Last year six people were killed by sharks worldwide. Multiply that number by more than 12 million and you get close to the number of sharks killed for human consumption each year.
The annual mass slaughter of sharks, estimated to be around 73 million each year, has left one third of all shark species on the brink of extinction.

"It's a grave situation that sharks are now faced with,"--Matt Rand, director of the Pew Environment Group's Global Shark Conservation Campaign.

Shark fins are increasingly sought after in Asia, particularly China, as they are used in soups and other products. Finning -- where a shark's fins are removed and the body dumped -- is outlawed by the U.S. and EU, but loopholes and lack of regulation and enforcement elsewhere have meant it remains a major problem.
An international action plan for sharks has been in place for ten years, but it leaves the responsibility of
sustainably managing and recording catches to each country.

"It's in everyone's interest to curb the massive overfishing of sharks" --Scott Henderson, Conservation International

The rapid decline of black tip sharks in the west Atlantic Ocean since the early 1990s led to a rise in cow-nosed rays and decline in the North Carolina bay scallop industry.

edit on 6-2-2011 by oibena because: showed

I wish I could do something to help every time I hear of Sharks being killed for their fins I feel sick to the bone!!!
Alot of the Black tips have their fins cut off on the side of a boat then they are thrown back in the sea alive with no fins to bleed or drown to death which ever comes first.
It indeed is a sad world we live in

Originally posted by sharky980
I wish I could do something to help every time I hear of Sharks being killed for their fins I feel sick to the bone!!!
Alot of the Black tips have their fins cut off on the side of a boat then they are thrown back in the sea alive with no fins to bleed or drown to death which ever comes first.
It indeed is a sad world we live in

I realy hope the goverment do somthing about this, MAKE A LAW- NOW ANIMAL CANT BE KILLED IF ONLY 11,000 OR LESS ARE IN THE WILD OTHER WISE WILL DIE! that would be the best...

i find it disconcerting that mostly asian folks do this sort of stuff as i have not yet uncovered evidence of american red necks or working stiffs doing the devils bidding as much as the asian diets seem to command the execution of tigers for the penis and sharks for the fins...and cats for their chow mein...

this comment is not directed at any particular individual, corporation, or religion...known or unknown.

I really really hope this kind of thing be disappeared from the world forever !