And now we're back to this. Shark finning. The king of the oceans skinned alive. For millions of years they've frequented our world's oceans, the apex predator. Until we arrived. And then a couple thousand years ago, we decided to put some shark fins into some soup and call it a delicacy.
Really? How did we arrive at that? Who's bright idea was it to put some fins into some broth? Why? And why is it a delicacy? For that matter, what makes something a delicacy? Another, Chinese delicacy is bird's nest soup. Now, really. Really? Bird's nest soup. Somewhere, someone put the congealed saliva of a swallow, into a bowl and ate it. Now, perhaps the explanation is something along the lines of, we were starving. But, that was probably a couple thousand of years ago. My question is, why do people still eat it today?
Not only did someone decide that sharks should be put into a soup and consumed as a show of wealth, they also decided that only the fins should be used. Great. Flipping great. People involved in the industry, are just that, working to make a profit. What is the easiest way to make a profit? Chop the fins off on board, and chuck the body back into the ocean. How can they save even more money? Don't bother to kill the shark, just start hacking away. Oh, but you say, "There are protocols that prevent that from happening." Really? Do these protocols really prevent this practice? How many ships do you think we can reasonably monitor? Fishermen will keep a few whole bodies of shark, and the rest? They'll throw back into the shadowy depths: the perfect murder. No one will ever find out. Because there are simply not enough people that care. And those that do? Well, there's only so much they can do. I'm limited by my words, my computer's mood, and my internet's cooperativeness. What aren't you doing, that you could be? If all you do is tell a friend the true amount of people sharks kill per year, you've made a small change. If you turn down a bowl of shark fin soup, you've helped.
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