I just found out today that my home town leads the nation in the number of shark fins imported from Hong Kong.
Since California and New York has banned imports in 2013, South Florida has taken over the number one spot.
73 MILLION sharks a year are butchered simply for their fins. The fins are used to make shark fin soup
Shark fin soup is a soup of Chinese origin made with shark fin and usually flavored with some other stock.
Interesting, the fin itself adds very little flavor to the soup. It is seen as a delicacy in many Eastern cultures.
Although importing the fin into New York is illegal, selling the dish in a resturant is not. The soup can sell for up to $100 a bowl.
shark fins on wrack
Most shark fin fisherman use the practice of " finning" where they cut the fin off the shark and throw the still living animal back into the ocean. It is less weight on the boat.
Unable to swim, the shark suffocates or die slowly from loss of blood.
According to some estimates, since the 1970s the population of some shark spieces have been decimated by 90%
Sharks have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and in few short years, we may have doomed their fate.
Sharks are an apex predator and play a vital role in the oceans ecosystem. Without them , many other speices will be effected. There are over 465 known species of sharks in our oceans today.
Sharks mature slowly, and can take over ten years to reach reproductive age. This means they have difficulty recovering after their populations decline.
I am an avid diver and I a lover of aniamls.
When I go diving now , I have a better chance of seeing a big ball of plastic than a shark.
That's a whole different story!
Hopefully, Florida will ban the importation of shark fins, but the only way to stop "finning" is to curb the demand.
Images taken from Goggle Images
