Shark finning — removing fins at sea and discarding the body — causes extreme suffering and has driven dramatic declines in shark populations worldwide.
Shark finning inflicts prolonged suffering: finned sharks thrown overboard cannot swim, sink to the ocean floor, and die slowly from asphyxiation, blood loss, or predation while still alive. The awareness of their own inability to move — whether sharks experience this subjectively is uncertain, but physiological stress responses are well-documented — combined with the tissue trauma of fin removal makes finning one of the most clearly welfare-negative practices in marine fisheries. Consumer campaigns targeting shark fin soup have proven more effective than regulatory approaches in markets with weak enforcement, demonstrating that demand reduction is the primary lever for reducing both individual suffering and population-level harm.