Shark finning — removing fins and discarding the live animal at sea — causes prolonged suffering and has decimated shark populations globally.
The welfare impact of shark finning is extreme — animals have their fins removed while alive and are then thrown back into the water, unable to swim, to die slowly by asphyxiation or predation. Even when sharks are killed before finning, the scale of mortality and the ecological damage of removing apex predators from marine ecosystems make this one of the most serious wildlife welfare issues globally. Marine ecosystem disruption also causes cascading harm to the millions of other species that depend on balanced predator-prey relationships.