So what lands in the dock in Honolulu and other ports around the world are piles of fins. Nor is finning the only problem confronting sharks. Shark fishing has increased across the board in the past decade, according to statistics compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. But efforts to manage shark stocks are confounded by shortcomings in the data. Many countries lump shark landings together rather than by individual species, or fail to differentiate between a ton of shark carcasses and a ton of shark fins, even though the latter might represent 50 or 100 times as many individual fish.
Sharks are a vital part of the overall ecosystem.
We don't know what the result would be if we wipe them out. Finning has been banned on the US Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean coasts following dramatic collapses of many shark populations. Federal and state fisheries officials have joined conservationists in calling for a ban in Hawaiian waters. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, responsible for regulating fisheries under the Department of Commerce, has refused to take strong measures to halt the practice. Some native Hawaiians have also called for a ban on finning, as many sharks traditionally have powerful spiritual significance.