Dan Rather vs. Shark-Finning

Though the environmental cost and cruelty of shark-finning has been well-publicized in recent years, and though the House and Senate both passed the Shark Conservation Act in December 2010, the demand for shark-fin soup still seems to have no end in sight. 

California governor Jerry Brown signed AB 376 in October, which forbids the importation, possession, and distribution of shark fins in California. After Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii, California is the fourth state to forbid the practice, theoretically making the entire West Coast shark-fin-free by 2013. 

But new undercover videos and an upcoming exposé by Dan Rather will reveal the true scope of a problem that could rapidly make an entire species extinct. The footage brings home the devastating reality: Viewers watch as a shark with its fins cut off lies on the bottom of the ocean in a marine sanctuary off Indonesia's coast. Unable to move, the shark continues to suck oxygen through its gills, taking weeks to finally die. As the videographer pans the scene, we see that this shark is just one of hundreds littering the ocean floor, an endless watery graveyard for magnificent creatures.

Dan Rather Reports airs on Tuesday, January 24, 8 p.m. ET.

--Cyndy Patrick