Hammerhead sharks are among the most iconic and threatened shark species, targeted for their large fins. Their conservation requires demand reduction, bycatch reduction, and marine protected areas.
Hammerhead sharks face the same welfare harms as other targeted shark species — violent deaths from line fishing and finning — but are at additional risk because their distinctive large fins command premium prices in the shark fin trade. Capture on longlines causes exhaustion, injury, and slow death. Finning of live animals causes the same prolonged suffering described for other shark species. The ecological role of hammerheads as apex predators makes their depletion a cascade welfare problem for the reef and open ocean communities they regulate. The critical conservation status of multiple hammerhead species means that continued finning and bycatch mortality may drive some populations past recovery thresholds within decades.