End to trade in shark fins

THE UK is to ban the importation of shark fin soup in a bid to stop the beasts being hunted.

Fishing sharks just for their fins is endangering species, including shortfin mako and blue shark.

Finless bodies are discarded back in the sea.

Animal welfare minister Lord Goldsmith said: “Shark finning... causes thousands of shark to die terrible deaths. It is also unforgivably wasteful.”

Of 500 species of shark, 143 are “under threat”.

Sharks play a vital role in marine ecosystems by helping to maintain healthy levels of fish below them in the food chain.