2012 Photo Contest, Nature, 3rd prize

Shark Fin

Photographer

Paul Hilton

for Pew/Greenpeace International/Shark Savers

23 November, 2010

A buyer holds up two whale-shark fins, at a wholesale market in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

About the photographer

Paul Hilton

Paul Hilton is a Hong Kong-based photojournalist, who focuses on global environmental and conservation issues. Presently, Hilton is working on a manta and mobula ray project, Man...

Background story

Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

A buyer holds up two whale-shark fins, at a wholesale market in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Hunting sharks for their fins has become big business across the globe, as shark-fin soup—once an expensive delicacy unaffordable to most—soars in popularity among China’s growing, newly affluent middle class. Up to 73 million sharks are killed annually, and some recent estimates hold that up to 90 percent of the shark population in open oceans has already disappeared.

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/160 sec
Focal length
16 mm
F-Stop
4.5
ISO
3200
Camera
Canon EOS 5D Mark II

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