The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced the seizure of approximately 50,000 shark fins in a major, coordinated enforcement effort targeting the global wildlife trade.
Shark fin soup
Top banner image: Sebastián Losada, CC BY-SA 2.0
The operation, conducted in October 2025 under the international initiative Operation Thunder, began when inspectors in Anchorage, Alaska, uncovered a suspicious shipment of shark fins. This discovery led to a broader investigation, revealing a trafficking route that extended through Anchorage, Alaska; Louisville, Kentucky; and Cincinnati, Ohio. The shipments had originated in Mexico and were destined for Hong Kong.
In total, authorities intercepted 20 separate consignments weighing more than 1,600 pounds and valued at over USD 1 million (approximately EUR 850,000). The fins had been concealed within cargo falsely labelled as car parts, and investigators determined that the shipments were connected to a larger organised trafficking network.
According to the USFWS, the confiscated fins came predominantly from silky sharks and bigeye thresher sharks—species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). These protections reflect growing international concern over the escalating exploitation of shark populations worldwide.
Sharks are the most lucrative prey
This surge in exploitation is not occurring in isolation. As global fish stocks have been severely depleted by industrial overfishing, fisheries have increasingly turned toward high-value species to maintain profits. Sharks, once considered of low commercial value, are now among the most lucrative targets, alongside tuna, due to the extraordinary demand for shark fins in international markets.
The shark fin trade is driven by high demand for the luxury dish, shark fin soup, which is fuelled by rich customers and high prices. It yields disproportionately high returns, for a single set of fins is worth far more than the rest of the shark’s body. The lucrative trade has driven the targeting of sharks by factory fisheries globally, as well as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing operations. The fins are taken by the shark fin industry, while the meat is loaded onto local markets to be sold, mostly under false names.
The result has been devastating. The shark species accessible to fisheries have suffered steep population declines, exacerbated by their slow growth rates and low reproductive output. With the estimated shark mortality three to four times what is reported to fisheries management organisations, even regulated trade is placing intense pressure on already fragile populations, while illegal trafficking undermines conservation efforts.
Threatened species
“All fins were seized for multiple violations of wildlife laws,” the USFWS stated, describing the confiscation as “another strong step forward in stopping the illegal trade of threatened species”. The agency also confirmed that intelligence gathered during the investigation has been shared with international partners to support further enforcement actions.
In response to the decline of oceanic and coastal species to well below 10 percent of their former numbers, the United States enacted the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act in December 2022, significantly tightening restrictions on the shark fin trade. Internationally, CITES has expanded its Appendix II protections, and in 2025, member countries approved measures covering more than 70 species of sharks and rays—an unprecedented step towards global conservation.
Current protections not working
Silky sharks and thresher sharks were already listed under CITES Appendix II in 2016, meaning that while trade is not completely banned, it is strictly regulated to ensure that it does not threaten the survival of the species. However, as this seizure demonstrates, the persistence of illegal trade continues to challenge the Appendix II regulatory framework.
Due to the difficulties of policing the shark fin trade, with its complex trade routes and secrecy, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is extremely successful and therefore widespread. Given the ongoing, catastrophic shark depletion and the lucrative, criminal nature of the fin trade, many argue that all shark and ray species should be protected from international trade, as sea turtles were, through a CITES Appendix I listing. But, so far, only sawfishes (family: Pristidae) have been granted such protection.
Sharks have intrinsic biological and ecological value
Though fisheries management ignores any biological or ecological value inherent in fish and sharks, behind each shipment of fins lies not only a violation of the law but the removal of animals that play an essential role in maintaining the balance of oceanic and coastal ecosystems. Sharks are not fast-reproducing fish that can quickly rebound from heavy losses. They take years to mature, and then produce relatively few young. As their numbers decline, the effects ripple outward through marine food webs, altering the abundance and behaviour of countless other species.
The scale of this seizure offers a rare glimpse into a largely hidden trade, but it also raises a stark question: How many such shipments pass undetected, and how much pressure can already depleted shark populations withstand before the damage becomes irreversible?
