Great white shark (Photo credits: BBC.com) I'm sure you've ever walked into a Chinese restaurant and see a peculiar dish when looking through the menu; Shark Fin Soup. But you probably brushed off the item due to the ridiculous price, or if you did order it, end up with this beautiful broth topped with this translucent bland lackluster flop of fin on it. Now you start to wonder to yourself, why in god gracious heck is this bland and tasteless fin worth so much money? Well this is due to Chinese tradition. It is considered by Chinese as one of the eight treasured foods from the sea. Shark fin soup held a symbolic significance to the Chinese, being served usually only at special occasions such as weddings, banquets, and important business deals. It symbolizes wealth, power, prestige, and honor as well as a symbol of respect and appreciation to the guests. How exactly is shark's fin obtained though? The unknowing sharks are caught and dragged on board the boat, finned mercilessly as it suffocates and thrown back into the ocean alive but fin-less, unable to swim, eat and struggle as it meets its demise. Sharks are caught and finned indiscriminately, regardless of size, age and species, sharks are reeled in for cold cash. In my opinion, there is no better way show the cruelty of this process than by images of the process. Its a painful and grim sight to see. Some wonder how a simple tradition can end up fueling the endangerment of these ancient creatures, surviving mass extinctions and harsh environments, only to be backed to the verge of extinction by humans. Not so scary now huh? The fearsome apex predator, being hunted by our kind no less. The weakest of all animals with no claws or talons, only selfishness, that is the human race.
Chinese cooking has always been known for its use of everything of the source, from the meat of the chicken down to the bones, close to everything is used. Yet, in the cooking of shark's fin soup, only the fin of the shark is used. From the mind-boggling 650 USD / Kg for the fins to a measly 2 USD / Kg for the sharks meat. The shark's body isn't even worth hauling back, being worth less than any old flounder would be. By now, you've seen images you'd only thought you would see in hell and yet here it is, cold hard reality. You must be thinking how to help? How to stop this madness? The most direct and simple way is to stop eating shark's fin soup and spread the message to your friends and family and urge them all to do the same. Next, there are many organizations and movements aiming to stop this. To name a few, www.stopsharkfinning.net and www.defenders.org/sharks/stop-shark-finning. I highly recommend checking them out. As humans, we have a responsibility to stop this act of animal cruelty and I highly urge you to spread the awareness and join the movement especially this Chinese New Year, when shark's fin soup is at its peak of sales.
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