Shark fin soup

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Image:Yokohama Chinese Medicine Shark fin etc.jpg Shark fin soup (Chinese: 魚翅; Jyutping: jyu4 ci3, Mandarin: (Pinyin) Yú Chì / (Wade-Giles) Yü Ch'ih⁴ ) is a dish commonly served in Chinese restaurants as part of a Chinese feast, usually at special occasions such as weddings and banquets as a symbol of wealth and prestige.

1 Shark fin
2 Pseudo-shark fin
3 Controversy
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Shark fin

Genuine shark fin soup or stew is made with shark fins obtained from any of a variety of shark species. Raw shark fins are processed by first removing the skin, trimming them to shape, and thoroughly drying them. Bleaching with hydrogen peroxide may be employed before drying to make the colour of the sharks fin more appealing. Shark fins are the cartilaginous pectoral and dorsal fins of a shark.

[edit] Pseudo-shark fin

There is an imitation version are usually sold as cans that may simply be labeled as shark-fin soup (in most cases preceded by the word "imitation" on the product label), and sells for around US$1.50 per bowl. It does not contain shark-fins, but instead is made of mung bean vermicelli shaped to resemble shark fins, though they are nowhere equivalent to genuine shark fin in either texture or color. It is commonly served in chicken broth, with culinary fungus and pork to enhance the texture and taste.

[edit] Controversy

According to wildlife conservationists, much of the sharks' fins in the trade are cut from living sharks; this process is called finning. Because shark meat is worth very little, the finless and often still-living sharks are thrown back into the sea to make room for more of the valuable fins. When returned to the ocean, the finless sharks, unable to move, die from suffocation or are eaten by other sharks or animals. Also, many times fishermen who are looking for tuna find the sharks and fin them.

However, according to Giam Choo Hoo, in his article "Shark's fin soup - eat witout guilt" that appears in The Straits Times, 1 Dec 2006, "the perception that it is common practice to kill sharks for only their fins - and to cut them off whilst the sharks are still alive - is wrong.... the vast majority of fins in the marketare taken from sharks after their death. This is the preliminary findings of a review made with the assistance of shark experts,...the anti-fin group has misrepresented the facts. By aggressively flooding print, TV and internet mediawith selective images, they have portrayed an untruth: that all fins are derived from "live finning". Their aim? They want shark's fin soup to be shunned.""

Finning is vigorously opposed by animal welfare groups; both on moral grounds and also because it is purportedly a major cause for the rapid decline of global shark populations, in some cases by 99% over the last 50 years, leading conservation ecologists and fishery experts to predict widespread shark extinction in 10 or 20 years. However, this is high questionable, as according to the UN Conventiontion on international Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora lists only three sharks in its Appendix II, The consumtion and trade of species in this category is subject to certification. The three are the basking shark, the great white shark and the whale shark. The remaining 397 shark species are not classified at all and can be freely traded and catch. An estimated 100 million sharks are slaughtered each year for their fins, and the industry is valued at US$1.2 billion; because of the lucrative profits, there are allegations of links to organized crime. They also raise questions on the medical harm from the consumption of high levels of toxic mercury reportedly found in shark fins.

According to Giam's article, "sharks are caught virtually all parts of the world. Despite the strongly declared objectives of the Fisheries Commission in Brussels, there are very few restrictions on fishing for sharks in European waters. The meat of dogfishes, smoothhounds, catsharks, skates and rays is in high demand by European consumers.....The situation in Canada and the United States is similar: The blue shark is sought after as a sport fish while the porbeagle, mako and spiny dogfish are part of the commercial fishery.... the truth is this : Sharks will continue to be caught and killed on a wide scale by the more organised and sophisticated fishing nations.... targetingshark's fin soup will not stop this accidental catch. The fins from these catches will be thrown away or turned into animal feed and fertilisers if shark's fin soup is shunned."

In countries such as Thailand and Singapore, public awareness advertisements on finning have reportedly reduced consumption by 25%. In Hong Kong, the oldest chain of restaurants specializing in shark fin soup has reportedly closed, citing lobbying by the animal rights groups as one of the main reasons.

New laws have been passed to prevent finning; though much of the international waters continue to be unregulated. The United States recently issued a ban on finning, applicable only to U.S.-registered vessels, even in U.S. territorial waters; and shark fins cannot be imported into the USA without entire carcasses. International fishing authorities are in the process of banning shark fishing (and finning) in the Atlantic ocean and Mediterranean Sea. However shark fishing and finning continues unabated in the Pacific and Indian ocean.

Large-scale removal of sharks may severely unbalance the ecosystem of warm seas by allowing some species of large or middle-sized fish to multiply or grow bigger: for an example see grouper.

NBA star Yao Ming pledged to stop eating shark fin soup at a news conference on August 2, 2006. Australian naturalist Steve Irwin was known to walk out of Chinese restaurants if he saw shark fin soup on the menu. ^[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Baum J.K., Myers R.A., Kehler D.G., Worm B., Harley S.J., Doherty P.A. (2003) — Collapse and Conservation of Shark Populations in the Northwest Atlantic. Science, 5605: 389–392.
Giam Choo Hoo, "Shark's fin soup - eat without guilt", The Straits Times, 1 December 2006.