Wildlife

Hammerhead Shark Welfare: Fin Trade and Live Finning

Hammerhead sharks are among the most traded shark species for their fins, with live finning causing extreme suffering and population collapse.

Key Facts

Great hammerhead is Critically Endangered; scalloped hammerhead is Endangered
Shark finning — removing fins and discarding the living body — is banned in EU waters but persists globally
Hammerheads are highly sensitive to capture stress and die rapidly when held
CITES Appendix II listing requires sustainable trade management

Welfare Considerations

Live finning causes sharks to sink to the ocean floor and suffocate or bleed to death over hours. Even sharks caught for whole-body use experience acute stress during longline capture and deck handling. Hammerheads are particularly susceptible to capture myopathy — a fatal stress response from struggle. Dead-at-the-hook rates for hammerheads on longlines are among the highest of any shark species, indicating severe welfare impacts even before reaching the vessel.

What You Can Do

Support WildAid and Shark Stewards anti-finning campaigns
Choose MSC-certified seafood from fisheries with shark bycatch mitigation
Advocate for global shark finning bans through government representatives
Donate to Shark Research Institute population monitoring programmes