Myths about sharks and fins

I attended my 2nd wedding invitation over the weekend, within 3 weeks of my arrival back home and was surprised to see that the infamous sharks fin soup was served on both occasions. Never in anywhere else in the world is the shark's fin consumed more than in our Chinese culture. As usual, I refused to eat it, and was doing my best to "educate" my friends and family sitting in my table on the reasons why I refrain from it. Since yesterday was World Ocean Day (it's actually 8 Jun), I figured it might be useful to share some of what I know with everybody who might come across this article.

1. Let's ask the question of taste - "why do we consume sharks fin?" Actually I should rephrase it, "why do Chinese like to eat shark's fin so much?" I posed this question to the folks sitting on my table on both occasions and they all said it tasted good. Maybe most of them do not know that it is actually the chicken stock that made the dish taste good, and not the shark's fin which are effectively cartilage, and mostly tasteless on its own, or worse, they actually taste chewy if they are of bad quality.


2. Pride or "face value" as what we Chinese like to call it. Shark's fin originated as an imperial dish for the Emperor hundreds of years ago, meaning that it is considered a delicacy for the upper class. This meant that people nowadays like want themselves to feel good by paying over the top prices for these endangered items. They like to think that they are equivalent to the Royal family, and that they are able to pay for shark's fin to be served to the guests who attend the wedding.


3. Sharks are the top of the underwater food chain. What do you think will happen when you start to take out the top predator from a food chain? The next predator down the chain will overtake the shark and become the dominant species and their numbers will no doubt flourish over time. Some may argue that this may not be a bad thing since nobody will exactly know how nature work it's magic to balance out the inequilibrium but do we have to play god and let our descendants live to see the consequences that we have caused?


4. Reproduction - many sharks are known to be lone creatures and spend majority of their life in solitude except for the mating season. Some species may live in schools but those are usually confined to the young pubs or if they are working together to prey on schools of fish. This meant that mating is not as straight forward as other animals, and that most sharks only give birth to a few pubs on each occasion meant that shark populations are impossible to catch up with the rate at which we are killing them for. Did you know that the Great White shark only gives birth to 1 pub on each birth? This also meant that more and more juvenile sharks are been finned as fishermen are finding it difficult to catch adult sharks these days.
   


5. Cruelty - It is very true that many fishermen literally skin the fins of the sharks that are caught and dump the bodies back into the ocean, leaving the sharks to drown if they had not died from the turmoil. But I decided to keep this as my last point because this is always a contentious argument. Homo Sapiens have always enjoyed the liberty to kill and eat any other animals because of our superior intelligence and communication over them. It is unfortunate that we live in a "Survival of the fittest" society.

We as humans have single handedly eat the world's fish stock to the brink of a complete collapse in the last hundred years. The sharks are no exception, we have hunted thousands and millions of them to the point that many of the species are close to extinction. I will very much like to see another shark on my next dive, and I hope my kids will be able to do the same likewise.

Note:
Many years back, I used to be sit in one of those weddings and enjoyed a great deal from eating the 2nd dish of the event. After I started to dive more than a decade ago, and with more information and knowledge, I have learnt about the impact that this is causing to the eco-system and have always been trying to share what I know with others, in which I have never want to offend in anyway. In Singapore, there are certainly many positive signs that the younger generation are beginning to understand this problem and help by simply removing the dish from their menu on the big day. But I strongly believe we can do more, and as a Chinese myself, I really hope we do not end up as the race which drove the sharks to extinction. Please RT or share this with your friends where possible.