Marine 'gold rush': demand for shark fin soup drives decimation of fish

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Finning is still rampant in many countries due to diners’ appetite for the delicacy, despite attempts to shut down the trade

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In the UK, where shark finning is banned – as it is in all EU states – the soup is still on the menu in as many as a dozen restaurants, although many others have now stopped serving it, according to the charity Conservation of Nature. After finning, sharks are often alive as they are discarded overboard to die of suffocation, bleeding or being eaten by other predators.

Workers cut shark fins at the Karngsong fish auction in West Java province, Indonesia