Finspire Change UK Campaign

Finspire Change UK – the call for the Government to ban import, export and trade of shark fins in the UK. The oceans need our help, and there has never been a better time than now. Shark finning is an outdated, barbaric and hugely damaging practice that threatens sharks with extinction. It is believed that anywhere up to 273 million sharks are killed each year for their fins. This massive loss of sharks from the ocean has extremely negative effects on the ecosystem, causing the fragile web of the ecosystem to become disrupted and creating a trophic cascade on other organisms throughout the environment, many of which depend on the presence of sharks for their own survival.

When the UK was part of the EU, a petition was launched that gained over 16,000 signatures which gained a response from the Government. This response was relatively positive, however the response noted that, restricted by EU legislation, the UK was unable to unilaterally ban the importation of shark fin into the country and went on to say " Leaving the EU will present us with the opportunity to take further action on this issue...". Now the UK has left the EU, it is time to push again for the ban on shark fin imports.