Shark finning, removing fins from live sharks and discarding their bodies at sea, causes severe suffering and drives population declines across multiple shark species.
Shark finning causes welfare harm that is both severe in intensity and catastrophic in scale. The experience of a finned shark, unable to swim and sinking to the ocean floor where it suffocates or bleeds to death, involves prolonged suffering that continues until death. The population-level consequences of the fin trade are equally severe: species that evolved over hundreds of millions of years are being depleted to fractions of their historic numbers within decades, with ecosystem consequences that affect millions of other marine animals. Welfare and conservation are closely aligned in the shark finning case: stopping the trade would prevent enormous individual suffering while allowing population recovery that benefits entire marine ecosystems. Progress has been made through consumer campaigns, restaurant commitments, and legislative bans, but enforcement in international waters remains a persistent challenge.