When buying shark fillets, also called flake, from your fishmonger there's no way of knowing what type of shark you're actually buying. You could be eating dusky or bronze whaler (sold at Coles supermarkets), dogfish or wobbegong. There are over 300 species of sharks; one thing that many shark species share is long life histories and low fecundity. This means that it takes a long time to reach sexual maturity, they don't reproduce very often and when they do, they have few offspring at each event.

Such life traits make sharks particularly susceptible to overfishing. It's been estimated that up to 100,000,000 sharks are killed annually to supply the Asian market with fins for shark fin soup. The shark fin trade is indiscriminate meaning multiple species are targeted for their fins. It's impossible to determine which species are being caught and therefore have accurate catch data for sharks. However, based on the fisheries data that does exist and anecdotal evidence from professional fishers, shark numbers are in serious decline, and have been for a number of years.

Shark finning doesn't just occur overseas; in NSW we have a very active shark fishery as part of the NSW Ocean Trap and Line Fishery, which is involved in selling shark fins. In addition, such is the demand for shark meat that we import about 500 tonnes of shark meat from countries that do not have management plans in place. Many consumers are not aware that their fish and chips is actually shark meat (flake). There are many other alternatives that are readily available which are more sustainable.

The only way to put an end to this unsustainable practice, is to say no to eating shark (flake) and shark fin soup.