Now, let me begin by telling you a little about myself. Firstly, I am by no means an extreme environmentalist. I do try to reuse and recycle, I sign petitions in ardent hope that certain practices will stop e.g. the recent planned killing of tigers in the Jeli district in Malaysia. Whilst I try to do the right thing, I am not the kind of person that will sit in a little boat for hours on end trying to stop an oil tanker from continuing its passage. You get the drift right? Secondly, I have this "thing" about marine life, particularly puffer fish, hence the pseudonym, Puffergal. I frequently go on snorkeling and diving trips and I have a huge appreciation for marine life. So, on to the story... Shark Attack.

Source: http://www.corbis.com

Last Saturday night, I attended my rich cousin's wedding. Amongst the 9 dishes that were served at the wedding banquet was a dish called "Superior Emperor's Shark Fin Soup". This was no ordinary shark fin soup mind you, this was the "Superior Emperor's" version. Why was is superior do I hear you cry? Well, in a "normal" shark fin soup, the amount of fin in the soup is a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the superior one. In normal shark fin soup, one has to dig deep into the bowl in order to find the fibres of fin. However, in this one, ohmigawd... it was like there was no soup but merely fins!! It was as if the fins were sitting in a shallow bowl of gravy!! I estimate that it took the fins of an entire medium size shark to fill one bowl of soup (each bowl contained a serving for 10 people) and there were 50... FIFTY tables... hence FIFTY bowls of soup which meant that FIFTY sharks died!! I got so disgusted with the dish that I had to leave the wedding hall. I simply couldn't bear being in the same room which represented so much cruelty. As a matter of principle, I do NOT eat shark fin soup and if it is served, I simply sit out the dish and when asked, I tell people what I am about to tell you.

Anyways, as most of the world knows, shark fins are an Asian delicacy... Now, this is a rather stupid delicacy if you ask me. I mean, shark fins have no nutritional value and are tasteless on its own. The taste is acquired from the broth that it is served in. Yes, yes, yes... there is research that states that shark fins / cartilage have high nutritional values. FYI, those shark based food supplements you see in the stores... well, in part, some of them are derived shark fins as these fins are rich in cartilage. In doing my research for this story, I came across conflicting views i.e. shark fins

Source: http://www.sharkinfo.ch/SI4_99e/sanfrancisco.html

have and don't have nutritional values. Then I noticed, the sites which stated that shark cartilage have high nutritional values were sites which actually SOLD these products. There have been claims that shark cartilage is a treatment for cancer but this claim has come under attack. In fact, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged two companies with deceptively marketing the benefits of shark cartilage products. In a nutshell, the FTC says that the products do not work. You can read more on this charge here. If that article doesn't convince you, try the Healthcare Reality Check website which has a detailed FAQ on Shark Cartilage. Amongst those sites which listed the beneficial properties of shark cartilage, there were inconsistencies i.e. some agree that shark cartilage had X amount of protein per 100gs... others said that is had Y, others went on to say Z. Some said that it had no fat content, others, yes etc. Then, I read about the cooking process for shark fins i.e. the drying, bleaching and then drying again. If the science classes I took in high school were accurate, this process would remove any nutritional value of a substance. Hence, I would tend to agree with those who say that the shark fins served in soup HAVE NO NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS.

Shark fins are a little crunchy, much like little strips of carrots but they have less taste. So, why the huge demand for shark fins? Well, I think that way back when, some emperor or someone equally important who ruled an area with a coast had a shark problem i.e. one or a few of his constituents were attacked by sharks. In order to protect his people, he decreed that anyone who could capture / kill this shark would be given a reward. However, he needed some sort of proof that the shark was indeed dead. Thus, all these fortune hunters went out in search of this "man eating" shark and killed it. As a fitting punishment for the shark who ate "man", the shark was then eaten by "man". As the meat of a shark is less than desirable i.e. it is tougher than other fish, the hunters stripped off the shark's fins and served it to the emperor... the shark was killed and the hunters got their bounty. Then, as the emperor liked the dish so much... a trend started. As sharks can be ferocious creatures, killing / capturing one became a way for testosterone filled men to prove their "manhood". It became a macho way to make a living. As it is a dangerous profession, the price of the fins are high and it became a delicacy, one that could only be afforded by the rich elite... so shark fins became a status symbol of sorts. And as human life was put at risk by capturing these sharks, the male is said to be a "MAN". As time wore on, merely eating shark fins became an aphrodisiac, something that would increase the male potency. By the way, this reasoning of mine is MINE and mine alone and not based on any facts. So, please don't quote me on this if you are in fact doing research for a school assignment . This is what I suspect happened.

In case you didn't know, shark meat is virtually worthless as it is heavy in uric acid, tough and isn't really a good eating fish. According to ScienceNews.Org, a pound of shark meat is worth around US 50 cents per pound. As space is limited on a fishing vessel, the fishing people would rather save this space for fish which are worth more e.g. tuna, which goes for US$3 to US$5 per pound. In 1998, fishing people were reported to get up to US$32 per pound of shark fins. However, CNN's 1999 Shark Report stated that shark fins which can fetch between US$18 to US$70 per pound, which is more than double what these fishing people were paid in 1998. Note: these figures are old but acts as a good comparison. In 2000, the ABCNEWS.com shark story said that in Singapore, the end user would pay up to US$2,350 per kilo of shark fins or US$1,038 per pound. Thus, with the escalating prices of shark fins, it is lucrative for fishing people to keep shark finning. The killing will stop when demand for the product decreases... sad to say however, the demand for this product is increasing in recent times. As a result of the economic boom in 1980s, more people can afford shark fins. According to the Asian Conservation Awareness Programme , the world trade for shark fins has risen by up to 400% in the last 15 years!!

The Media
Cruelty Of It All
The Waste
The Circle Of Life
Some Facts
The Myths
What Has Been Or Is Being Done
What We Can Do
References & Some Useful Sites

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