This is a shark fin market in Guang Zhou, China. The footage of the one-day market was filmed in February of 2014. What it illustrates, on the surface, at least, is an amount of shark fins that is almost impossible to comprehend. But when you attach an actual shark to each one of those fins, it becomes even more horrifying. Packed into bags, piled into boxes, and strewn across the floor are the lives of countless sharks, all for sale.
According to OneGreenPlanet.org, 100 million sharks are killed each year for their fins. While there has been progress in stopping the shark fin trade – sales have dropped 70% since China banned shark fin soup – the remaining 30% still commands enough of a market to keep the trade alive and well, unlike the creatures it preys off of.
