Sharks. Love them or fear them, these top predators are a necessary part of the marine ecosystem. Some fisheries target sharks for their meat, wasting very little, while others target sharks for their fins alone, tossing the live animals back into the water where they slowly die a miserable and painful death. Why is finning practiced? All in the name of a popular soup which, according to Chinese lore, is one of the “eight treasured foods from the sea.”
Shark Fin Soup
Prized as a delicacy in China, and served at weddings, Chinese New Year celebrations, and other special occasions, shark fin soup is prepared using the cartilaginous caudal, pectoral, and dorsal fins from various shark species, which can be found frozen, dried, cooked, or raw in Asian markets; in some places, canned ready to eat shark fin soup is available.
Shark fins are used to provide texture to this soup – before being used however, they must be softened and are often bleached. Shark fin soup is less nutritious than vegetable soup, plus it contains high levels of mercury and other toxins; while shark meat was once safe to eat, it is now barely fit for human consumption.
Historically, shark fin soup dates back to the Ming Dynasty, when it was a food reserved for emperors and other high level authorities; it was eaten very rarely, and in those days, finning for the sake of “harvesting” fins alone did not occur – the whole fish was eaten. Today, the soup is costly at an average of $100 per bowl; yet it is in demand and that demand is growing. It is found in restaurants worldwide, and in the Far East, consumption is increasing to the point where even more pressure is being placed on shark populations.
Finning Practices
Finning is the act of slicing a shark or ray’s fins from its body while it is still alive, retaining only the fins, and tossing the suffering animal back into the water where it faces starvation, death by drowning, or slow predation by fish that nibble at the open wounds until the shark finally dies. Finning operators do this in order to keep only the most monetarily valuable portion of the animal in their onboard storage facilities so that they can increase profit. The practice is widespread, mostly unmonitored, and often unregulated, with a few exceptions.
Not only does finning occur in international waters off places like Western Australia, Central America, Europe, Canada, the US, and many other places, poachers have been caught finning within the boundaries of Costa Rica’s Cocos Island national marine protected area, as well as within a protected marine area in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat islands. Targeted species include bull sharks, sandbar sharks, hammerheads, black tip and white tip sharks, porbeagles, makos, blue sharks, thresher sharks, and sometimes great white sharks.
Due to advanced technology, fishing for sharks has become easier, and conservationists estimate that anywhere from 26 million to 73 million sharks are finned worldwide each year. Shark fins are considered to be a hot commodity; often retailing at prices between $400 per kilogram to $1000 per kilogram, with profits for various market players adding up to billions of dollars annually. Conservationists have been able to make estimates based only on declared shark fin shipments; the actual numbers could be much higher, particularly since many participants in finning operations work on a clandestine basis and keep no records.
The High Cost of Finning
Many shark populations worldwide are in decline, partly due to loss of habitat and pollution, and partly due to fishing and finning pressure. Tens of millions of sharks are killed annually simply to satisfy the demand for an unhealthful soup, with restaurants worldwide receiving an estimated 8,000 tons of shark fins every year.
Finning and shark fishing has continued unabated in many places, even though fishermen are recording smaller catches – the sharks are being caught and killed before they have a chance to reach maturity and before they have time to reproduce. Most shark species take several years to reproduce, and many bear only one to two pups after a lengthy pregnancy. Despite the popular misconception that sharks are abundant, many species are in fact on the brink of extinction, with IUCN’s red list making note of nearly twenty endangered species, many of which are at levels more than 90% lower than they were only a few decades ago. Hammerheads, bull sharks, and dusky sharks, for example, are at population levels a full 99% lower today than they were at in 1972.
Time and again, conservationists warn of the dire circumstances that can occur when top predator populations decline. Apex predators keep other populations stable, ensuring that the ecosystem functions smoothly; total collapse can occur without them. The world’s entire population depends on properly functioning oceans for survival. Without sharks, everyone is at risk.
What is Being Done About the Problem
Fortunately, some policy makers - both public and private – are beginning to take action, banning shark finning and shark fin soup. In Hong Kong, shark fin soup has been removed from some menus, including Hong Kong Disney’s wedding banquet menu, the Peninsula Hotel’s dining facility, and the University of Hong Kong.
Malaysia banned shark fin soup from the menu for official state functions, and Taiwan banned all shark finning in 2011. Some markets in Singapore have stopped carrying shark fins and canned shark fin soup, and some Canadian provinces are working toward a ban.
In the US, any shark fins brought to port must still be attached to shark carcasses, and regulations ban US registered fisheries from finning. In addition, any shark fins imported to the US must be attached to intact sharks. Some states have tougher regulations than others; for example, in Hawaii, the sale, distribution, or possession of shark fins has been banned, with the states of California, Oregon, and Washington following suit. Guam has similar regulations, as does the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In all these places, sharks may be legally fished and sold intact; any form of finning is prohibited until the fish reaches the end consumer.
As with other problems that marine life and ocean ecosystems face, this one can be combated by better educating consumers, finding healthy and suitable substitutes for unsustainable food products, and by direct action on a case by case basis. Naturalist Steve Irwin used to walk out of restaurants that served shark fin soup – we can do the same, plus we can sign petitions designated for delivery to elected officials. It’s a matter of survival.