Shark finning is the cruel practice of cutting the fins of sharks while they are still alive. The finless sharks are then thrown back into the sea to suffer a slow death. Death eventually comes through suffocation, starvation or predation.
Not all sharks that are caught for the shark fin trade are finned alive, but business pressures and the high value of the fins in comparison to the meat mean that this cruel, inhumane and wasteful practice is commonly reported.
Hong Kong handles 50-80% of all shark fin trade. Every year 100 million sharks are killed, 73 million for shark fin soup. Sharks are slow breeders and this rate of harvest is unsustainable. Over 120 species are now endangered and listed on the IUCN Red List.