Shark Finning

Shark finning is the most wasteful practice on this list, with an estimated 73 million sharks killed annually solely for their fins, which are sliced off before the living shark is discarded overboard to drown or bleed out. This represents a 90% decline in some shark species over the past 50 years, driving hammerheads and oceanic whitetips toward extinction for a bowl of soup that can sell for $300. It outpaces bear baiting (#6) in ecological harm, as sharks play a keystone role in ocean food webs, and each finned shark leaves 95% of its body to decay. Despite bans in 90 countries, illegal finning persists in 40% of the global shark catch, with fin-to-body ratios exceeding 1:10,000 in some hauls. Unlike the Faroe Islands Grindadráp (#5), which locals claim is sustainable, shark finning has no subsistence justification, making it uniquely reviled for its sheer economic waste and irreversible species impact.