Essay On Shark Finning

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What is Shark Finning, why is it done and what are the consequences?
I am writing this essay about ‘shark finning’. What is it and why is it done? Shark finning is when the shark is captured and the fins are cut off to sell. The shark fins are used in medicines in China but are also used as a decoration in shark fin soup. There are many problems due to only the fins being taken. Firstly the sharks are thrown back into the ocean still alive, without their fins they are not able to swim causing them to drown. The Second problem is that the shark fin has no nutritional value in the soup and is there for no good reason, the only reason they are used in the soup is because the Chinese see them as a delicacy. These are both very good reasons why sharks shouldn’t be hunted and killed for their fins; however, it still happens on such a massive scale.
Shark finning kills more than 10,000 per hour worldwide and is a problem due to the sharks importance within the ecosystem, if we continue to kill this many sharks they will soon be extinct. Sharks take 25 years to reach sexual activity this means we are killing them faster than they can reproduce. Sharks have been around for four hundred million years and in that time they have never changed but they have changed everything around them. They have shifted underwater life into what it is today being the perfect predator.
I’ve done a lot of research on sharks and shark finning and the more Learn about the problem the more I realize that it has a massive effect on us humans. I’ve flipped through shark books and looked it up on the internet, I also asked people who work in aquariums and the beach about this problem and they all seem to agree that it needs to stop; the question is how can we stop ...

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... could increase and the problem would be solved, that way the cultural delicacy that has been around for so many years stays untouched and the sharks aren’t killed for only their fins.
So in conclusion the problem is solvable and both sides of the debate can be happy, I just hope this can happen before we realize what we are doing to the environment and ourselves. Using primary and secondary research I was able to reflect upon the ethical issue as best as I can, I gave my own personal opinion and have explored ideas of how to solve the ongoing problem. I have to state that killing shark for all their resources isn’t wrong but overfishing and finning the sharks is cruel and the main reason the sharks are heading towards extinction. There needs to be a law put into place and it needs to happen as soon as possible before we are in serious trouble.

Ben Stanhope

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