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Shark Fin Soup: Please Say No
Please take a minute to view the following video that describes the incredibly cruel practice of pulling sharks onto a boat, cutting off their fins for the Asian soup market, and throwing these finless sharks back into the water to die. A warning: this video contains actual footage of a shark having a fin cut off in gruesome fashion - I don't believe it's appropriate for children to view.
Click the play button to begin video.
I have a great deal of respect for Yao Ming, an NBA superstar with the Houston Rockets who has worked together with WildAid.org to increase public awareness of this horrific practice.
Why do people do this? For money, of course.
Various Asian populations, particularly the Chinese, consider shark fin soup to be a delicacy and symbol of high class. In Hong Kong, one kilogram of genuine shark fin sells for $700.00 USD, making it the most expensive variety of seafood that we know of.
In the past, shark fin soup was only served at extremely special and rare banquets. Today, as China and other east Asian countries continue to gain economic strength, many middle class families now expect to see shark fin soup on the menu at weddings and company dinners. This has led to a huge demand for shark fins on the international market.
Why are sharks often thrown back into the water to die as they float helplessly to the bottom of the ocean? Because shark meat is considered to be inferior in quality compared to fish like tuna and swordfish. For many boat owners, there is no net profit for storing entire sharks on their boats. Shark fins, on the other hand, take up very little space and can be dried and stored for long periods of time.
Although some countries like the United States, Australia, and Ecuador have banned shark finning, this practice continues at a rapid pace in and around east Asian countries. It has been estimated that 100 million sharks are killed for their fins each year. The busiest shark fin trading centers are located in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Until a global ban is achieved, the best that any of us can do prevent this practice is to tell our families and friends about the shark finning industry. As the WildAid.org campaign to end shark finning tells us, "when the buying stops, the killing can, too."
To help increase public awareness of shark finning, please consider digging this page by clicking here.
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Comments
Thank you, Dr. Kim (shie
Thank you, Dr. Kim (shie shie niala!) for exposing this unG-dly
practice ... how grieved HASHEM must be for us to treat HIS beautiful creation so mindlessly, so cruelly! Yet, have you been to:
www.upc-online.org/broiler/022403tysons.htm
Thursday, November 02, 2006 12:36:28 PM
Anonymous said...
Thank you for exposing this. I never knew. How awful!
Thursday, November 02, 2006 3:23:25 PM
Anonymous said...
Thank you for showing this video. I wasn't aware of shark fin soup, I I find this very cruel and it was very sad to see what some people do to these beautiful animals our lord put on this planet.
Thursday, November 02, 2006 4:31:15 PM
braunbear said...
Thank u for bring this to my attention. One does not 'ponder' atrocities until they're 'brought into the light'...thank u, I will forward this to those I know and ask them to send it on...thank u for your knowledge and activism, as every voice makes a difference!!!
Thursday, November 02, 2006 6:27:32 PM
Miiko said...
Eeks! And I grew up eating shark fin soup. Regularly! Horrors! My grandfather, bless his heart, used to sit over a basin of water with a huge bucket of dried shark fins next to him. He would spend hours soaking the dried fins and then processing them to be made into rich soup for the family. It was a delicacy and supposedly a wonder tonic. I'm glad I had given up eating shark fins more than a decade now. And to watch this movie just convinces me even more that I made the right decision.I'm going to pass this on to others. Thanks!
Being A Good Friend
Thursday, November 02, 2006 9:54:00 PM
Anonymous said...
I perwonally think that this is horrible and it shows that people will do anything for money and to destroy creatures of the sea is a practice that should not be allowed.
Friday, November 03, 2006 5:33:54 PM
Anonymous said...
Barbaric.
Thanks for bringng this to my attention. I will pass this along.
Saturday, November 04, 2006 1:38:40 AM
Lewis Umbrellahem said...
I agree that butchering sharks to satisfy the tastes of the wannabe privileged is atrocious and inhumane. I do, however, disagree that the video footage should be kept from the eyes of our children. You see, it is usually only when someone is innocently and candidly horrified that we take notice. And to protect our children it is often best that we allow their undiluted reactions to the world inform our own actions.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 11:03:30 AM
Anonymous said...
A couple of weeks ago on one of the tv channels they were going to show a documentary of this horrific ordeal of chopping off sharks fins at that moment i changed the channel could not watch such a cruel way to obtain a part of a fish for human consumption. At that time i said to myself i would never eat shark fin soup now that i know how they went about that procedure to obtain it.
Thursday, November 09, 2006 8:33:59 AM
Anonymous said...
Keep up the good work exposing the horrific truth behind these gruesome practises
Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:59:12 AM
chisoxfan said...
This is truly horrific and I am 100% sure I will never consume shark fin soup. But what's even more shocking to me is the possibility that 100 million sharks are killed every year for their fins, but yet they still haven't been driven to extinction. I had no idea there were that many sharks in the world's oceans!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 5:08:00 PM
Sharyn J., Toronto said...
Thank you for courageously showing this video clip and revealing this horrific slaughter against such amazing animals. Attrocities against animals and of course people will only be dealt with when the public is made aware. It does take courage to step up to the plate though, and courage you have. God Bless.
Saturday, November 18, 2006 8:54:42 PM