What is shark finning, why is it practiced and what are the consequences? I am writing this essay on 'shark finning'. What is it and why is it done? Shark finning occurs when the shark is caught and the fins are cut off to be sold. Shark fins are used medicinally in China, but are also used as a decoration in shark fin soup. There are many problems due to the fact that only fins are taken. First of all, the sharks are thrown back into the sea while still alive, without their fins they are unable to swim and therefore drown. The second problem is that shark fins have no nutritional value in the soup and are 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 should not be hunted and killed for their fins; however, it still happens on such a massive scale. Shark finning kills more than 10,000 sharks per hour worldwide and is a problem due to the importance of sharks within the ecosystem, if we continue to kill so many sharks they will soon become extinct. Sharks take 25 years to reach sexual activity, which means we are killing them faster than they can reproduce. Sharks have existed for four hundred million years and in all this time they have never changed but they have changed everything around them. They transformed underwater life into what is today the perfect predator. I've done a lot of research on sharks and shark finning and the more I know about the problem the more I realize that it has a huge effect on us humans. I've looked through shark books and searched the internet, I've also asked people who work at aquariums and beaches about this problem and they all seem to agree that it needs to be stopped; the question is: how can we stop... the paper in the middle... could increase and the problem would be solved, in this way the cultural delicacy that has existed for so many years remains intact and sharks are not killed just for 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. By using primary and secondary research I was able to reflect on the ethical issue as best I could, expressed my personal opinion and explored ideas on how to solve the problem at hand. I must state that killing sharks for all their resources is not wrong, but overfishing and pushing sharks is cruel and is the main reason why sharks are heading towards extinction. A law needs to be put in place and it needs to be put in place as soon as possible before we find ourselves in serious trouble. Ben Stanhope