Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> A TV program on Nat Geo, To Catch a Smuggler showed some fins going
> through customs illegally. They can go for $500 a pound.

I saw that episode. I also previously watched a documentary showing
asian fishermen harvesting those shark fins.

They catch the sharks, cut off all the fins then toss the still alive
shark back into the ocean. Without their fins, they can't swim or hunt
so they sink to the bottom and just lay there until they die.