Articles

Estimates of the global shark fishery range from about 70 and 270 million sharks per year, with as many as 100 million killed for their fins alone. Hunting sharks for their fins has become big business across the globe, as shark-fin soup—once an expensive delicacy unaffordable to most—soars in popularity among China’s growing newly affluent middle class. Some estimates hold that up to 90% of the shark population in open oceans has already disappeared.

Recently, NGO WildLifeRisk with the Oceanic Preservation Society exposed the biggest processing plant of whale, basking and great white sharks in China, with over 600 whale sharks processed for fins, skin and oil per year. Horrifying scenes like those pictured here reflect the sheer scale and volume of the trade.

The tide is gradually turning on the fin trade, with sales down 50–70%, and some environmental groups quoting more that 90% down. The Chinese government’s campaign against extravagance is helping curb the wildlife trade in many ways. And the transportation of fins and wildlife products around the world is under pressure from NGOs. Singapore Airlines recently followed Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and others by announcing that it will no longer be carrying fins. 

However, despite these positive signs, there is still a very long road ahead—as these images illustrate. Above all, I hope that by showing the insidious power of a trade driven by demand, consumers realize that their everyday choices can have a huge impact on the environment.
 

Views of approximately 30,000 shark fins left out to dry on a rooftop in Hong Kong’s Kennedy Town district, in January 2013. Shark fin traders in the city have taken to drying freshly sliced fins from sharks on rooftops, since a public outcry in 2010 over the fins being dried on public sidewalks forced them to move the trade out of sight. 
 

An anti-shark fin activist surrounded by thousands of shark fins in Hong Kong holds up a photo of a de-finned shark in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.
 

A man fins a scalloped hammerhead shark at Donggang Market, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
 

Workers at Kaohsiung’s Donggang Market process thousands of frozen shark fins a day.
 

Raja Ampat, Indonesia: The carcass of a gray reef shark is pulled on board the Rian Hidaya fishing boat.
 

A shark is pulled up onto the Taiwanese longline fishing boat Li Chyun No. 2. 
 

About the Author

Paul is a Hong Kong-based photojournalist, who focuses on global environmental and conservation issues. Presently, he is working on the palm oil issue—documenting deforestation, land clearing, and the wildlife trade in Sumatra, Indonesia. Paul previously followed the manta ray trade across the world and set up the Manta Ray of Hope project. He also spent years in fishing markets and on the high seas following long-lining fleets from Taiwan, China, Philippines, and Indonesia, documenting the shark fin trade. Six years ago, he started working for Greenpeace International, focusing on a variety of marine issues, from bluefin tuna to satellite tagging of humpback whales in the Pacific.

Paul has received numerous awards for his conservation photography, including awards in the Asian Geographic Best of the Decade series, for conservation photography and photojournalism. He also won the Ark Trust Award for exposing bear bile farming in China, for Animals Asia Foundation. His photos were published in the book Black Market, which deals with the wildlife trade in Asia, and included investigative photojournalism in the wild-animal markets and theme parks of China. In 2009, Paul became a member of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers, and in 2010 launched his first book, highlighting the global shark-finning industry, Man & Shark. In 2012 he won a World Press Photo award for his body of work on the shark fin issue and he was awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his image “End of Sharks.” www.paulhiltonphotography.com
 

Photographer Paul Hilton