From the link @shyvas posted yesterday about the human-caused decline in shark populations:
Shark fin soup has been eaten in China for centuries. It’s a delicacy, thought to have several medicinal benefits. But making the dish—a type of broth with fibrous shark fin noodles and chicken stock—relies on the brutal practice of finning sharks. This usually involves fishers catching them from the ocean, slicing off their fins, and then throwing them back overboard, where they will eventually bleed to death.
I'm no fan of apex predators, or predators generally- but this is beyond weird and wasteful. A later passage in this news item mentions that the rest of the shark is, in fact, eaten in some areas- so it's not as if the rest of the shark isn't edible for some reason. And I was surprised that so many sharks are killed by humans, although I knew "Jaws" hugely exaggerated the threat sharks pose to humans.
Shark fin soup has been eaten in China for centuries. It’s a delicacy, thought to have several medicinal benefits. But making the dish—a type of broth with fibrous shark fin noodles and chicken stock—relies on the brutal practice of finning sharks. This usually involves fishers catching them from the ocean, slicing off their fins, and then throwing them back overboard, where they will eventually bleed to death.
I'm no fan of apex predators, or predators generally- but this is beyond weird and wasteful. A later passage in this news item mentions that the rest of the shark is, in fact, eaten in some areas- so it's not as if the rest of the shark isn't edible for some reason. And I was surprised that so many sharks are killed by humans, although I knew "Jaws" hugely exaggerated the threat sharks pose to humans.
