On June 8th, people worldwide observed World Ocean Day. But EVERYDAY should be Ocean Day, right?
Right!
So let’s talk about that ubiquitous staple of formal Chinese dinners – you see it at wedding dinners, special occasions, posh restaurants: shark’s fin soup. I can practically hear some of you drooling. Shark’s fin soup is delicious, to be sure, but did you know that it’s not the shark’s fin that makes it taste so good? Fins are made of cartilage that don’t even have much taste, if at all. So what makes shark’s fin soup taste like heaven is really… the soup. Kind of changes one’s perceptions a bit, no?
Now, one might ask “Why the digging in of the heels when it comes to this bit of cartilage off the back of a shark?”
Well. It all comes down to symbolism; to the Chinese, it traditionally symbolises wealth, honour, and power. Dating back to the Ming Dynasty, shark’s fin was popular amongst emperors because it was rare and required a LOT of very elaborate preparation. Therefore, it is only expected that once Chinese standards of living improved in the mid-18th century, the demand for it rose exponentially amongst the elite and spread down the social pyramid towards the masses.
BUT! This sudden mania for bits of shark cartilage has serious repercussions on oceanic health, the most obvious being extinction of the different species of sharks. Also, with the dip in population, the natural prey of sharks will increase in population, and the natural prey of that prey will decrease further. Everything is linked in ecological systems, to drastically reduce one component will have immediate impact on all the others. And if that isn’t enough to make one push away that steaming bowl of shark’s fin soup, here’s this: fins are hacked off living sharks, and the latter dropped back into the water to die a slow death. Sharks need to constantly swim to breathe, and are unable to do so without their fins. They then sink to the bottom of the ocean and die.
The bottom line is: You don’t have to go on a mad crusade to save the world’s oceans to do your bit, you can start doing it by saying ‘No’ to that bowl of shark’s fin soup as well as educating others about the repercussions of that unethical harvesting of fins!
Oh, and men, too much shark’s fin can cause sterility due to an overdose of mercury.
Images taken from planetsave.com, www.1bestcuisineguide.com, www.what2seeonline.com
