The Pros And Cons Of Shark Finning

Shark Finning will have negative effects for ocean ecosystems. Shark finning consists daily, with this type of fishing the animals have their fins viciously removed from their body after they are dry-landed onto the boats. The sharks are then tossed back into the ocean. The savagery of fishing this way gives the animal zero hope for survival and causes the animal to die a slow and agonizing death. They are the fundamental keystone of the ecosystem and if they were to be removed it would cause a domino-like effect that would topple our current ocean ecosystem. For instance, the loss of the smooth hammerhead caused their prey, rays, to increase. The larger ray population now eats more scallops, clams, and other bivalves. This not only hurts the bivalve populations but the biodiversity of the ecosystem as well, creating the desolation of ecosystems that cannot possibly hope to recover.

Declining shark populations in the ocean

These animals have are at severe disadvantages relating to population growth, “One of the things we forget is that sharks differ from other fish. They do not lay thousands or millions of eggs. Many sharks take up to fifteen years to reach maturity and then produce only one shark pup per year”(Shark).Such a fragile and slow reproduction rate means that populations may never recover from the damage we have already inflicted.

The shark finning operations are barbaric and sets precedents that something so cruel can be turned a blind eye. The continued operations will lead to mass extinction of not only sharks but entire ecosystems that cannot sustain, which will lead to economic collapse for multiple countries that depend on the ocean. In order to stop shark finning people must be educated about what is happening daily around the world and how they can help put stop to it in any way