the Shark Conservation Act

Other threats include habitat alteration, damage and loss from coastal development, pollution and the impact of fisheries on the seabed and prey species.[97] The 2007 documentary, Sharkwater exposed how sharks are being hunted to extinction.[98]
Protection
In 1991 South Africa was the first country in the world to declare Great White sharks a legally protected species.[99]
Intending to ban the practice of shark finning while at sea, the United States Congress passed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act in 2000.[100] Two years later the Act saw its first legal challenge in United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins. In 2008 a Federal Appeals Court ruled that a loophole in the law allowed non-fishing vessels to purchase shark fins from fishing vessels while on the high seas.[101] Seeking to close the loophole, the Shark Conservation Act was passed by Congress in December 2010, and it was signed into law in January 2011.[102][103]
In 2009, the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN Red List of Endangered Species named 64 species, one-third of all oceanic shark species, as being at risk of extinction due to fishing and shark finning