Delta Airlines and Shark Fin soup

[Jeff Toorish]

I heard a couple of interesting tidbits about sharkfin soup recently --

The most interesting was, according to the article I read, a lot of Chinese people don't realize shark fin soup is made of shark fins. Sounds funny, I know, but apparently it is called 'fish wing soup,' in China.

Perhaps a bit less credibly, I have read that a lot of people in China don't really like this soup --so it is ordered as a status symbol on the table, but not many people eat it. For those of you who have spent time in China, I'd love to know if that's accurate.

Like many people here, I am extremely concerned that the apex predator of the sea is being fished to extinction --more than most species, I believe this will have a tremendously negative impact on the planet.

Jeff

[1_T_Submariner]

Perhaps a bit less credibly, I have read that a lot of people in China don't really like this soup --so it is ordered as a status symbol on the table, but not many people eat it. For those of you who have spent time in China, I'd love to know if that's accurate.

I spent 8 days in Wuhan China in January. They had a lot of stuff I was not used to seeing on the menus (snake, donkey, Duck neck). I don't remember seeing Shark Fin but, some of the translations where different. Since Wuhan is way inland that might have had an effect on the menu fresh water fish and muscles. Just my experience, other parts of China would probably be different.

[seaducer]

Even if Delta had nothing to with it, they still have to the power to "no thank you", or even make a statement distancing themselves from it.

If one of the many destinations that Delta serves choses to honor them with a socially unacceptable practice or custom, I'm pretty sure Delta would say "Thanks, but let's do something else."

In this case Delta is either ignorant to the problem of over exploiting shark populations, or they thought it was such an insignificant issue they could absorb any repercussions due to the minority of people who care about the issue.

It is quite possible no one at Delta is aware of the issue. Outside of small communities like ours (divers, ecologists, etc) there isn't much press...

[mgmonk]

I once had a "spirited" debate with a dive buddy originally from mainland China who defended shark fin soup on the basis that now a larger part of the Chinese population could enjoy what was once restricted to the Emperor's court.

Now that's a good evaluation criteria. If something was only once available to a group of fancy hat wearing inbreds taking advice from eunuchs , but is now available to the general public...
it must be ok.

[drbill]

I have no plans to ever eat shark fin soup. I do not like the whole concept ecologically. I find the practice of finning sharks despicable, and the decimation of shark populations in general an ecological disaster (speaking as a marine biologist with 40+ years experience). However, for those who find it so easy to criticize the Chinese and other Asians for pursuing it, I think we all need to look at how our own food preferences affect shark populations.

Keep in mind that a very large percentage of the estimated 100 million sharks that are killed each year, die as a result of being bycatch in fisheries for target species that many of us continue to eat to this day. If you eat wild shrimp or a host of other seafoods, you too may be responsible for the deaths of many sharks. So for those of us (myself included) who live in glass houses...

And mgmonk, we in western cultures do very similar things...

[mgmonk]

And mgmonk, we in western cultures do very similar things...

I know.
That's why I was laughing at my own joke.

It was a comment on class structure not ethnicity. Let's just say that "doing it because kings and queens do it" has never been the best reason to perpetuate bad habits.

Polo, for example.
Or capes.

As for the glass houses...I agree completely. The fishing industry is badly in need of some new ideas. After living in Asia, however, I can say that the fishing practices in Asia combined with streets lined with shark fin (and bird's egg... they always go together) soup are more of a hit on the shark population than my occasional tom ka with prawns.

mmmm... tom ka kung.

[jefffalcone]

I have no plans to ever eat shark fin soup. I do not like the whole concept ecologically. I find the practice of finning sharks despicable, and the decimation of shark populations in general an ecological disaster (speaking as a marine biologist with 40+ years experience). However, for those who find it so easy to criticize the Chinese and other Asians for pursuing it, I think we all need to look at how our own food preferences affect shark populations.

Keep in mind that a very large percentage of the estimated 100 million sharks that are killed each year, die as a result of being bycatch in fisheries for target species that many of us continue to eat to this day. If you eat wild shrimp or a host of other seafoods, you too may be responsible for the deaths of many sharks. So for those of us (myself included) who live in glass houses...

And mgmonk, we in western cultures do very similar things...

This is why I stopped eating seafood 10 years ago. The way fishermen behave worldwide is very shortsighted. Not only are they decimating the ocean, but they are destroying their own livlihood. They fish whatever species is desireable to the point of near extinction, inadvertantly kill what they're not trying to catch, destroy anything that gets in their way, leave their broken nets littering the ocean, and bitch and moan that they can't make a living.

One popular dive spot in my neck of the woods has litterally thousands of lobster pots. It has been overfished for lobster for years. The lobstermen aren't catching anything anymore. They think the problem is divers stealing lobsters from their pots??? None of them seem to notice that there are three times as many pots as lobsters out there.

Atlantic salmon has been fished nearly to extinction. Now it is only available farm-raised.

I grew up on Cape Cod. It's almost impossible to catch Cod there now. When I was a kid Cod was the most common fish used for fish and chips. Now we use mostly haddock. Soon we will catch all of the haddock.

As long as people struggle to make a living, they will do whatever they can to get ahead. The only way to stop dispicable practices, like shark finning, is to eliminate the demand. That's why I won't fly delta anymore. Am I just pissing in the wind. Probably, but it makes me feel a little better about a hopeless situation.

Sorry about the rant. Don't get me started on beef.

[mgmonk]

They fish whatever species is desireable to the point of near extinction, inadvertantly kill what they're not trying to catch, destroy anything that gets in their way, leave their broken nets littering the ocean, and bitch and moan that they can't make a living. .

They have a very nice word for that... bycatch. It sounds so innocent, doesn't it?

If anyone is curious about how serious this is, check out the Blue Planet episode on the fishing industry. The story about orange roughy was a shocker to me.

Still, responsible fishing is possible.

[vladimir]

There is an essay somewhere called "The Tragedy of the Commons". In simple terms, it explains why rational decision makers will exploit to the limit any resource where there is unequal allocation of utility between the individual and the commons. In this case, the fisherman gets all the benefit from each extra fish he catches and shares with every other fisherman in the cost of each fish lost to the commonly held resource. He has no incentive to preserve the resource; in fact, he has an incentive not to. One answer, however impractical, is to restrict fishing to individually owned (or licensed) territorities so that a fisherman who degrades his territority bears the cost himself, in the form of future lost catch, and other fisherman don't share (for the most part) in his loss. The problem, of course, is that many fish defy any sort of defined territory.

[Rescue Diver68]

Even if Delta had nothing to with it, they still have to the power to "no thank you", or even make a statement distancing themselves from it.

If one of the many destinations that Delta serves decides to honor them with a socially unacceptable practice or custom, I'm pretty sure Delta would say "Thanks, but let's do something else."

In this case Delta is either ignorant to the problem of over exploiting shark populations, or they thought it was such an insignificant issue they could absorb any repercussions due to the minority of people who care about the issue.

I agree. If you are consuming it then you are condoning it. If no one eats it, there would be no market for it.