Essay On Shark Finning

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Many people never realize that what they do has ripple effects in the world. A prime example of this is shark finning. Many of the world’s shark populations are being decimated by the fishing industry, but what people do not take into consideration is the role sharks play in their environment. Not to mention that the way the sharks are being treated during the process is extremely barbaric. Therefore, shark finning should be illegal because it is cruel and inhumane, it has negative effects on the ecosystem, and the sharks that are targeted the most by the trade are in grave danger of extinction. Sharks that are being fished for their fins are not treated the way animals should be treated. When one has a pet, there are laws that could get them …show more content…
Already eighteen species of shark have been listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (“Shark Finning”). All because humans are greedy and can only think about themselves and not about the environment. Today, sharks are declining rapidly on a global scale because humans have replaced them as oceans top predator (Fairclough). Restating that, humans, whose natural environment is on land, have replaced sharks, whose natural environment is in the sea, as the top predator of the ocean. It is astonishing how humans believe they can take over the world and that all other living organisms are below them. When they go out and destroy these poor creatures, they do not take into consideration that sharks have a slow growth and reproductive rate, which makes them highly susceptible to extinction and it is difficult for many sharks to replenish their populations as quickly as they are being diminished (Fairclough). Sharks do not lay hundreds of eggs like uninformed people may assume; they give birth to one pup. If that did not make it difficult enough to replenish a population, the gestation period can be up to two years long! One baby every two years is not enough to restore a population. About eight percent of sharks are killed annually, but researchers found that only five percent of sharks can be killed each year to maintain stability (Stone). If sharks are continued to be killed off like they are, the Earth could suffer

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