The shark fin trade exists in one form or another in most places worldwide, impacting ecosystems, fisheries, and existing and potential tourism. Records indicating the accurate number of fins, or sharks they come from, are not readily available for most countries. The non-existent or incomplete management plans have resulted in vague definitions for the finning industry and unclear export/import/customs categories or commodity codes for the fins as a product.
Some individual nations’ shark landing data does not match up with Hong Kong fin import data, therefore tens of millions of sharks are ‘missing’ from the landings data of many nations but appearing in Hong Kong. This may be due to under-reporting but also from the fact that fishing crews are just finning the sharks and discarding the bodies at sea.