Here’s an awesome article written by a friend of mine, Marcus, who works with Tiny Tapir and is a big greenie with an equally big heart. TWG readers, please try to convert your family, in-laws and friends into advocates against sharks-fin soup. Sure, we’re so used to having it at every Chinese wedding we go to… but enough is enough! It’s common knowledge that it’s a cruel act and that the shark population is is seeing shocking numbers of depletion. So please save a few sharks today and say NO to sharks-fin soup! Like Ghandi said – BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THIS WORLD.
Fact: Each year there are about 50 to 70 confirmed shark attacks and 5 to 15 shark-attack fatalities around the world. The numbers have risen over the past several decades but not because sharks are more aggressive: Humans have simply taken to coastal waters in increasing numbers.
As many SCUBA divers would know, sharks are usually shy creatures who often swim away when they detect fear. Personally, I have only seen one shark during a dive and I consider that a lucky rarity. I used to fear sharks until I researched the facts and actually realised that they are majestic creatures.
Fact: While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year due to fishing activity, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. The organization estimates that some shark populations have plummeted 30 to 50 percent.
Not to sound preachy, but having sharks-fin soup served at a wedding or any banquet is not the way to go if you care about animals and our planet. People who say that they’ll have it just because it’s there – don’t realize that if the buying stops, so does the killing. If you don’t agree with wearing fur, sharks-fin soup should be on the list of things you should b
e up in arms with.
During shark culling activities, fishermen (or illegal poachers) extend miles of baited line and net to capture sharks (called longlining), but other marine animals are caught up in the process – turtles, dolphins included. Sharks are pulled up from the water, have their fin hacked off and then dumped back into the ocean, as the value of the rest of their meat is not high enough to justify keeping the rest of the shark.
There is also a myth that drinking sharks-fin soup is good for your health. In actual fact, sharks-fin has no nutritional value whatsoever and is actually harmful since they bleach and chlorinate the fin to alter the colour and to get rid of the smell. All the taste comes from the stock that is used to make the soup and not from the shark cartilage – which is tasteless.
Fact: Sharks are known as eating machines. But because many species are cold-blooded, some sharks eat only about 2 percent of their body weight each day. That’s a bit less than humans typically eat.
So, when planning your wedding, the risk of perhaps offending those who don’t know, leave out sharks-fin from your menu. There are many other fabulous soups available to choose from – be creative! Infact, wedding planners say there has been an increasing trend to replace sharks-fin soup with other popular ones.
And for more information here are some websites you can explore:
Wild Aid – http://www.wildaid.org
An organization that is dedicated to saving endangered species around the world. They are responsible for gathering the support of celebrities such as Jackie Chan and Yao Ming to spread the world that “When the buying stops, the killing can too.”
Shark Water – http://www.sharkwater.com/education.htm
This eye-opening documentary was made by one of the few shark crusaders, diver Rob Stewart. It is a beautiful documentary with stunning shots of him swimming with various types of sharks and even amongst a school of Hammerhead sharks. He is one of the few warriors out there and in the water making a stand against shark finning.
Please don’t ignore the facts. By not serving sharks-fin soup at your wedding and by educating your guests, you can make a huge difference.
Having sharks-fin soup at a wedding (or any big Chinese banquet) represents glamour and status, but also poses a threat to our increasingly fragile eco-system, not to mention the cruelty involved in shark poaching. Many people may not know, but shark finning is often an illegal and damaging practice.
Firstly, sharks are one of the most misrepresented animals on the planet. There is a misconception that sharks are dangerous, are man-killers and hence, deserve to be finned and boiled into a soup. In actual fact, sharks are not the man-killers that people think they are. There are only a dozen species of sharks that actually attack humans and when they do, it’s usually because they mistake us for seals (think black wetsuits). There are 360 other identified shark species that don’t even attack humans. Scientists haven’t even fully categorised all shark species, but they all unanimously agree that they are one of the most perfect organisms who haven’t changed form since prehistoric times.Fact: Each year there are about 50 to 70 confirmed shark attacks and 5 to 15 shark-attack fatalities around the world. The numbers have risen over the past several decades but not because sharks are more aggressive: Humans have simply taken to coastal waters in increasing numbers.
As many SCUBA divers would know, sharks are usually shy creatures who often swim away when they detect fear. Personally, I have only seen one shark during a dive and I consider that a lucky rarity. I used to fear sharks until I researched the facts and actually realised that they are majestic creatures.
Fact: While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year due to fishing activity, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. The organization estimates that some shark populations have plummeted 30 to 50 percent.
Not to sound preachy, but having sharks-fin soup served at a wedding or any banquet is not the way to go if you care about animals and our planet. People who say that they’ll have it just because it’s there – don’t realize that if the buying stops, so does the killing. If you don’t agree with wearing fur, sharks-fin soup should be on the list of things you should b
e up in arms with.During shark culling activities, fishermen (or illegal poachers) extend miles of baited line and net to capture sharks (called longlining), but other marine animals are caught up in the process – turtles, dolphins included. Sharks are pulled up from the water, have their fin hacked off and then dumped back into the ocean, as the value of the rest of their meat is not high enough to justify keeping the rest of the shark.
There is also a myth that drinking sharks-fin soup is good for your health. In actual fact, sharks-fin has no nutritional value whatsoever and is actually harmful since they bleach and chlorinate the fin to alter the colour and to get rid of the smell. All the taste comes from the stock that is used to make the soup and not from the shark cartilage – which is tasteless.
Fact: Sharks are known as eating machines. But because many species are cold-blooded, some sharks eat only about 2 percent of their body weight each day. That’s a bit less than humans typically eat.
So, when planning your wedding, the risk of perhaps offending those who don’t know, leave out sharks-fin from your menu. There are many other fabulous soups available to choose from – be creative! Infact, wedding planners say there has been an increasing trend to replace sharks-fin soup with other popular ones.
And for more information here are some websites you can explore:
Wild Aid – http://www.wildaid.org
An organization that is dedicated to saving endangered species around the world. They are responsible for gathering the support of celebrities such as Jackie Chan and Yao Ming to spread the world that “When the buying stops, the killing can too.”
Shark Water – http://www.sharkwater.com/education.htm
This eye-opening documentary was made by one of the few shark crusaders, diver Rob Stewart. It is a beautiful documentary with stunning shots of him swimming with various types of sharks and even amongst a school of Hammerhead sharks. He is one of the few warriors out there and in the water making a stand against shark finning.
Please don’t ignore the facts. By not serving sharks-fin soup at your wedding and by educating your guests, you can make a huge difference.
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