Thresher shark with fins removed for sale at Paotere fish market at Makassar in Sulawesi, Indonesia. (Matthew Oldfield)
Every year millions of sharks are killed for their fins, with estimates ranging from 23 million by the United Nations to upwards of 70 million by some scientists and environmental groups.
The trade is driven primarily by the delicacy of sharkfin soup, a status symbol which originated in China, but is now popular throughout Asia and Asian restaurants around the world.
Shark fins are mostly composed of cartilage, which lacks nutrition but is considered to have medicinal properties. It gives the soup a glutinous texture, and its lack of flavor is made up for by other ingredients such as chicken stock.
Sharks are apex predators and have an important impact on lower levels of the food chain. Catastrophic declines in their populations are disrupting ocean ecosystems, for example leading to an increased abundance of other predators, reducing fish stocks.
Many shark species are now at risk of extinction due to overfishing. There are 181 chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species this year, including the great hammerhead and the scalloped hammerhead, which are listed as endangered, and the great white shark and the grey nurse shark, which are listed as vulnerable.The trade is driven primarily by the delicacy of sharkfin soup, a status symbol which originated in China, but is now popular throughout Asia and Asian restaurants around the world.
Shark fins are mostly composed of cartilage, which lacks nutrition but is considered to have medicinal properties. It gives the soup a glutinous texture, and its lack of flavor is made up for by other ingredients such as chicken stock.
Sharks are apex predators and have an important impact on lower levels of the food chain. Catastrophic declines in their populations are disrupting ocean ecosystems, for example leading to an increased abundance of other predators, reducing fish stocks.
Shark finning is against the law in North America, Europe, Australia, among other countries.
Trade and possession of shark fins is becoming illegal in an increasing number of places, including Hawaii, Palau, the Bahamas, the Maldives, and more recently Honduras and Oregon.
Source: epochtimes
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