Sharks are captured for fins, meat, and liver oil at enormous scale. The welfare implications of shark fishing are largely unaddressed despite growing recognition of shark cognition and sensory complexity.
Shark welfare receives almost no policy attention despite the scale of killing and evidence for complex sensory and cognitive lives. Captured sharks typically die slowly — either discarded after finning, or dying on longlines over hours to days. This prolonged dying causes immense suffering. Shark finning bans represent a welfare and conservation improvement, but sharks continue to be killed by the millions for meat, liver oil, and as bycatch in target fisheries. The welfare argument against shark finning and the conservation argument are aligned, but the broader welfare case for reducing shark mortality from all causes requires explicit recognition of shark sentience.