Shark Finning

Finning is the practice of hacking the fins off sharks and dumping the rest of the body back into the sea.

Most of the finning happens while sharks are still alive. Unable to swim without fins, they slowly suffocate to death under water.

The two main reasons why this happens are:

To make big bucks — People illegally target sharks for fins because they sell at considerablly high prices in Asian markets to make shark fin soup. Most of the fins collected worldwide are exported to Hong Kong. The number of fishing boats caught fishing illegally are on the increase.
To save space and money — Shark meat has little commercial value. Also, it contains urea, which turns into ammonia after its death and will contaminate other fish if not stored in a separate fish hold dedicated to shark meat. When sharks are caught as by-catch, people only keep the fins.