Global shark fins in local contexts: multi-scalar dynamics between Hong Kong markets and Mid-Atlantic fisheries

Abstract

We analyze multi-scalar social, economic, and policy dynamics of shark fin production and consumption through Hong Kong, the world's leading shark fin entrepôt, and U.S. Mid-Atlantic artisanal fisheries in New Jersey (NJ), a U.S. state that enacted a shark-fin retail ban in 2021. Trade statistics point to a rise in shark fin circulation to Hong Kong in recent years supplied through global pathways of production. Global discourses of overconsumption and shark finning in Asia have shaped U.S. state environmental policies banning shark fin retail. However, interviews with shark fin retailers and consumers in Hong Kong point not to undifferentiated Asian consumption, but instead indicate gendered, classed, and intergenerational dynamics that undergird consumption and bear on production elsewhere. New Jersey fisheries, once an exporter to Hong Kong, enacted a state-wide shark fin retail ban in response to global defaunation and anxieties related to Asian fishing and consumption practices. Interviews and focus group discussions illustrate how the ban has resulted in a practice artisanal fishers call "reverse shark-finning," i.e., the discarding of fins post-landing. Moreover, local regulations neglect artisanal fishers' knowledge and capability to identify shark species at sea. The findings show how the totalizing ban diminishes economic returns but does not reduce total shark catches in the artisanal sector. To test fishers' knowledge at sea, the study uses a mitochondrial DNA barcoding method on post-landing shark fins (n = 47) to compare genetic identification with fishers' visual species identification. The findings illustrate artisanal fishers' knowledge is sufficient to accurately identify the shark species they catch. These findings are significant for environmental policies, biodiversity conservation, and global-local relations of production and consumption. We argue that more targeted efforts that take socioeconomic dynamics into account are needed to affect consumption, while more holistic policies that examine impacts rather than blanket bans may be more effective on the production and conservation side. Ecologically sustainable and socioeconomically sound shark conservation practices, therefore, require multi-scalar interdisciplinary and dialectical analyses of social, economic, and policy dynamics.