Yes, shark fin soup is effectively illegal to sell in the United States. Since December 2022, federal law prohibits possessing, buying, selling, or transporting shark fins or any product containing shark fins, which includes shark fin soup. The ban applies nationwide, with only narrow exceptions for two species of dogfish shark and for scientific or subsistence use.
What the Federal Law Covers
The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act was signed into law on December 23, 2022, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. It makes it unlawful to possess, acquire, receive, transport, offer for sale, sell, or purchase any detached shark fin, shark tail, or any product made from them. That language is broad enough to cover shark fin soup served in a restaurant, dried fins sold in a market, or fins shipped through the mail.
The law also requires that any fin or tail separated from a shark carcass be destroyed or disposed of immediately. No exceptions exist for commercial purposes. The only carve-outs are for smooth dogfish and spiny dogfish (two small Atlantic shark species managed under sustainable fisheries), scientific research, and noncommercial subsistence use by indigenous communities.
How the Law Built Over Two Decades
The 2022 ban closed loopholes that had persisted for years. The Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 first made it illegal to slice fins off sharks at sea and dump the bodies overboard, a practice called finning. But it only applied to fishing vessels, and it left the domestic fin trade untouched. Fins could still be imported from countries where finning remained legal.
The Shark Conservation Act of 2010, signed by President Obama, tightened the rules by requiring that all sharks landed in the U.S. arrive with their fins naturally attached. This made it harder to disguise finned sharks as legal catch, but it still didn’t ban the sale of imported fins. For over a decade, the U.S. remained both a consumer and a transit point for the global shark fin trade.
The 2022 law finally addressed the demand side. By banning possession and sale outright, it eliminated the legal market for shark fins in the country, whether those fins were caught domestically or imported.
State Bans That Came First
Long before the federal government acted, individual states began passing their own bans. Hawaii led the way in 2010, followed by a wave of West Coast and Pacific territory laws. As of 2023, the states and territories with their own shark fin laws include:
- Hawaii (2010)
- California, Oregon, Washington (2011)
- Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam (2011)
- American Samoa, Illinois (2012)
- Maryland, Delaware, New York (2013)
- Massachusetts (2014)
- Rhode Island, Texas (2016)
- Nevada (2017)
- New Jersey (2020)
- Florida (2021)
These state laws vary in scope. Some ban only the sale, while others also prohibit possession and distribution. Now that the federal ban is in effect, it sets a nationwide floor, meaning even states without their own laws are covered.
Can You Be Fined for Eating It?
The federal law targets the supply chain: possessing, buying, selling, and transporting fins. If you’re sitting in a restaurant that somehow still serves shark fin soup, the legal liability falls primarily on the business that acquired and sold the product. That said, the law does prohibit “possession” broadly, so technically having shark fins in your hands is a violation regardless of whether you’re a wholesaler or a consumer.
Penalties for violations align with those under the broader federal fisheries management framework. Earlier versions of the legislation specified civil penalties of up to $100,000 per violation, or the fair market value of the shark fins involved, whichever is greater.
Why Shark Fins Specifically
Shark fin soup has been a luxury dish in parts of East and Southeast Asia for centuries, and demand drove a global trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The fins themselves contribute little flavor. They provide a gelatinous texture, while the broth does the real work. The problem is the scale of killing required to supply that demand: tens of millions of sharks are killed each year worldwide, and finning has been one of the biggest drivers of population decline for dozens of species.
Because sharks reproduce slowly, often taking a decade or more to reach maturity and producing few offspring, they’re especially vulnerable to overfishing. Removing large numbers of top predators also disrupts ocean ecosystems in ways that cascade down the food chain, affecting fish populations, coral reef health, and even carbon cycling in the deep ocean.
What This Means in Practice
If you see shark fin soup on a menu in the United States today, the restaurant is operating in violation of federal law. Dried shark fins sold in specialty markets are likewise illegal. The only shark fin products that can be legally sold are those from smooth dogfish or spiny dogfish, and only from authorized fisheries.
NOAA Fisheries is the primary federal agency responsible for enforcement, working alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection to intercept illegal imports. The combination of federal and state laws means there is no legal pathway to commercially buy or sell shark fins from the vast majority of shark species anywhere in the country.