Shark fin soup. Seems so innocent. Sounds almost like the pumpkin soup I had for dinner. Except my pumpkin soup doesn't threaten to topple the entire oceanic ecosystem, and possibly the terrestrial one too -because why not. This is probably the most controversial dish possible to order- well it should be. But of course, thanks to Jaws, the majority of the human population thinks sharks are man eating machines, so why should we stop this slaughter? As I am unlikely to convince most people to start caring about sharks, I'll put it this way. Sharks are the apex predator of the oceans. Comprendes? Remove the apex predator, you know what happens? Cause I sure don't. And for that matter scientists and researchers don't know either. All they know for sure is, there WILL, without a smidgen of a doubt, be consequences. Consequences that you will not enjoy. You like dolphins? If you're going to kiss goodbye to the sharks, I'd advise you to do the same to the dolphins. You know why? Does this ring any bells, "It's the circle of life". In other words, EVERYTHING is connected. If you remove the apex predator, everything suffers- including you. Yes you. And your children, and your mother, and the Maldives trip you have planned for next year.
Something that irks me (yes I just used the word irked), is our lack of comprehension. What do I mean by that? You've all watched the Lion King, yes? They talk about the circle of life, yes? You've all had a biology course, yes? I'm expecting some nodding heads. Now, think back, yes I'm asking you to retain some information, how does an ecosystem work? How does the food web function? I'm quite confident that you all know the basic concept of a food web (I did, after all mention it in the previous paragraph), now what I'd like you to do, is APPLY that knowledge! When you learn that bees are dying, I assume many of you don't particularly care (I'm not particularly captivated by them), but now think of the broader picture: bees pollinate flowers; pollination is needed for fruits and vegetables to grow; humans eat fruits and vegetables; humans cannot live without fruit and vegetables. Ergo, say it all together, "I should care that bees are dying." Now let's apply this concept to sharks: sharks are the apex predators of the oceans; they eat the sick and dying fish; they control population size of prey species; the keep the rest of the fish beneath them at sustainable population sizes; we eat fish; we like to swim in pretty reefs; we like dolphins (most people do anyway), we NEED the ocean to survive; the oceans absorb 1/3 of carbon dioxide; the oceans provide 2/3 of oxygen; we need oxygen to survive; we need to get rid of carbon dioxide (you know, global warming and all that). Ergo, we need to care about sharks. I don't particularly care if you don't like sharks, once people make up their mind, it is basically impossible, to convince them otherwise (I know I'm like that), so what I want to make you realize is, you need sharks whether you like them or not.
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