Many shark populations are declining and exploitation of their populations has rapidly escalated, mainly due to an increased demand for shark fins from Asian markets. Conservative estimates suggest that between 27 and 100 million sharks are killed each year because of fishing.

Many fishing activities are conducted illegally and are thus unreported. Because sharks are characterized by slow populations dynamics (slow growth rate, late sexual maturity, and low fecundity), they are vulnerable to even minimal levels of exploitation. Consequently, sharks became the most threatened group of marine animals.

Exacerbating this problem, sharks are also one of the most data-deficient groups of animals on the planet. A quarter of the extant shark species are threatened with extinction, and about half do not have enough data on abundance and distribution to inform their conservation status. Sharks are exploited at a fast and unsustainable rate, but we do not know how many sharks are left and for how long.