What would you say if I told you that a particular kind of soup will bring about the extinction of an entire group of species of marine life, which will in turn contribute to the total collapse of all the world's fisheries by 2048.
Sounds like a rather alarmist statement doesn't it? Darned right, outrageous even! I bet you're all thinking I've really gone around the bend. I must be talking to aliens and wearing a tinfoil hat a little too tight. How can soup, shark fin soup to be exact, bring about the end of life in the oceans as we know it? I'm glad you asked! The answer is that shark fin soup has grown to such enormous popularity in the past 3 decades that sharks, the Apex predators of this world, are being hunted to extinction.
Originally a southern Chinese dish, shark fin soup goes back to the Sung dynasty (AD 960-1279) and became a dish served at banquets during the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644). The demand for shark fins remained relatively low for centuries as it was considered the food of the elite.
In the past few decades however, thanks in part to economic prosperity, it has become standard fare for weddings and important banquet dinners. A symbol of wealth and privilege, serving shark fin soup is viewed as showing respect for your guests.
The demand for fins has consequently exploded and shark finning has become common practice as a highly lucrative fishery. A report by Wild Aid states that, "an estimated 26 to 73 million sharks are traded globally each year. Now sharks in all regions of the globe are sought solely for their fins."
Shark finning consists of catching large numbers of sharks, usually by long line fishing, cutting off all of the shark's fins and dumping the rest of the animal, often still alive, back into the ocean. It is much easier and more profitable to just bring back the light compact fins that make up less than 5% of the animal and leave the rest to waste. When you consider that well over 8,000,000 people die of starvation each year, this senseless, cruel and ultimately wasteful act is absolutely mind boggling.
In 3 decades we have managed to empty the oceans of over 90% of the world's shark populations. I don't know about you but I find that incredibly alarming! At this continued rate of pillaging, I don't foresee oceans with sharks by the time my children are adults. Apex predators you see, can't recover from over fishing. They take a long time to grow and mature and they reproduce fairly slowly.
Article comments
1 - Deano
Nice set of articles Nathalie! Keep it up!
2 - Nathalie
Thank you so much. This topic means a great deal to me. I appreciate that!
Cheers
Nat
3 - Aaman
What, no recipe?:)
4 - Nathalie
Shark Fin has no flavor. Try using tofu. Same effect without the carnage.
5 - bliffle
Sharkfin soup gets it's flavor entirely from the herbs and sauces that are added to it. Uninformed people believe that it is an aphrodisiac.
6 - RJ
Great article! Here's some interesting information:
"Spiny dogfish are fished for food in Europe, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Chile. The meat is primarily consumed in England, France, the Benelux countries and Germany. The fins and tails are processed into fin needles and are used in less expensive versions of shark fin soup in Chinese cuisine. In England it is sold in "fish and chip shops" as "rock salmon", in France it is sold as "small salmon" (saumonette) and in Belgium it is sold as "sea eel" (zeepaling). It is also used as fertilizer, liver oil, and pet food, and, because of its availability and manageable size, as a popular vertebrate dissection specimen, especially in high schools."
Their conservation status is "Vulnerable" ...
7 - Nathalie
Thanks so much for commenting and adding the extra info guys. There's so much to talk about on this issue. I didn't even get into all the health stores and pharmacies that sell shark cartilage pills for joints and arthritis. I even saw one bottle labeled as "prevents tumors". Can you believe that?
8 - RJ
"I didn't even get into all the health stores and pharmacies that sell shark cartilage pills for joints and arthritis."
Yeah, my grandmother (who has terrible arthritis in her hands) once received some shark cartilage pills from a "natural health" store as a gift from a family member. As you can imagine, it didn't help...