Twenty-six boxes of shark fins seized in Anchorage. Credit: USFWS
Shark fins are a big business, and a recent report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) sheds light on just how big it is. In 2025, some 50,000 dried shark fins were seized at various U.S. ports. That’s about 16,00 pounds that has a value of over a $1 million.
Many of them were found disguised as car parts. The USFWS explained that after finding the first large shipment in Anchorage, Alaska, it found more in the same state, as well as in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. All the shipments are believed to be part of a large-scale trafficking ring that transports the highly sought after fins from Mexico to Hong Kong.
“The staggering number of fins were predominantly from silky sharks and bigeye thresher sharks, both protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,” the USFWS said. “All fins were seized for multiple violations of wildlife laws — another strong step forward in stopping the illegal trade of threatened species.”
Shark fins are used for a variety of things, but predominantly for shark-fin soup, a delicacy in Chinese cooking. The shark-fin trade is wildly illegal in most parts of the world, but, as with drugs, if there’s a market, there will be sellers. The busts in 2025 were part of “Operation Thunder,” which was an international effort to fight the trading of illegal wildlife or wildlife parts.
