As many as 100 million sharks are killed each year around the world. Half of these kills are to catch them and use the shark fins in soup. The second cause of death for sharks is nets and over-fishing. They, unfortunately, suffer as by-catch for fishers hunting for other species.

A shark sanctuary is an area that forbids commercial fishing operations from targeting and retaining caught sharks, including their fins. The first shark sanctuary was created by Palau in 2009. It was followed by Maldives, Honduras, The Bahamas, and Tokelau.

Palau created the world's first so-named "shark sanctuary" on September 25, 2009. Palau forbids all commercial shark fishing within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters. The sanctuary protects about 600,000 square kilometers of ocean, an area similar to the country of France.

President Johnson Toribiong made the announcement at a meeting of the United Nations on 22nd September 2011. Speaking at the UN Headquarters in New York, he also urged other countries to join the tiny nation and ban shark fishing in their own waters.

The Maldives created a sanctuary in March 2010. Tokelau declared its entire EEZ a shark sanctuary in 2011.

According to Wikipedia