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"Why do animal lovers always make a bigger stink about fur than leather? It is much safer to pick fights with rich old ladies than with bikers." Thanks GypsyJim
"Why do animal lovers always make a bigger stink about fur than leather? It is much safer to pick fights with rich old ladies than with bikers." Thanks GypsyJim
FWIW, I am only against the killing of animals (sea or land) if: 1) it is done for sport, 2) if the animal is killed and wasted, 3) any animal is allowed to even come close to endangered due to the killing or 4) if it is killed in an inhumane way as with many sharks. If the animal is killed for the survival of a person, killed in a humane way (i.e. not tortured OR drowned as in many sharks), gets used completely and is not close to being on any endangered list then I am OK with it. I might be missing a criteriea or two but I am not 100% either side.
HITLER IS NOT AOW - Download your copy here available from my website Diving My Way
Spoken by the arresting Officer: "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."
HITLER IS NOT AOW - Download your copy here available from my website Diving My Way
Spoken by the arresting Officer: "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."
According to some statistics 100 million sharks are killed annually.
If a 100 million sharks are killed each year it amounts to approximately 270 thousand sharks each day!! In the last 20 years shark populations are down approximately 90%. This slaughtering is due to the demand, mostly in the Asian markets, of fins for the brewing of shark fin soup.
Coming to think of it the Asian markets have a devastating and destructive demand for many scarce items like rhino-horn as well. Maybe they know more about the medicinal and nutritional values thereof than the Western cultures!
Shark fin soup's value is cultural, it is regarded as a status symbol, nutritional levels are low, mercury levels are risky and it's said that it doesn't even taste like shark...it's usually chicken broth!! So why does anybody mix their chicken broth with shark? Is it "manly" and "tough" to eat shark?...I think many do think so. It's like hunting and killing a deer, cutting the heart out and eating it raw while it is still warm...because they think it's so tough and manly!
Sharks are not able to out-reproduce this demand due to the fact that sharks take years to sexually mature, reproduce slowly and then only reproduce a few pups.
Sharks are playing a vital role in the ecosystem, a role that other fish can't play. Sharks have the effect that other fish populations are kept in proportion. By killing sharks there will be more skates and rays (the natural food source of sharks) for instance and less shellfish (the natural food source for skates and rays) to clean and filter the ocean for instance. This will be a catastrophe in the ecosystem!
I am with Scuba Steve 100%, but before we go thrashing the asians, lets stop to think how many more asians there are than us americans (or whatever country you're from). Our priority is going to tend towards conservation, but there are people who feel that the ocean was put here for our use. I don't think anyone will argue that the oceans need some form of management, but many feel that hope is lost and they don't want everyone else to reap the "benefits" while they sit back and watch. The "asians" of which you speak are primarily the Chinese, and in a vote, there are a lot more of them than there are us. With their communist government in place, good luck getting an American message through to the masses.
You are correct in some of what you post, however, before we get too "politically correct", the fact of the matter is shark finning is done mostly to provide for the asian market, primarly Chinese (its traditionally consumed at weddings, and to not serve it is seen as an insult to the guests). Its also eaten as a status symbol.
In Asia, Rhino horn (and tiger penis, for that matter) is used for sexual potency - shark cartalige, popular as a suppliment in the USA, is also somewhat to blame - they have in common that they don't work; any benefit by the user is mental. But as a result, animals are slaughtered needlessly.
I'm all for respecting someones culture, but not for reinforcing ignorance.
I think we would have more whales killed if we had not had a strong condemnation of commercial whaling.
During my short lifetime (I'm 54), african americans rode in the back of the bus, attended segregated schools, drank from separate water fountains, and sat separately from whites, to mention just a few of the wrongs 14% of our population sufferend not very long ago.
Our society changed, and advanced, and frankly, certain Asian society's need to do the same thing, and start to realize that just because and animal "has its back to heaven" does not mean its fair game to consume.
You know the Asian public when presented with how horrific the finning business is, and when presented with how overpriced and bad tasting the soup is, they decide not to eat it.
If money is the issue, then the more we can show the public how bad it is to eat this soup, the more unprofitable it will be for the fishermen, as no one will wanna buy it.
I think therefore that this full on epic wide scale attack by use of media, tv, video, radio etc, by showing the evils of Shark finning and the bad product it is, would be one of the best ways to stop finning. Ayone?
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Originally Posted by LetterBoy
LetterBoy = 
? I am remembering something. 
