Shark Fining Persuasive Essay

Sharks have been the ocean’s apex predators since 200 million years ago. Yet shark populations have been rapidly declining since humans began the worldwide practice of shark finning. This is the process of removing the fins from sharks then throwing the body back into the ocean left to die slowly. Shark fins are popular targets for fishermen because of their high value although the issues caused by this practice are widespread, inhumane and damaging to almost every ecosystem.
Shark fins have been considered a delicacy in the Chinese culture since the Sung Dynasty in AD 968, in a dish called Shark Fin Soup. The emperors of china have believed that the soup had medicinal benefits and represented conquering powerful sharks. Shark fins have no
taste or nutritional value, they only provide the soup with texture. Today, the dish is served at weddings and elaborate parties because it can cost up to $100 per bowl. This part of the Chinese culture has not faded away with time, but has grown into a multimillion dollar industry.
The fins cut from sharks can sell for up to $880 (USD) per pound depending on the species.
The fins are the most valuable part of the shark, which is the reason behind throwing the rest of the still living body back into the ocean. On average the “fins account for only 5% of the shark’s weight”. Making shark fining extremely wasteful because killing a shark for only 5% of its weight takes away from the valuable contributions to the ecosystems. Such as “maintain other species’ populations, promote biodiversity and to regulate and balance oceans”. The oceans provides 1/3 of the world with food, produces oxygen, cleans the atmosphere’s greenhouse gases and controls Earth’s temperature and weather. Destroying shark populations could destroy our oceans and our life support
system. An estimated 73 million sharks are killed worldwide annually. The affects are already being seen. Off the United States east coast large sharks have been finned to the point of them no longer existing in that area. Therefore, smaller sharks are growing excessively and eating the shellfish, which is a popular industry in that area, ruining the once vibrant ecosystem. Virtually every species of shark has a slow growth rate and a slow reproductive rate. Meaning that it takes a long time to get to the age of reproduction and once sharks reach that age they are limited to very few pups per liter. Sharks are highly vulnerable to extinction. Today, many shark populations have decreased by 60 -70% at the fault of human shark finning. Although many of these fined species are listed as either critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable, they are continually finned. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered species has “50 sharks species listed as high risk for extinction, 63 are approaching threatened status”. And another “199 species are data deficient” meaning there isn’t enough information to know their status. It’s possible for many of these sharks to become extinct during our life time.
Many countries have finning bans to make finning illegal in their county’s waters.
Yet many fisherman continue to fin and kill sharks at an alarming rate of 73 million sharks annually. “Whale sharks, Basking sharks, and Great White sharks are restricted in international trade by the United Nations Convention on the Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna signed by 175 nations”. The laws made to protect shark species does not mean they are completely protected. In South Africa there is a major illegal finning problem on Great Whites because of the value of their fins on the black market, which is up to $600. In “2011, President Obama signed The Shark Conservation Act which closed any loopholes” in earlier finning legislation. Other countries, for instance Palau, have sanctuaries where sharks are protected from commercial exploitation in its waters. To date there are “1.8 million square miles of protected waters globally” and it continues to
grow. Shark populations need to have time to recover from the inhumane practice of shark finning. Once sharks are gone they are gone for good and they are more valuable alive than dead. The issues that follow will be atrocious and cause a ripple effect throughout the world. Because if you remove the prime predator from an ecosystem the result “is the same as removing the foundation from a building. A total collapse”.