Animal welfare activists staged a protest decrying the 'unsustainable fishing practices killing sharks'.

Dressed in shark costumes, members of the UK-based marine conservation group Shark Guardian gathered outside the 17th InfoFish World Tuna Trade Conference and Exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 11 to slam the fishing methods.

The protesters also slammed the 'overfishing' caused by the global tuna industry, which they said affected the food security of coastal communities around the world.

Brendon Sing, Co-Founder of Shark Guardian, said in a statement: 'We are calling on Bangkok-based Thai Union, parent company of John West Foods Limited in the United Kingdom to immediately stop sourcing tuna from destructive purse seine fishing boats that use harmful drifting FADs (fish aggregating devices).

'We also call on Mitsubishi, the Japanese parent group of Princes Limited in the United Kingdom to also clean up their extinction-tainted supply chain.'

Shark Guardian said the FADs are highly polluting and contaminate the waters with high levels of plastic when they are lost or discarded at sea.

By-catch is one of the biggest threats to sharks, which help to regulate ocean food chains.