Sharks face dramatic population declines from fishing and finning while their capacity for stress and suffering is increasingly recognized. Shark welfare is an emerging but important frontier.
Shark welfare advocacy faces the challenge of overcoming centuries of cultural framing of sharks as dangerous, unfeeling predators. The scientific reality is that sharks — as vertebrates with functional nervous systems and documented stress responses — have the biological capacity for at least basic negative experiences. This does not mean sharks experience the rich subjective suffering of mammals, but it does mean that the drowning of a finned shark, or the prolonged stress of bycatch capture, are welfare events that deserve consideration. The welfare and conservation cases for shark protection are mutually reinforcing: the most effective welfare interventions — ending shark finning, reducing bycatch, protecting critical habitat — also address the conservation crisis that threatens shark populations. Consumer choices around shark-fin products and shark-caught seafood, combined with advocacy for stronger fishing regulations and protected marine areas, represent the most accessible individual-level interventions.