Shark Finning - Reporting

Reporting

According to Giam Choo Hoo, the longest serving member of The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Animals Committee, "The perception that it is common practice to kill sharks for only their fins - and to cut them off whilst the sharks are still alive - is wrong.... The vast majority of fins in the market are taken from sharks after their death." However, some researchers dispute this claim. Based on a statistical analysis of shark fin trade data, one study estimates that between 26 and 73 million sharks are harvested each year worldwide. This figure, when converted to shark biomass, is three to four times higher than the catch recorded in Food and Agriculture Organization capture production statistics, the only global database of shark catches. These discrepancies "may be attributable to factors ... such as unrecorded shark landings, shark biomass recorded in categories, and/or a high frequency of shark finning and carcass disposal at sea."