro-organisms that are the foundation of a healthy ocean. The world’s oceans are our planet’s largest carbon sink. As it loses its ability to absorb carbon as the micro-organisms disappear, the rate at which carbon builds in the atmosphere rises dramatically.

Sharks have very long lives and take decades to reach sexual maturity. Their reproduction rate is very slow, meaning the practice of shark finning is decimating shark populations much faster than the sharks are able to reproduce. Many shark species may face extinction.

While many countries have banned shark finning in their waters, the practice is currently entirely unregulated and unmonitored.

Hundreds of shark fins out to dry. (Credit: sustainablewaters.com)

Suddenly, shark fin soup seems to have a higher cost than most people have realized.

This assault on our oceans and its inhabitants affects all of us, and I strongly encourage you to take action to end this brutal and destructive practice.

Remember the Florida pizzeria mentioned earlier in the post? Contact them and express your concern over their exploitation of our shark populations.

The following links are to organizations that have made some amazing progress, and I urge you to join them in their cause.

• The Shark Alliance – This coalition of organizations regularly updates on conservation efforts and the latest news regarding sharks. It has many articles and studies available for reading published on the website.

• The Blue Ocean Guide to Ocean-Friendly Seafood – Blue Ocean is a wonderful organization that focuses on marine conservation. They have a thorough guide on where seafood comes from, how sustainable it is, and its impact.

• OCEANA – Put an End to Brutal Shark Finning – Oceana is a global organization for marine conservation. The link leads to a petition for Americans to contact their senators about regulating shark finning. For everyone else, visit Oceana.org.

This harmless and beautiful whale shark belongs in the ocean, not in soup.