Shark finning involves removing fins from live sharks and discarding the body at sea. The practice causes prolonged suffering and has decimated shark populations globally.
Shark finning causes profound individual animal suffering. Sharks finned at sea experience the trauma of fin removal and then prolonged death from drowning, blood loss, or predation in a helpless state. The scale is enormous - tens of millions of sharks annually. Beyond individual suffering, population collapse means millions of sharks no longer live their natural lives. Declining apex predators destabilise ocean ecosystems, affecting billions of other animals. Comprehensive trade restrictions rather than just finning-at-sea bans are needed to address the welfare and conservation crisis, as legal shark fin imports from countries without finning bans circumvent partial regulations.