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For migrant workers trapped onboard Chinese distant water fishing fleets, cutting the fins off sharks as they writhe violently on rusted decks in the Indian Ocean isn’t accidental.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal petition this month requesting the U.S. government to potentially sanction China for failing to meet American shark conservation standards. Shark populations have declined by 70% since 1970—with over one-third of all shark and ray species threatened with extinction. However, Chinese-flagged vessels continue to catch and fin thousands of sharks every year.
“Losing sharks wouldn’t just be an ecological disaster; it would be a profound moral failure,” said Alex Olivera, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Sharks have survived for hundreds of millions of years, and it would be a tragedy if they disappeared in a few decades because governments failed to enforce basic conservation rules.”
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📸 Pexels, Getty Images and Javier Giannattasio
