Unless you are a regular reader of my blog, you may think I’ve gone mad – “what’s this about shark fin soup that Joseph is talking about now??“. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I am not at all a fan of animal cruelty (or any cruetly, for that matter), even though I was attacked by a rabid dog not long ago whilst walking to the local shop here in Kuching, and my cat chooses to sleep in the fridge (which some folks may think a form of cruelty, but she doesn’t appear to think so 
).
I read a recent email from Tim Ferriss, and one thing he mentioned was the abominable scenario that afflicts hundreds of millions of sharks every year, imposed on them by those at the top of the food chain – humans!
Now, I’m not going to shout at you “donate here!” or support this or that campaign, or stand outside your local Chinese or Japanese restaurant if they sell shark fin soup with a plackard in your hand, etc. I just want to bring a little more awareness to this plight.
I know for a fact that shark fin soup is something of a delicacy in the part of the world where I reside – some Malaysians and Singaporeans enjoy it – probably not for the taste, but for the “fact” that its supposed to be healthy. Yup – just like rhinocerus horn is supposed to be good for health. Utter voodoo nonsense!
And also, for the fact that it is a cherished past-time – it shows your wealth if you can afford to eat shark fin soup and thus is a status symbol. I can only but claim that you’d gain more status in my eyes if you thanked a waiter or waitress for serving you with a cup of coffee!
I’ll quote here from the website http://sharksavers.org
“Many people believe that shark fin soup is beneficial to one’s health. The reality is quite the opposite!
There is no accepted scientific evidence that shark fin provides any medicinal or health benefit. In contrast, studies show that shark is among the highest levels of toxic mercury that is found in fish. And, that mercury can be very hazardous to our health.
Organizations throughout the world, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), recognize mercury to be a dangerous neurotoxin and warn against eating shark, especially pregnant women, women who plan to become pregnant, or children“.
You can read the rest of that article here…
http://www.sharksavers.org/en/learn-more/shark-fin-soup-is-not-healthy.html
Personally, I would never eat shark fin soup (and never have), but even if I were tempted to (and even if I could care less about the plight of sharks and not at all be concerned about the utter cruel act being committed here because I was a selfish type of guy), this health information above is enough to put me right off the thought!
Apparently what happens is that the sharks are caught on long lines upon which large hooks disguised by fish bait are attached. The sharks are then hauled into the boat, where they have their fins sliced off.
Thereafter, the sharks are turfed back into the ocean because the fins are worth far more than the shark meat. The sharks do not happily swim off to live and fight for another day – no – they sink and they drown.
That practice is unsustainable – too many sharks are being slaughtered month on month and their reproductive rates are no where near enough to compensate.
Okay, so for those of you who would wish to know what you can do – I said I would not go into that, but it makes sense to at least provide some lists of restaurants in the west (and in fact, worldwide) that continue to serve us shark fin soup. You can show your own disgust for this practice by emailing them (if you can locate the email address), or indeed phoning them or writing a letter to them if you prefer.
Here are the lists for your reference:
United States Restaurants that Serve Shark Fin Soup
Canadian Restaurants that Serve Shark Fin Soup
United Kingdom, Australian, Malaysian and Other Restaurants that Serve Shark Fin Soup
(This last list is comprised of good folks who you can email to get more details of restaurants that serve shark fin soup in your area – its not just the UK, but worldwide, including Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And I did email the young lady on this list who resides in Kuala Lumpur and have indeed heard back from her – thank you kindly Ch!).
.
.
What will I be doing?
Well, here in Malaysia the serving of shark fin soup is a faily popular pursuit, but what seems almost equally bad is the mistreatment of animals such as dogs and cats.
I came across a dog the other day that was sitting just outside a shop – apparently abandondend by its owner. What a terribly sad face it had, and as much as I try, I can’t remove that image from my mind. The poor thing must have only been a year old. It had one bad leg so could not walk properly, and lumps on its back where it must have been bitten by carnivorous insects. Its my desire to get involved in this particular line of animal cruelty/animal neglect.
Nevertheless, I will be following up on the email received from the young lady who resides here in Malaysia and will do “my bit” to try to curb this ridiculous pursuit! In fact, I may make it a point to show my disapproval in any restaurants I would have eaten in, should I find that they serve shark fin soup!
Please let me know your own thoughts about this terrible matter. I know that there are atrocities happening world-wide each and every day – many of which committed by humans against humans, in addition to earthquakes and tsunamis. This post only touches on the tip of a large iceberg, but its worth mentioning all the same.
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Ugh, this whole thing is so sad, including the poor dog you saw
I have such a soft spot for dogs as I have two rescues of my own who were mistreated in their former lives. They are absolute angels and I can’t fathom why someone would want to treat them badly. They are spoiled at my house, we love them dearly! I have actually started a vegetarian diet and would NEVER eat shark fin soup. I hope to eventually transition off of eggs and dairy and be completely vegan (baby steps).
Me too Kasi (aka Kathy
) – I had a retired greyhound for a few years – poor boy was treated so badly after breaking his hip whilst chasing the false rabbit around the racing track thing. And this dog that I saw the other day reminded me of the greyhound – same big huge sad eyes searching for someone to lend a helping hand and a bit of tenderness.
Good luck with the vegetarian/vegan diet! I know a lot of folks really struggle with it, but for me it was like ducks off a water’s back – I really did not like meat when I was a kid. And believe it or not, my cat does not like meat either – is she really a cat??
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Kasi!
Jo
Joseph,
I seen a documentary on sharks by gordon ramsey and it was sick. They showed what china was doing to obtain the fins for their soups and the way in which they would do it. I personally don’t think there’s much we can do when there’s so much money involved in addition to such a powerful government which simply doesn’t care.
Tom
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Yes Tom – its utterly sick and in my opinion, inhumane! But obviously not so inhumane for some greedy …. in this world. (Is that the Gordon Ramsey ex footballer from the UK with the “bad mouth”?).
If “we” were to encourage more people like Gordon Ramsey, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (who is a fairly staunch activist and tv chef in the UK), Jamie Oliver etc. to take more of an awareness of this barbaric act, then I sense we’d be hitting the right nails and nearly smack bang dead on the head too.
I wrote to SharkSavers.org once I’d posted this article and they said they would back me all the way if I were to start “knocking at the door” of some tv chef personalities (just for starters – pardon the pun
) who really ought not to be turning a blind eye to this sort of thing because its very much a part of their trade. After all, a number of these personalities enjoy courting with controversy and this would be a great way of doing that – real good business for them, absolutely no doubting it!
So that’s my new venture for now, or at least one of them. Trying to bring more awareness of this horror to those who have the clout to go out and do something about it. We all have to have a purpose in life, and I’m still finding mine.
Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts Tom!
J
Hi Joseph and congrats on this post!!!
What can I say…according to Wikipedia, 70 million sharks were slaughtered in 2010. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_fin_soup
Those are staggering and insulting numbers.
I was born near the ocean and lived most of my life in Florida by the ocean. I am sitting at my computer writing this less than 10 meters from the salt water canal that is less than 500 meters from the open Gulf of Mexico. I have been around sharks all my life and have always known to respect them.
Fortunately I do see a way to save the sharks, and dogs, and cats, and yes…dare I say it…our abused kids. I see it by educating our youth through the internet and show them the dark side of animal and child abuse. Our generation and those generations that came before us have stuck their heads in the sand and do not want to deal with this problem because “It’s too hard to solve!”…the cowards whine. It is NOT too hard to solve and besides why should ‘hard’ even be an obstacle?
We have to find ingenious ways to educate our youth for them to look down at this practice and instead of seeing it as a symbol of ‘wealth’ (whatever the heck that means), they must have the visual of a fined shark being thrown overboard and thrashing desperately while it helplessly nosedives to the abyss where it will die. I see the solution with our youth since I do not foresee the greedy rich being capable of understanding what the word ‘cruelty’ means and therefore he will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to show off to his wanna-be-less-rich guests that he can afford to waste money this way. As far as these people are concerned, the sharks are inconsequential…they just got in the way just like the dog got in the way before it was kicked in the ribs, just like the child that got in the way when the mentally ill parent takes out his/her frustrations on the kid and in order to keep the ever-intelligent police from ‘seeing’ the bruise marks on the child this parent throws the child to the floor and inflicts severe pain by bending the arms behind the child until the child almost faints. I know all these to be true and especially the one with the child since it has/is happening to my own child!
The answer is in the likes of Tim Ferris and Joseph Archibald to help spread the word through their influence on the internet and their knowledge of how to use the internet. And I also invite the “5 Ways to Riches” (AKA “The Fivers”) internet gang to join and spread the word to their crowd.
Well hell, they do not call me creative for nothing!!!…How about the “SHARK Challenge” among all these experts? He who refuses is a damn coward, money monger, golf-ball sucking “Fiver”.
After we get done with that one, we move on to another ‘real challenge’…maybe even be able to help my poor kid before he becomes an adult!
I invite anyone who has the private emails of any of these ‘experts’ to forward to them this challenge of mine…if you are not a ‘coward’.
It always starts with the person in the mirror.
Blessings to all,
DoLifeNow!
Victor K
Hey Victor, thanks for being patient with my reply – I was working myself up to it,
I’ve been in amidst quite a number of sharks too, but not the “friendly” sort you get in the ocean.
I would say you make a very good point there – kids can be educated far better these days due to the internet and computers (and phones that pretend they are computers), which is a far cry from the old blackboard or slate board.
Yes, sorry to hear about your own child – such a tradgedy, and one that we should “pray” will be put right sooner rather than later!
Somehow I doubt you will get too many of the “5 ways to riches” crusade joining in with spreading the word about animal or child cruelty. Most of them have their own agenda, and that is to line their pockets with gold at other people’s expense. Another form of shark in our “waters” you may wish to argue. The sharks abound, so they do!
Anyways, onwards and upwards Victor! Let us not lose hope, for with the loss of hope comes the loss of our worth in this life!
Take care sir!
Joseph
Hi,
since I live very far away from that part of the world I think I prefer to live in my ignorance. I hate that these things happen.
Here we have to deal with the sadic seal killers in the he Faroe Islands. You may know about it, my scottish friend.
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Hey Cristina, I believe you will have restaurants that serve shark fin soup in your part of the world too though – pardon me for saying so, but it seems that where-ever you have Chinese and/or Japanese communities, the possibility is that if they own a restaurant there may well be shark fin soup on the menu – albeit perhaps only on special occasions such as weddings.
Yes – I know about the seal clubbers up there in the Faroes. Another one of the many horror stories that abound in our wonderful world!
Thanks for your thoughts Cristina!
Hi Joseph,
Just the thought of the barbarism going on against sharks just for the status symbol of eating a soup made from their fins is enough to make me angry and sick and crying all at once. I get riled about child abuse and animal barbarism, and sometimes it seems like there’s no difference that one person can make against such a magnitude of cruelty.
Delena
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Hi Delena, the “problem” here appears to be that the real and true guilty parties are the folks who go to the restaurant in the first place and order shark fin soup, and secondly the restaurateurs for having it on their menu.
Because its those people (particularly the rich cats) who are so far removed from the actual barbaric act of the slaughter, they will happily turn a blind eye to the truth of what’s going on, and who’s to say they have any idea about it anyways?
As Victor pointed out in his comment, there is a sincere lack of education going down here and that’s something that really ought to be addressed – in schools, in the home, also in the media to a large extent. Otherwise, people will continue to turn a blind eye and choose to forget the fact that if they eat their shark fin soup, they are guilty of the thoroughly cruel slaughter of at least one beautiful shark!
Thanks for your thoughts here Delena – the subject is certainly bringing out emotions, and that’s precisely why I decided to write this post!
Regards
Joseph
I really can’t understand Man’s inhumanity towards Man and other animals.
A Christian work colleague of mine once pointed out that we are all seemingly born with a cruel/evil streak in us. He used to say that you don’t have to teach a child to be naughty, they will always tend to be err on the mischievous side.
I didn’t know this was how they harvested the fins until now though! I will never eat in restaurant with this on the menu, but I don’t think there will be any in deepest Shropshire!
Yes, I imagine you are right John – deep Shropshire is not going to have many folks marching up and down the streets with plackards shouting angrily at the top of their voices “no shark fin soup here!”.
Hmmm… sounds like your Christian colleague made a very good point! Seems like to over-come this innate “naughtiness” we humans appear to be “blessed” with, the answer is education! education! education! as Tony Blair would put it (2006 manifesto, Tony Blair)!
Joseph,
Yup, that’s the same gordon ramsey… I think it was a one hour program on bbc or sky. Since he is a well known chef, at least in the US, he felt that he needed to make this known.
I had no idea about the extent of the problem until watching his show. He actually went to a lot of the ports, boats, companies and people that deal with this and it was interesting to see how violent or shady they acted when confronted with the issue.
It seems that there’s quite a following for shark soup in china even though according to gordon it tastes bland and could be replace by almost anything. That country is still not very confident in itself and closed minded and seem to solely rely on their history and culture. That’s why they eat it in the first place, to show of that they can.
Contacting known chefs is a way to go… I noticed that many of them do take up causes like this. Jamie oliver is on a food revolution here in the states trying to change school lunches which are just terrible. The usda thinks that potato chips are a vegetable.
Tom
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Interesting to say the least…Is there an e-mail we can send hate mail too? xD no, seriously…
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Hey Tom, yes I watched quite a few of Gordon Ramsey’s programs – he’s certainly a guy that you would pay attention to, in one way or another;-)
Jamie Oliver – most definitely had an uphill battle over there in your neck of the woods. He seems to be making in-roads to some extent. But he’s too busy, so he’s off my list of possibles
In fact, I’m going to “play” this a bit like kwd research. I’ll go through a variety of well known chefs, figure out their background (many whom I know), figure out where their interests currently lie, try to learn if they are busy right now – maybe they’ve dropped out of the limelight a bit and are looking to get back in it again – perfecto!
And it appears I have my first young assistant to help me too, so its looking up already
Yes Jasmine, there are some email addresses on the lists I provided, although most of them are the addresses of the restaurants with telephone numbers. I may spend some time getting more email addresses for those lists – I got in touch with SharkSavers.org and they said they would really appreciate more email addresses (they also said they would help me in approaching celebrity chefs about this matter). But the amount of things that could be done are endless, so its a case of prioritizing the ones that suit you the most and working them.
Scary but true. But you should be putting this info on Asian forums and wedding forums where Asians frequent! That’s where the bulk of people order shark fin soup – at Asian restaurants for weddings!
Every Asian wedding I’ve been to serve shark fin soup. There are 300 – 500 guests on average, so how many sharks have died to feed these people you can only guess. And that’s just ONE wedding. I went to 12 weddings in the last 3 years.
I’ve stopped eating shark fin after I saw the documentary and read the book “End Of The Line”.
Honestly, Asians no longer eat it for health purposes but to show their status. Just like how they buy McMansions, designer goods and sports cars to catch up with the rest of Western society (except they do it using animal parts too). In the West, it’s mink coats, in the East, it’s bear paws, tiger fur and white rhino horns. The rarer, the better.
The only way to stop it is to have a shark fin health scare on the world stage. Like the milk scandal in China, if some people DIE from eating shark fin soup, watch the market for killing sharks decline.
Just my two cents
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And that is quite a 2 cents worth, Zoe! This subject and others related are obviously very much on your mind! 12 Chinese weddings in the last 3 years? You must be related to Chinese then?
Yes, I hear you regards to posting info up on relevant forums and obviously there is much more that can be done, but at least I’m helping to spread the word around and make people more aware of this atrocity. The more awareness there is the better.
I was speaking with 2 Chinese ladies today over breakfast (no names to be named) and one of them said that the Chinese are the most egotistical race on this earth by far! With this in mind, trying to overcome the idea about celebrating wealth in a hugely flamboyant way (shark fin soup to name but one aspect) is really going to be a battle. But awareness and education are great things – the more people speak of this, the more embarrassing it becomes to even the most egotistical of humans.
Thank you kindly for your contribution, Zoe!
Jo
Shark finning has increased over the past decade largely due to the increasing demand for shark fins for and traditional cures improved fishing technology and improved market economics..Some researchers believe that from 1996 to 2000 26 to 73 million sharks were traded yearly. .Chart showing shark fishing on the rise from 1950 to 2004…According to Giam Choo Hoo the longest serving member of Animals Committee The perception that it is common practice to kill sharks for only their fins – and to cut them off whilst the sharks are still alive – is wrong…. The vast majority of fins in the market are taken from sharks after their death. However some researchers dispute this claim after extensive examination of fin sourcing and fisheries data one study of sharks harvested for their valuable fins estimates that between 26-73 million sharks are killed each year worldwide which is almost three times higher than official estimates.
Hi Brookside Institute, thanks for providing this information about shark fins and culling of sharks for soup. Nothing I can add to that.
Joseph
@Brookside The numbers are cold and alarming.
Yes, it may be that that Giam Choo Hoo is right…the sharks may be dead due to struggling for so long on the baited floating ‘long-line’ that is many miles long (the ‘long-liners’ use for shark, swordfish, marlin plundering). Some of these Asian longliners make it all the way to Central America where they seek refuge in any number of corrupt countries while they load up their holds with fins.
Lets not be too harsh on the Asian though because the American longline-plundering cowards kill millions of shark (as bi-catch waste) while they fish for Grouper in the Gulf of Mexico and other locations. The result is the same…murdered shark that were just trying to feed themselves.
I have seen the long-liners in my home port of Tarpon Springs disembarking tons of grouper but no one says how many more tons of bi-catch they they throw over the side because they cannot bring it to port. The long-liner’s fishing line reels are about 4 feet in diam. and 5 or more feet wide (yes, feet) powered by large hydraulic motors.
So that restaurant that may refuse to serve shark but will serve grouper may have killed just as many sharks due to U.S. based longliners.
So, I bid Mr. Giam Choo Hoo (whose observation is useless) good bey and restate that the answer lies with educating our youth.
VictorK
I did see that post Tim Ferris put on his blog and the video. Just sickening. I’ve tried it before and it’s not all that special really. I’ll be staying away from it from now on though after seeing what they do to the sharks.
Yes, horrible stuff going on there Benny! Thanks for adding your own thoughts to the post!
Regards
Joseph
Great post really i enjoy it i totally agree with miss Delena seleverfox. Thanks for sharing this great article
I’m sure Delena will be happy Thesis Writing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
thank you for your comments =)
i hope you have enjoyed reading
Isn’t it my job to be saying this, Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt? Very kind of you to help me out though, thanks!
Take your friends diving when you want to impress them. don’t serve them shark fin soup. probably tastes like chicken anyway. lol
Saim, I suspect it tastes rather a lot “less” than chicken. Not that I would know – Ive been a vegetarian for 23 years now
This is one of the most horrifying things ever. I’m a highschool student at an arts school and I have an ecology assignment. I have to create something that portrays my feelings/emotions on the matter or create something humorous over the matter to show how serious it is. Well, I’ve never been interested in sharks before, so I wasn’t to sure on how it would go. I heard about this horrible abuse to the sharks and what us humans are doing with it (shark fin soup) and it just upset me. My project was going to be about the sharks and humans switching places, like, “How would you like to have a part of you cut off?” Though i’m still unsure, especially now. I would show a shark enjoying a dish of human toes, for example. But now that I’ve read this, I can’t help but feel sadness. I don’t think I can express this into humor or irony, because that’s how truely bad it is. All I feel now is grey, cold, bloody, dirty, and ashamed to be a human. Ashamed to have to say my own kind does this. I want to ask why, why do we do this, but that would be naive. Thank you for this blog, it really helped me
Hi Ana, very touching thoughts you’ve shared here, and thank you! I don’t believe its naive to ask why “we” do this – or rather – why “they” do this because its certainly not you or I who would do it, not in this day and age anyhow. There are a few reasons, not that I am in any way an expert… but here are some.
Many of the people who actually do the catching and the slicing are poor (in terms of money), thus they have to make an income somehow. Many of the people, in fact by far the majority of the people who do the catching and the slicing are uneducated in such matters, so for them its perfectly normal to kill a shark, or it will kill them – if you see what I mean. They have a sense that a wild animal is to be slaughtered, but then – so did the great white rajahs of 100 years ago (and some “white rajahs” even now still do, don’t they) – they would blatantly slaughter lions, tigers, bears, elephants and see themselves as being top of the food chain for doing so, having the head of the beast stuffed and displayed on the wall of one of the many rooms in their mansion houses alongside a plethora of other “trophies”. Much as a caveman did many thousands of years before – but the caveman had a far better motive – he had to kill for his tribe so they could survive in terms of nourishment, and he often had to kill to protect his tribe.
I believe I mentioned about that newspaper report I read here in Sarawak, Malaysia about 3 or 4 months ago, where the guy who was doing the interviewing was talking with the wealthy Chinese (and they were all Chinese – in Hong Kong) who found shark fin soup to be a delicacy. In fact, this woman (for want of a better word!) was very aggressive in her thoughts, saying stuff like “these white people don’t know what they are talking about – shark fin soup is very good for you and rich in nutrients (which has been scientifically proven to be not the case). We have to kill sharks or they would kill us. Anyway, I am very wealthy and it allows me to show off my wealth”… and a whole lot of other blah blah besides. Total uneducated dumb egotistical nonsense in my humblest of opinions!
The actual restaurant owner – the guy who was serving the shark fin soup in this particular restaurant – he also defended the killing of sharks for soup. But he did also mention that in Asia (as a whole) its becoming less popular now because of the level of education being higher in Asia, and younger people are turning their backs on it. So Ana, at least we – you, I and probably almost everyone who has read this article, have something to be very thankful about. Education is now playing the largest part in slowly but surely destroying shark finning for soup.
Furthermore, we also have such “powers” as Tim Ferriss and Richard Branson who are also very much against shark finning. Victor, who commented on this post, sent me a lovely image a while ago of Richard Branson swimming with sharks, and this photo shoot was one of many in an effort to make a stand against shark finning for soup.
Nevertheless, shark fin soup as a delicacy still prevails in this part of the world – South East Asia. Even here in Kuching, in Sarawak, its become obvious to me that there are some restaranteurs who serve the stuff. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago I went to a birthday bash in a Chinese restaurant here in Kuching, and my girlfriend (who is Chinese) said to me in the car, just before we got there – “if you find out that they serve shark fin soup, you’re not going to create a scene, are you?”. I don’t know to be sure how I would have reacted – boil the chef’s head in with the shark fins perhaps.
Thanks once again Ana for sharing your thoughts and your emotions with us here today!
Joseph
That is a sad thought that there are sharks out their drowning daily because people are uneducated. People being uneducated or mis-educated seems to cause most of the problems we face in this world.
You’ve been reading around the blog today Blake, have you not, sir! Typical scenario though isn’t it? You get a group of people who think they know better than anyone else, generally because they have far more money than most other people do. Which makes them not only naive (partly through choice) but also incredibly selfish, with an attitude of “what do I care what you think…” I like that attitude of course – without that attitude you simply become another sheep in our world of millions of sheep that all think similarly. But to abuse that attitude in such a way as the folks who partake regularly in shark fin soup, is flouting what should be deemed as right and proper in the world we live in today. That’s my opinion anyhow.
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