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Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

As Many As 100 Million Sharks Killed Every Year for Soup

Author:     John R. Platt
Source:     Mother Jones
Publication Date:     Thu Jul. 19, 2012 10:00 AM PDT
 Link: As Many As 100 Million Sharks Killed Every Year for Soup
Stephan:   This is an appalling story of blatant willful ignorance at a cultural level, a manifestation of selfishness and greed with planetary implications. If we lose the sharks, like the bees, an entire ecosystem will change -- in no way to our benefit. A small group, this time a subpopulation of Asians, is prepared to sacrifice the ecosystem of the world ocean, and thus change the planet, in order to sustain a cultural ritual. The breakdown of critical parts of the ecosystem upon which human health depends is about as serious as it gets. Bees and sharks sustain us; their extinction is a catastrophe. This must be resisted. Anything you can do to protect the sharks -- DO IT!

The appearance of a shark fin piercing the ocean surface is often seen as a sign of danger to humans. Even more dangerous to sharks is the sight of a shark fin floating in a bowl of soup.

Around the world, sharks are in crisis. Many species have suffered population declines of 90 to 99 percent in recent decades, mostly to feed the seemingly endless demand for the tasteless concoction known as shark fin soup, which is served to mark important occasions such as weddings and business deals in China and some other Asian communities. An astonishing 10.3 million kilograms of shark fins and shark fin-based products were imported into Hong Kong in 2011, according to statistics released last week by the Pew Charitable Trusts Environmental Group in the report, ‘Navigating Global Shark Conservation: Current Measures and Gaps’ (pdf). The organization says Hong Kong imports about half of the world shark fin harvest.

The Pew group obtained these figures from the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong, but even they don’t tell the whole story. Previous research (pdf) has estimated the total worldwide shark fin catch to be three to four times what is legally reported. Because so much of the […]

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