Six years ago, when I was traveling through an East Asian airport, I noticed a souvenir for sale that wasn’t of the traditional t-shirt/shot glass/postcard variety. Instead, the last “local” item I could purchase in the duty-free area was a shark fin. Actually, there were some shark fins, bird’s nests (the back of the package suggested them in soup), and plant parts, meant to be used as medicine, that looked like bunches of hay.
Although the items seemed harmless enough, they were actually part of a global trade of illegal goods that, due to excessive consumption as food, medicine, or decor, threatens or has made extinct many species. While it’s true that everything that can’t be farmed is something we’re destroying by our consumption (wild salmon, for instance), there are some animals whose use in no way justifies their demolition. These are products that just aren’t worth the kill.
Shark Fin
Shark fin soup, popular in Hong Kong, Beijing, Taiwan, and affluent areas in Asia and other parts of the world, is thought to have medicinal or aphrodisiac properties. And because of its hefty price—a bowl of the soup can cost up to a hundred dollars—it is also a status symbol, served on special occasions. Particularly in China, where an exploding middle and upper class means more disposable income, shark fin soup has become increasingly popular.
But this expensive taste has come at the expense of the sharks, whose slaughter threatens their populations and the ecosystems in which they live. The hammerhead and great white populations have been reduced by 70 percent, while others, including the silky whitetip, have disappeared from their native habitats. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, almost a million tons of sharks are caught every year—and that’s just the amount reported.
Although catching sharks for food is a part of population decline, the real problem is finning. Because the fins are worth so much—up to $700 per kilogram—fisherman, with limited space on the boat for the bodies, saw off the fins and toss the body back into the sea. Sharks can’t swim without their fin, so they sink to the bottom and die.
