Shark finning — removing fins and discarding living or recently living sharks at sea — causes immense suffering and has driven many shark species to the brink of extinction.
Shark finning causes both ecological catastrophe and profound individual animal suffering. Sharks discarded after finning cannot swim, cannot respire effectively, and die slowly from blood loss, hypoxia, or predation over hours or days. The scale of this suffering — involving tens of millions of individual animals annually — makes it one of the largest acute welfare crises in the ocean. Conservation and welfare arguments are aligned: the same populations being driven to extinction are experiencing massive individual suffering. Fin-to-body ratios regulations that require sharks to be landed whole are more enforceable than outright finning bans and are gaining adoption. Consumer campaigns reducing demand for shark fin products in key markets have shown measurable impact. Regulatory, enforcement, and demand-side approaches must all be pursued simultaneously.