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The Practice
Shark finning is the practice of removing a shark's fins — dorsal, pectoral, and caudal — at sea and discarding the remainder of the animal, usually still alive. The fins are dried and sold for shark fin soup; the rest of the shark is considered commercially unviable.
The practice is driven by a single product: shark fin soup (yu chi tang), a Chinese delicacy with a history dating to the Song dynasty and a cultural association with wealth and generosity at ceremonial occasions (weddings, business banquets). The fin itself has no flavour — its value is textural and symbolic.
Scale of the Problem
A 2021 study in Nature (Pacoureau et al.) documented that oceanic shark and ray populations had declined by 71.1% since 1970 — a decline driven primarily by overfishing, of which finning is a major component. The oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), once described by Jacques Cousteau as 'the most numerous large animal on Earth,' has declined by an estimated 95% from pre-exploitation levels and is now listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, and smooth hammerhead sharks are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered. Global shark fin trade volumes — tracked through Hong Kong, the world's primary fin trade hub — indicate 26-73 million sharks killed annually for the fin trade.
The Ecological Consequence
Sharks are apex predators. Their removal cascades through marine food webs via trophic cascades: without shark predation, medium-sized predators (rays, large reef fish) increase; their prey (smaller fish, invertebrates) decrease; primary producers (algae, seagrasses) may overgrow. The process is documented in multiple reef systems where shark removal has occurred.
The Legal Landscape
Shark finning bans exist in over 100 countries and territories, including the United States (2000), European Union (2013), and Australia (1999). However, implementation and enforcement are inconsistent.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has added increasing numbers of shark species to Appendix II (regulated trade) since 2013, requiring export permits demonstrating legal, non-detrimental trade. The listings cover whale sharks, basking sharks, great white sharks, oceanic whitetips, hammerheads, silky sharks, and thresher sharks.
Hong Kong's wholesale fin trade volume has declined significantly since 2012, driven by consumer campaigns in mainland China, government bans on shark fin at official functions (2012), and increased CITES enforcement.