In the 2014 documentary “Racing Extinction”, Oscar winner Louie Psihoyos assembles a team of artists and activists intent on showing the world never-before-seen images that expose the reality and the issues of endangered species and human caused global mass extinction. Among all the endangered species talked about in this life changing documentary, one is sharks. Shark finning is a disgusting and inhumane practice of the removal and retention of shark fins while the remainder of the shark is discarded into the ocean. The shark is often still alive when it is discarded into the ocean but will die of suffocation, an inability to swim, or from starvation. Every year, tens of millions of sharks die a slow painful death as result to this practice. The slaughter of the sharks is being done at such an unsustainable rate that if shark finning continues, sharks will be extinct before you know it. A creature that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs, has survived four of the five mass extinctions and is now being lead to extinction by humans.

The IUCN is the International Union for Conservation of Nature and it helps the world find solutions to the most pressing environmental issues. There are 41,415 species on the IUCN red list, and of that list 16,306 species are considered to be endangered. Extinctions are a natural part of the evolutionary process, the standard background rate of extinction is 1 to 5 species yearly. Humans are now driving species extinct 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate, which means there are literally dozens of species going extinct daily. This dramatic increased rate of extinction is primarily human caused through changes in the global temperature, which impact environments and habitats on a global scale. Many species are being driven towards endangerment or are being threatened with extinction, and if we do not act quickly to conserve these species many more of Earth’s inhabitants will end up on these lists.   

For more information visit the following links:

http://racingextinction.com/

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/shark-finning-sharks-turned-prey

http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/

http://www.endangeredearth.com/

http://www.iucn.org/