Shark populations are continuing to decline despite bans on finning

Conservation efforts for marine life are growing at a rapid pace — and one of the most consequential has been bans against the finning of sharks. But while numerous countries have enacted legislation to save the ocean's apex predators, new evidence has emerged that it may not be helping. The legislation may even be making the situation worse.

A Jan. 11 study published in the journal Science examined "[shark] mortality globally and found that, overall, it has continued to increase over the past 10 years." The study found that the banning of finning had "little impact" on the number of shark deaths.

Conservationists have long railed against the practice of finning sharks, and there are more bans in place now than ever. So why are shark populations continuing to drop?

What is 'finning' and where has it been banned?

The practice involves "cutting off a shark's fin, often while the shark is still alive, and dumping the animal back into the sea to die slowly," according to Humane Society International. The fins are then used as an ingredient in a delicacy known as shark fin soup.

Jurisdictions that have either partial or complete bans on finning, per the Animal Welfare Institute, include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and Taiwan. While the practice remains commonplace in many East Asian countries, China and Hong Kong have banned shark fin soup at government events.

What did the study find?

Many of the finning bans began being implemented in the early 2010s. However, even as these regulations were being enacted, shark deaths from finning "increased from at least 76 to 80 million sharks between 2012 and 2019," the study found. Around 25 million of these deaths were from protected species, according to the study.

The study additionally found that finning overall was "moving away from finning of larger pelagic species toward full use of smaller coastal species, presenting new regulatory and conservation challenges." It also cautioned that the number of sharks being caught at the country level is likely underreported because "24% of the annual catch from national waters is being reported at the subclass," rather than the species. This can lead to a discrepancy in the total figures.

"Despite myriad regulations intended to curb shark overfishing, the total number of sharks being killed by fisheries each year is not decreasing. If anything, it's slightly increasing," Darcy Bradley, a scientist at the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and co-author of the study, told Forbes.

Why is this happening? It may be because of the bans themselves. The crackdown on finning seems to have "compelled fishers to retain the entire shark," Forbes reported. This has led to an "emergence of fresh markets for shark meat, oil and other products in countries that had not previously engaged in shark consumption," the outlet noted. So while finning may be banned, "the regulations may have inadvertently created additional markets for shark meat and cartilage."

Industry experts "told us that existing markets for shark products have expanded," Carleton University scientist Laurenne Schiller, another co-author of the study, told National Geographic. This "may be due in part to the increased availability of sharks resulting from anti-finning regulations." Beyond shark fin soup, this pivot has caused shark meat to be "used in fish and chips, in ceviche, or as a fraudulent alternative for swordfish," National Geographic reported.

What more can be done to save the sharks?

There is a glimmer of hope. "Entire bans on shark fishing — not just finning — over large swaths of ocean were the best regulations the group assessed," The Washington Post reported. In areas where this was enacted, shark deaths dropped "by nearly 40% compared with places without shark fishing prohibitions."

It was also noted that "the more accountable a government is to its citizens ... the fewer sharks died as a result of fishing in its waters." The death of sharks is "not an intractable problem," Boris Worm, a biologist at Dalhousie University and another co-author of the study, told the Post. "It's something that’s very fixable. It's very doable."

And there are many areas that still function as shark sanctuaries. Worm went diving off the coast of Indonesia's Raja Ampat in 2010 and "hardly saw any sharks," he told the Post. But when he went back in 2019, "there were sharks on pretty much every dive."