Shark finning — removing fins at sea and discarding the living body — causes extreme suffering and has depleted shark populations across the world's oceans.
Shark finning causes one of the most prolonged and clear welfare harms in commercial fishing — a sentient animal capable of pain is rendered helpless and dies over hours in its natural environment from a human act. The welfare case against finning is unarguable regardless of the level of uncertainty about shark pain consciousness. Their neurological complexity — sharks have large brains relative to body size and demonstrate learning, memory, and social behaviour — supports the view that they experience something meaningful at the death that finning causes.