Reef sharks are keystone predators in coral reef ecosystems whose removal causes cascading ecological damage. Overfishing and bycatch threaten their populations and cause significant individual animal suffering.
Reef sharks caught in fishing gear — whether targeted or as bycatch — suffer acute stress and injury during capture, and frequently die from exhaustion or asphyxiation during prolonged entanglement. Sharks that escape with injuries from hooks, net entanglement, or line cuts face elevated predation risk and impaired hunting ability. The slow reproductive rate of sharks means that population recovery from overfishing is measured in decades, not years — meaning each individual shark lost has amplified long-term consequences. Protecting reef shark populations through marine protected areas, bycatch reduction, and ending targeted shark fishing is simultaneously an ecological necessity and a welfare intervention that prevents enormous amounts of individual animal suffering.